When Parents Rely on Family Counseling
Family counseling or family therapy is specifically designed to address certain problems that affect the family as a whole, including major life changes or other mental health issues. Often, family therapists work with children, and their parents, as well as extended families. Therapists help families to sort through these transitions and learn how to survive them as best they can. The sessions generally last about an hour. If you’re looking for an experienced therapist to help your family, call Hopeful Heart Counseling, LLC at (813) 547-3371 for your Free Consultation with our Tampa Family Counseling experts!
The process of effective family counseling often begins with an open and honest exchange of emotions, between the counselor and the individual or family member who has experienced a problem or issue. Both parties may be nervous at first, as are many people when first meeting with a therapist. Family counseling sessions are generally done on an “therapy” or “counseling” basis. That is, a counselor will talk with the client to get them comfortable enough to share their personal feelings and thoughts. The objective of the initial “therapy” is to establish an open dialogue that will hopefully lead to progress toward emotional healing.
If you or a loved one has experienced a recent trauma, family therapy can provide some insight into how you responded to it, what made you feel worse, and perhaps offer recommendations for future interventions. It’s important to remember that family counseling and mental health counseling do not always proceed in the same way. Even though some people might consider them similar, there are key differences. For instance, while therapy can offer support for someone who is grieving, family counseling can focus on providing a supportive environment for everyone in the family to work through the issues.
Therapists trained in family counseling can also provide support for individual family members, as well as the entire family unit. Some psychologists and family counseling counselors work primarily with children, while others counsel couples and families in all situations. The primary goal of any therapist working with families, regardless of the situation, is to ensure that everyone is healthy and achieving optimal psychological balance. Family therapists work with children, couples, families, and individuals, and can often make difficult family situations much easier to deal with because they have expertise and understanding of the dynamics involved.
Often, psychologists and family counseling practitioners find that the most effective counseling takes place when the emotional backdrop has already been identified. This makes sense. No one wants to be subjected to a series of uncomfortable questions without being prepared for them, and no one wants to feel charged with a series of uncomfortable questions without having been shown how to answer them. In other words, if your child has issues with conflict and violence, for example, you don’t want the counselor to start a family counseling session with your son or daughter by asking questions about his or her own reactions to conflict.
In short, family counselors provide essential services for families across the nation every day. While there are many benefits of engaging a child/ adolescent counselor in the counseling process, remember that not all family counselors are created equal. Be sure that the individual who will be guiding your child/children through their professional family counseling meeting meets these requirements: be certified, be an expert in the field of psychology and emotions, possess relevant work experience, and be a good listener and communicator.