Family Counselling Services in Fort Erie, ON.

I am a firm believer that nothing impacts our spiritual and emotional well-being or happiness more than the quality of our closest relationships. There are countless complicating factors that impact families, it may be blending families, parenting differences, ex-spouses or in-law problems, financial stress and health problems, to name a few. Family therapy addresses the psychological and emotional problems hurting families. Interventions are customized to the requirements, needs and directions of clients. The goal is to empower the family to function in a way that better meets the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of each member and the family system as a whole.

Imagine a family as a tree with branches, roots, trunk representing parts of the immediate and extended family. When working with families, all elements are considered. Usually there is a request for family therapy due to one of it's members in crisis, often a child. However, when an analysis of need is done it becomes apparent that more than one member of the family needs help in adjusting, growing and learning new behaviours. Clients contact me for a variety of reasons: to improve communications, solve family problems, support in special situations such as death, divorce, marriage, illness, child or adolescent issues.

Within each family are the experiences of each family member. In family therapy, you, and your family can explore how each member’s roles and perspectives impact the family as a whole. You can learn to cultivate a family environment grounded in respect for individual experiences, sense of connection and shared understanding. I work with individuals, couples and families. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit for therapy.

Gestalt therapy is a systems‐oriented, immediate‐experience‐oriented, and affect‐oriented therapy that is highly effective for families. Unlike other therapies, gestalt regards the client system's emergent processes as the central focus, and it emphasizes that growth occurs as the family and its members are helped to greater self‐awareness and responsibility for their own functioning. Dynamic forces within your family may need some the maintenance. How can a sense of peace and equilibrium be brought back into your home? I am not afraid to work with intense emotional outbreaks. I can help support family unity with strength and care! Develop better ways of communicating with each other!

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. Reach out to schedule a free 15-minute family therapy consultation to see if I am the right fit for your family.

Sometimes the difficulties occurring in a family are systemic - which means that there is not really a 'problem person' but a family interaction malfunction. In family counselling, it is understood that everyone in the family impacts and affects everyone else and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is also understood that the way to 'fix' a family problem is not by simply changing specific behaviours, but by changing the structure of the family. This can be a very important process for the many different types of families that we have in our society.

My interest in Family Therapy grew out of my work with patients in acute care hospitals. As I interacted with the patients and their families, I realized that if one family member is in pain, all the family members are somehow affected. This insight caused me to shift my focus away from the more traditional psychodynamic theories I was earlier taught in University and to focus instead on how family therapy and family systems brought healing. This growing body of literature, which started in the 1960s, has revolutionized my thinking, enabling me to find a more generous, holistic, and integrated approach to patient care and family healing. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation today

The issues your family faces are our focus. Lack of communication, misunderstanding, sibling conflict, or child development issues can affect the whole family. Families can enhance communication and resolve issues through family counselling. Family counselling helps families communicate and understand each other, making conflict resolution easy. Counselling sessions enable individuals to communicate and resolve disputes while respecting everyone's opinions. Family therapy may accompany individual treatment. The goal is to improve communication, conflict resolution, and relationships. Each family is unique, and one member's problems can affect everyone.

As a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist, I understand that families can be our closest and most important relationships, however at times these relationships can be a source of great confusion and pain. We can work together to identify unhealthy relationship patterns, develop appropriate personal boundaries , decrease stress and to create ease in your interactions with those in your closest circle.

Every member of a family has a story to tell. Often times those stories can come with conflict or strain. Sometimes families experience great loss or trauma and need to work to come back together to a place of love and safety. I work with families to learn better communication, how to bring out the fun, and how to connect in ways they have forgotten.

Every parent knows that different children respond in different ways. The same child can respond differently at times. So parents need multiple approaches. Children are developing their sense of self, exploring, learning to master skills. They move back and forth between experimentation and the security of the trusted parent. Parents are the sounding boards for their children's ideas and feelings until the children develop their own judgement. Sometimes children are pushing against parental restrictions. Adults try to balance between encouraging growth and limiting risk, maintaining expectations for safety and good behavior and encouraging children’s independence. Answers are not easy.

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