Family Counselling Services in Athens, ON.

Every family has a sub-culture of its own with unique with ways of think and doing that are distinctive, dynamic, and fluid. Ever changing with multiple stressors both from within and without, families must have the capacity to adapt and adjust to different ways of being and doing as children grow and as life circumstances change, Sometimes, families can get stuck in these stages of change. I work with families facing challenges in communication, in life transitions, and other factors to move them towards healthier communication and support for its members.

It is not uncommon in families for patterns to be set and sometimes these patterns are not healthy or helpful for family relationships, or individual mental health. We often learn to tolerate our family members’ behaviour and have difficulty speaking up or expressing how their behaviour impacts us. In my sessions with families, I encourage open, honest communication and ensure that each individual feels validated and gets equal time to be heard. Often difficult conversations can be more successful when there is a neutral person facilitating and promoting respectful, non-confrontational interaction. If you think your family would benefit from my support and guidance, please book a free consu

When one family member is depressed, stressed, angry, or otherwise not at their best, it deeply affects the rest of the family. Sometimes individual therapy is the correct path, but often, addressing relationship dynamics within the family system is the quickest, most direct way of dealing with the issue. I work with all ages and all combinations of family members.

Family dynamics are complicated. Each family has established patterns, such as how everyone communicates within the family system, how they deal with stressful situations and conflict, their roles in the family unit and how members seek support from one another. While I do not offer family therapy sessions, my clinic, Psychotherapy Collective has many child and family therapists availability to schedule a free 15-minute consultation to ensure they are the proper fit for your journey. Visit our family therapy page to find a therapist https://www.psychotherapycollective.ca/services/child-and-family-therapy

Family members play an extremely important role in our health and well-being. Supportive and connected families will optimize our health and happiness. My goal is to help you and your willing family members to obtain connection, support, and fulfillment in each other via openness, honesty, boundary setting, compromise, and understanding. We will explore your families' culture, meaning systems, history, goals and individual thoughts and feelings in a respectful and thoughtful way so that you will all come to understand one another and get past the resentment and anger that often weighs families down.

When an individual in the family experiences an ongoing issue it typically affects the entire family. In family therapy Sarah involves various family members in sessions to assist them to understand how each member's behaviour affects the others. This benefits the family by assisting them in learning new communication and conflict resolution skills and by helping to create greater closeness and sense of commitment through the resolution of family hurts and traumas. Typically family therapy results in improved communication, a greater ability to work together as a family team, a greater sense of mutual respect and connectedness and a resolution of the issues that cause division in the family.

In family therapy, the focus is on the interactions of those that are affected by the presenting concern and strengthening relationships of the family system. Although some concerns may appear to apply to one individual, involvement of family can have positive benefits on both the individual and overall family functioning. While family therapy may often focus on child-parent relationships, other loved ones such as grandparents, caregivers, siblings etc. are invited to attend where you see fit. As the therapist, I strive to help facilitate a space in which each family member has equal opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives. Contact me today to book a free consultation.

Family therapy is a challenging mode of psychotherapy. No two children grow up in the same family and everyone's perceptions of their family dynamic are varied, sometimes drastically so. I am happy to work with members of the same family and to do so individually and to come together when possible and necessary to understand the dynamics within a family. If you are the family member who is seen as the "problem", chances are you are the one who is willing to identify the issues that other family members choose to overlook. Family therapy can also be a great benefit to mothers, who carry the burden of responsibility for several other family members and who lose themselves in the process.