Family Counseling Services in Spring City, PA.

Family therapy can be a place where all members of a family are safe to discuss their concerns. It is also a place where you can hear each other in new and surprising ways. Being willing to hear, understand and respond to the surprising feelings behind the anger or withdrawal that blocks closeness in your family can set the stage for more cooperation, compromise and a new strategy for interacting without hurt. I will help you do the work of connecting emotionally and strategizing about new ways to cope with old problems. Call me for an appointment to discuss your family's particular difficulties. As a therapist, a wife, and a mother of teenagers, I bring professional and personal resources.

Family counseling is the most powerful form of therapy I know. For years, individuals with social and relationship problems were pathologized and treated alone. With the advent of Family Therapy, individual problems were considered a manifestation of issues through the entire family system. I work with everybody involved with the “patient” in the same room at the same time. Parents and children, brother and sisters have their first chance in years to speak and be heard by others in the family. I maintain order and safety, and engage the family in a balanced and fair manner. The results are often amazing.

I love when children/teens and their parents all come in together. Some worry it will be awkward but I make a point to have it be relaxed and conversational. I help parents understand the social culture and stressors impacting their kids' lives, as well as help them express their concerns in ways that don't feel like lectures to their kids. In turn, I help kids to articulate their struggles in ways that their parents can appreciate and empathize with. Respect and responsibility is an important part of any work I do with families, and helping parents to balance their expressions of compassion with their need to hold their kids accountable is always part of the conversation.

As a trained Marriage & Family Therapist and a mother of two, I can help you to navigate the challenges of marriage and parenting. Simply put, we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are. What family does not wish this for everyone involved? Unfortunately, as a result of day to day stressors, ineffective communication, learned defensive behaviors, and a simple lack of know-how, families can fail to accomplish this simple task for one another. Therapy can turn this cycle around by allowing family members to rediscover each other's perspectives and true selves, replacing conflict and misunderstanding, with harmony and compassion.

Families come in all forms especially in our changing times. The stresses of life show up in our families lives. Families change over time. Dealing with young children is different than a family with teenagers or no children at all. We need to negotiate these changes in our families. At REACH Counseling we believe in the strength of families and helping families to communicate and connect at a deeper level. We specialize in exploring what intergenerational patterns are affecting your family, how you may be dealing with transitions and how you can make your family strong.

In family therapy, there are a lot of voices in the room. And in my practice in family therapy, I work to make sure each voice is heard and understood, while also facilitating and maintaining emotional and physical safety in the room. I believe that viewing and tackling the family conflict as a team is generally (with some exceptions) a helpful way in seeing progress. So I work with everyone to identify their role in the conflict and how they can help change their family dynamic.

I have worked with families for over 25 years and find it one of the most exciting and effective forms of therapy. It requires special training and skills to sit with a group of people, many of whom are upset with each other, and help them find a way through the pain to healing for them all. I have trained with some of the founders of Family Therapy, and worked with at-risk children in their homes and my office. Nothing is more satisfying.

It has been said that members of a family are like the creatures on a child's mobile - when one moves, they all move. I help families understand their relationships with each other, and how each family member influences and impacts the entire family unit. I work with families to help them learn effective communication and problem solving, while respecting individual autonomy.

Family Therapy can be an incredible modality in shifting an entire family from unhealthy dynamics and unhappiness to peace and healthy relationships. Since my primary specialty is Addiction, I see many families with this obstacle. The solution often is not only that the addict needs to change but the entire family system. My passion is working with families and seeing this beautiful transformation come from such despair.

We are all relational beings, living within interactive, emotional systems. How we relate to our most significant others (spouse, children, siblings, etc.) can sometimes lapse into unpleasant scripts and powerful undercurrents of action-reaction, negative group-think, and ineffective authority roles. Restoring a sense of effective functioning, wellness and harmony (shalom) within family relationships can be aided by learning and practicing new ways to empathize, communicate, and collaborate with each other. Under certain conditions, families can even benefit from video sessions or teletherapy (if more convenient and less stressful than gathering everyone at a therapist's office!)

Most family therapists inadvertently create more chaos through their well-intentioned efforts to assist a family move through a change process. Why? Brains are inherently deregulated (all of us, may I add) and most talking and dialoguing misses brain-centric problems that need more intensive help. Many times the emotional trauma created by years of solving problems ineffectively can wreak havoc on the brain's parasympathetic nervous system, not ever giving the family a break from flight or fight thinking. Contact us for an innovative neuroscience solution to family dysfunction. Kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.

Family therapy is often a HUGE step for family's that find themselves reaching out for it. Kudos to you if you are making the choice to engage in the conflict and issues that are present in your family's life right now. It takes a lot of courage for everyone who is choosing to be involved. My approach to family therapy is working to make sure everyone has a voice in the room and that it feels safe for each member involved in the process. It also is to help each family member to identify their role in the family conflict and how they can help aid in making change for their family unit. It can be messy, but you often have to walk through the mess in order to find healing and a way forward.

Families are fascinating paradoxes. The health of the family system is connected to the interactions among individual family members. I provide a safe place for family members to talk and listen to each other, to express feelings honestly without criticism. Families often come to therapy because of a crisis that has become too overwhelming. In family therapy, we will look at family dynamics, alliances, communication styles, goals and expectations, boundaries, trust issues, behaviors, ways of dealing with conflict. Our goal is to heal the family system.

Our family affects who we are and who we become, both for the better and for worse. We learn our vocabulary, our habits, our customs and rituals, and how to view and observe the world around us. Anyone seeking healthier, closer family relationships can benefit from family therapy. Engaging in a healing-centered approach can provide families support to help improve interpersonal interactions and promote healthy connections for families. I am passionate about taking a more systemic approach to treatment and assisting couples, family members and additional individuals within the support system to be healing agents for each other. Schedule a free telephone consultation by calling 610-944-4327. https://empoweredlifeandwellnessllc.com/