Family Therapy

Family Therapy considers that regardless of the origin of the problem, and regardless of whether the clients consider it an "individual" or "family" issue, involving families in solutions is often beneficial. This approach therefore involves working with the whole family unit as part of the therapeutic process. This can have a number of advantages, such as being able to influence the problem via a number of people, instead of just one.

Family therapy can take many different forms but will involve exploring the whole family and the relationships between all the people involved (sometimes past and present) and try to locate how those relationships are contributing to, and keeping the problem going. This may include discussing issues such as:

• how everyone sees everyone else
• what expectations about the problem are in the family
• what function the problem serves for the family.

Through family therapy, families or individuals within a family learn better ways to interact with each other and resolve conflicts. It can be particularly helpful to address family conflict, manage a difficult family situation (such as bereavement or caring for an ill relative), and be useful with various specific difficulties where other approaches have not helped.