What is family therapy?
Family therapy helps families resolve conflicts and strengthen their relationships. It is led by qualified mental health professionals like psychologists, licensed professional counselors (LPCs), and licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) who have extensive training in family dynamics and group communication.
How does family therapy work?
Thriveworks family therapists in Minneapolis, MN usually begin by asking what everyone’s goals are for family counseling. Family members may need help with very specific issues or with general relationship functioning. But there are three main purposes in family counseling: to educate, to counsel, and to strengthen. Thriveworks also offers online family therapy and in-person services, so you may all meet in an office together or join a video call from your home depending on everyone’s location and availability.
What is the most effective family therapy?
The most effective form of Family therapy will often depend on the family itself, as there are many types of family therapy for therapists to use as they see fit in order to best meet the needs of their clients. However, one of the most commonly used types of family therapy is structural family therapy (SFT). SFT focuses specifically on family dynamics and interactions, looking at how they shape the relationships and structure present in the family. It can be effectively used to treat a variety of concerns.
How do I know if my family needs therapy?
This answer often looks different to each family that starts family therapy. However, some signs that your family might need to consider family counseling include frequent fights or misunderstandings, constant tension, experiencing loss, behavioral issues, marital issues, divorce, and blended family issues, among others.
What is included in family therapy?
In family therapy, therapists will often start by asking questions and assessing individual and family dynamics. From there, they may employ therapeutic techniques such as structured family therapy, CBT, strategic family therapy, and more depending on the present concerns and conflicts. From there, a therapist will work to open lines of communication between family members and facilitate emotional healing and growth.
What is the success rate of family therapy?
Family therapy can be incredibly successful, with some studies reporting a success rate of almost 90% for improving participants’ emotional and mental health, and around 66% for improving their physical health.
Is family therapy conducted in person or online?
Thriveworks therapists in Minneapolis, MN offer both online family therapy and in-person family therapy. We encourage you to choose the option that works best for you.
How long does family therapy last?
Family therapy is usually short term and solution-focused, with most families accomplishing their goals in 12 sessions or fewer. However, it can also last for longer if the probles at hand are more complex — and that’s okay, too.
Need more help deciding?
In families, it’s common to act out when something is wrong instead of addressing the problem directly. A sudden onset of bad behavior in a child can be the proverbial canary in the coal mine for a larger family conflict. Families are complicated! They are one unit, but they’re also made up of diverse, complex individuals. When trouble arises—or even before it does—family therapists can help.
Thriveworks therapists in Minneapolis, MN, can work with you and your family members to help repair conflicts and address past, present, and future challenges.
5 Modalities of Family Therapy
Most marriage and family therapists (MFTs) recognize five main modalities of family therapy. A Thriveworks family therapist in Minneapolis, MN, might have expertise in a range of modalities, but they will help choose the one that’s best for you.
- Structural therapy, which considers the role each member plays in the family
- Milan therapy, which sees the body as a system guided by natural behavior
- Strategic therapy, which attempts to examine and redirect patterns of behavior
- Narrative therapy, which focuses on individuals
- Transgenerational therapy, which looks at conflicts from a generational standpoint
How Does Family Therapy Treatment Work?
Family therapy usually looks something like this:
- You notice something is “off” in your family dynamic. Maybe one person is acting out and others are reacting badly, creating an ugly emotional loop. Maybe someone is feeling depressed or withdrawing from the family, and it’s affecting everyone’s mental wellbeing. Whatever the case may be, a red flag has gone up over the family home.
- You try to fix the problem yourself, but you can’t. It seems like you’re just making things worse. Maybe there’s too much emotion involved. Maybe you’re too close to the problem. Or maybe you simply don’t have the expertise to tackle the issue. That’s okay! A whole mental health profession exists for this reason.
- You schedule a family therapy session with a counselor at your convenience.
- The counselor listens to all family members and asks relevant, insightful questions to get to the root of the problem.
- The family counselor advises you on the best course of action. The therapist may want to meet individually with family members in one-on-one sessions, or treat the family as a whole. It depends on what the conflict is. You may do online counseling, in-person counseling, or a mixture of both.
- You work to resolve the conflict and walk away with better communication tools in your tool belt for future conflicts. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy reports that family therapy is usually brief and “solution-focused,” making it hugely effective, reporting a success rate of almost 90 percent.
How Can Family Therapy Help My Family?
There are countless reasons why you might seek out a family therapist. Your family might have specific issues that members are trying to deal with. These can include marital or financial problems. But anything can influence or alter the psychological health of your family. Examples include:
- Substance abuse by one or several family members
- A child’s academic problems
- A child bullying others or being bullied
- Sexual abuse
- Food issues
- Communication issues
- Chronic illness
- Time conflicts
By reaching out to a Thriveworks family therapist in Minneapolis, MN, you and your family members can begin to piece together the resources and solutions to address whatever might be amiss under your roof. These lessons from therapy can last a lifetime, and help to bring you all closer.
Schedule a Session with a Family Therapist at Thriveworks in Minneapolis
Health insurance can cover the cost of family therapy, and treatment is more affordable and convenient than ever due to improvements in secure telehealth technology. It can be hard to get all your family members together in one place at the same time, but online counseling definitely makes it easier. Your counselor can work with disparate schedules to arrange convenient appointment times. Call Thriveworks in Minneapolis, MN, to schedule your first session with a counselor specializing in family dynamics and family therapy.
Everyone in your family can benefit from same-week appointments and our flexible cancellation policy. And our clinicians start on time! Make an appointment today.
