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.
There’s a reason families are often described as trees. Individuals are all different branches, yet everyone is united by the same root system. But it takes hard work to keep a tree healthy when people are reaching in all directions. The well-being of a family must be nurtured. Family members need to check in with each other to make sure everyone is feeling the same sense of belonging and connectedness. And sometimes the family’s stability can be threatened by external events or crises. That’s one of the many times when family therapy can help.
Family therapists at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA have the skills, insight, and compassion to help family members reconnect when something is pulling them apart. The fully licensed family therapists at Thriveworks look at communication styles, family roles, and other dynamics within a family to identify where families are strong–and where they could use some additional support.
What Is Family Therapy? What Does It Consist of?
Families don’t come with a manual, and every family functions differently. The same rules that apply to a large, multicultural, intergenerational family may not apply to a family of two men raising an adopted child. But many families have similar goals in common when they reach out to a licensed family therapist at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA. They might arrive at their initial session with certain objectives, like learning how to do the following in their family:
- Be emotionally honest
- Reduce conflict in the household
- Forgive, or ask for forgiveness
- Reinforce your family’s strengths
- Manage your anger
- Empathize with family members
- Recognize implicit rules and codes of behavior
- Listen to each other’s points of view
- Establish healthy boundaries
- Use neutral language to improve communication
- Recognize emotional triggers
- Built trust in each other
How Do You Treat Addiction in Families?
When someone in a family suffers from addiction to drugs, alcohol, or something else, the entire family is usually affected. It’s not just the person with the substance abuse issue that suffers, but everyone around them. And so family therapists at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA can certainly give the addicted family member the resources they need to tackle their addiction, but they can also educate the rest of the family, manage their expectations, and give them practical coping strategies for dealing with the problem. Most importantly, they let everyone feel heard in the therapy sessions, so no one’s perspective is left out of the bigger picture.
When Should We See a Family Therapist?
You don’t have to wait until you and your family members are in crisis to see a licenced family therapist at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA. Many families come to therapy because they seek a strong foundation where everyone feels loved, secure, and psychologically safe. Then if a crisis does arrive, they’ll already have the psychological and communication resources in place to deal with it. That being said, sometimes more acute issues can bring family members to a therapy session at Thriveworks. For example:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bereavement
- Bullying
- Marriage conflict
- Financial stress
- Emotional or verbal abuse
- Chronic illness
- Caregiver burnout
- Special needs children
- Eating disorders
- Behavioral problems
- Substance abuse or addiction
- Blended family difficulties
- Estrangement
- Long-lasting grudges
- Nonstop fighting
Does Insurance Pay for Family Therapy?
Because the family therapists at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA are fully licensed LMFTs (licensed marriage and family therapists), they accept most health insurance. If you’re not sure if your insurance will cover family therapy sessions, we can help you figure that out when you call the Thriveworks office. When you call our office during our extended business hours, you will reach a human being, not a voicemail, and we’d be happy to answer all your questions and address your concerns about out-of-pocket expenses.
We also like families to bear in mind the potential high costs of not intervening early when your family shows signs of stress. By nipping problems in the bud or identifying where an individual in a family might benefit from individual therapy or substance abuse counseling, you may save yourselves a lot of grief later on.
Online counseling is another potential cost-saving measure that we offer at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA. Though we also offer in-person counseling, some busy clients prefer to gather their families virtually through Thriveworks’ secure video conferencing software. Then no one has to take time off work to attend therapy sessions at an office out of their way.
Reap the Benefits of Family Therapy at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA
Your family deserves to be happy, and that’s why Thriveworks in Riverside, CA tries to make it as easy as possible to see one of our top-rated, fully licensed family therapists. Call our office today and you may meet with your therapist as early as tomorrow. We look forward to meeting you and your family members!
