What to Expect in a Family Therapy Session
Imagine a relationship with your family where you feel seen, heard, safe, and respected.
What would change for you if every member of your family had the skills they needed to feel comfortable navigating celebrations and conflict with the same confidence? Does this sound like the future you’re hoping for in your home? An experienced family therapist can help you create it in family therapy sessions.
Why Family Therapy?
Family therapy is a powerful tool that can help families to build stronger relationships, and improve communication whether you’re facing difficult times or just want to bring more harmony to your home. At Haven Family Therapy, we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for families to explore their relationships. By creating this safe “haven” for your family to voice their concerns, you’ll develop effective communication skills that nurture relationships and create a healthier home environment.
Led by experienced therapist Alexa von Oertzen, our family therapy sessions are designed to help individuals and families reach their goals and create meaningful change.
What are the Goals of Family Therapy?
We understand that family therapy sessions can seem daunting. We want to make sure that our clients feel comfortable and know what to expect during their session by highlighting the key values that will guide the important work of healing family relationships and growing toward a healthier, flourishing life. First thing we do is find a common goal. Even if it is a higher level goal like getting along or respectful behavior, giving each other the benefit of the doubt or managing anger before approaching the other party.
Active listening
One of the most important values in family therapy is active listening. This means that the therapist is listening carefully to what each family member is saying, and is taking their words seriously.
Active listening occurs when an individual (or a whole family) take a genuine and focused interest in the thoughts and feelings of another. You can show this by using eye contact, reflectively encouraging the speaker, and having open body language that keeps you in the moment. It’s easy to get defensive when another member of the family is speaking, but it’s vital to the process that each person’s perspective is heard, even if it differs from your own.
When we show up to listen rather than showing up to be heard or convince others of our viewpoint, we can discover and tackle the root of the problem.
Respect
It is vital that we ensure that every person in the room is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their age or background. This isn’t limited to the therapy room either! Respect for yourself and one another is a key part of valuing the important work you do together, and creating an atmosphere of positive change.
Respect is the best way to ensure every family member is comfortable speaking up and sharing their honest thoughts and feelings. In session you and your family will learn tools to better respect each other.
Positive communication
We put positive communication at the center of your sessions from the very beginning, and it’s our hope that you do as well. Communicating effectively through the use of “I” statements, staying calm, and avoiding blame or criticism is a part of conflict resolution and skill development in family therapy. Positive communication helps families to better understand each other and to resolve conflicts in a healthy way.
The Process of Family Therapy Sessions
Family therapy sessions will typically focus on exploring the family dynamics and interactions, as well as addressing any conflicts that have arisen within the family. This isn’t an instant process, and we’ve defined three unique parts of family therapy that are important to creating a harmonious.
Introductions
A family therapy session will typically begin with a discussion of the issues that are affecting the family. During this discussion, questions will not only uncover underlying distress from past experiences and current stressors, but also what strengths the family has. Solution-focused questions will encourage you to ascribe a rating scale to differing elements of family functioning, both for tracking purposes and to be on the same page as a family.
When you enter family therapy, it is important that all parties feel respected and listened to. We do not presume to know more than you about the inner workings of your family.
Setting Goals
The next step in the family therapy process is to establish goals that help you to connect to your vision for the future. While we begin with the dream and work to create a gameplan from there, information about every person’s concerns, ideas and relationship dynamics will be included in the conversation. The path to accomplish these goals may include skills training in resolving conflicts and improving communication, as well as addressing any underlying issues that are contributing to the family’s struggles.
Building Skills
Subsequent family therapy sessions will typically focus on exploring the family dynamics and interactions, as well as addressing any conflicts that have arisen within the family. In family therapy, you’ll be supported to identify any negative patterns of behavior or communication that may be hindering the collective ability to work through any issues. You’ll be offered an opportunity and support to help you try out new ways of being with one another, effectively rewriting old, unhelpful patterns of interaction.
Through the use of open-ended questions and active listening, we will encourage the family to share their feelings and experiences in a nonjudgmental way. The answers to these questions will help each family member to express themselves authentically, while building skills that are rooted in their personal and family values.
Creating harmony
Skill building and support sessions are most typically done as a group. At the end of each session, we will provide the family with a summary of the session and discuss any next steps if needed. This reflection is a crucial step in the family therapy process, as it allows each person to summarize the experience before moving forward in the shared healing journey.
Family therapy sessions can be an incredibly powerful tool for helping families build strong, healthy relationships. At Haven Family Therapy, we strive to create an environment where everyone’s voice is heard and respected, and where positive change can occur.
We value active listening, respect and positive communication, which are all important elements of successful family therapy. If you’re ready to reach for your brightest future together, get in touch with us at Haven Family Therapy today!
