Family Therapy
Having A Hard Time Keeping The Peace At Home?
Is conflict with your family draining you of your energy?
Does it feel like you’re not on the same team anymore?
Are you searching for a neutral yet supportive space where you can calmly discuss issues and work on lasting solutions together?
Life is a lot easier when our closest relationships are in harmony. After all, our bonds with our partners, parents, and other family members are what help us stay grounded and connected in the world. When these relationships are strained, the potential for overall stress, tension, and discomfort in our lives increases.
Which Parts Of Your Family System Have Fallen Out Of Sync?
If you and your partner aren’t in alignment about how to parent or manage other aspects of the family dynamic, then you’re probably disagreeing a lot more than usual. Maybe it feels like the distribution of responsibility is uneven, or like the two of you are taking a completely different approach to raising kids. You probably both devote so much energy to other family members that you just don’t have time for each other. And as much as you want to create a healthy, functional dynamic at home, the disconnection in your relationship is probably affecting the way you interact, parent, and model behaviors.
On the other hand, it’s possible that other relationships in your family—outside of your intimate partnership—are negatively impacting your daily outlook and experience. You may be the adult child of a parent or parents who never quite figured out how to communicate, nurture emotions, or engage in conflict in a healthy way. Or perhaps you’re struggling with your fellow sibling(s) about how to approach an ongoing issue in your family. If there has been a big development or stressor that has suddenly shifted your family’s circumstances, support can be incredibly valuable in learning how to get everyone’s needs met.
Therapy offers a gateway to new empathy, awareness, and understanding in your family. By working with a professionally trained therapist who will guide and coach you through relational barriers, your family can achieve a new sense of balance and healing.
Conflict Is A Normal Aspect Of Coexisting—The Key Is Learning How To Navigate It In A Healthy Way
identify with some of the qualities and characteristics shared among our families of origin, we’re also unique in our individual experiences of the world. The process of becoming our own person can be painful at times, particularly when we veer from the norms and values held by the people who shaped us.
If all of that isn’t enough, we also bring our relational blueprint into every new connection we form, often setting the stage for differing expectations and perspectives in our adult relationships. Contrasting emotional and communication styles might feel manageable in a one-on-one partnership. But when kids are added to the mix, it can significantly complicate the dynamic and lay the groundwork for resentment.
The more we understand and have our blueprints mirrored back to us in adulthood, the more complex all of our relationships become, including the relationship we have with ourselves. Accepting that “perfect” families don’t exist is the first step to healing. And as you learn to let go of the pressure to be perfect—the “perfect” parent, child, sibling, and/or family member—in therapy, you can establish healthier, more fulfilling connections centered around mutual security and resolution.
Therapy Teaches Skills For Cultivating A Healed And Fulfilling Family Dynamic
Family therapy through Escobedo Counseling is designed to help clients understand their relational systems, their part in conflict, and how to get their needs met in a way that doesn’t perpetuate harmful patterns. As we work to increase skills for communication and emotional awareness in the counseling space, families can facilitate a stronger sense of connection and collaboration at home.
What To Expect
My counseling services are available to clients who may be struggling with their family dynamic. This can include:
Parents of children of any age who are encountering conflict and disagreement about parenting style and responsibilities
Teen clients—and their parents—who may be struggling with communication, emotional regulation, and other obstacles that are negatively impacting the dynamic at home
Adult clients who want to explore and problem-solve around long-standing conflicts with parents and/or siblings
Taking into account each person’s level of emotional awareness and goals for counseling, I aim to empower every client to harness their unique strengths and insights on the path to lasting harmony at home. Weaving in aspects of attachment theory, neuroscience, and therapies that are specifically designed to enhance relationships, counseling helps the people I work with cultivate a stronger sense of care and connection in their lives.
Coaching For Parents Of Young Children Is An Additional Benefit Of Family Counseling
As a therapist with years of experience counseling couples and families, I’ve developed a strong focus on supporting parents, recognizing the mental and emotional toll it takes to constantly be working toward often overwhelming or impossible parenting standards. In addition to the communication and emotional regulation skills I teach clients in therapy, I provide coaching to parents of young children who may need additional support around accepting/delegating tasks, creating healthy bonds, staying organized, and parenting with compassionate, realistic boundaries.
Perfection isn’t possible, but your family’s version of a happily-ever-after is. Growing pains are a normal and even healthy part of creating a family unit, and growth can’t exist without struggle. But by learning to work through the challenges together, you can come through the other side with a stronger sense of competency, connection, and belonging.
Common Concerns About Family Therapy
Our family’s schedule can’t accommodate weekly therapy sessions.
I understand that it’s often difficult to make time for counseling, especially when trying to balance scheduling limitations among a family. Yet, I invite you to view therapy as an opportunity to make space for each other—a place where you can devote intentional, uninterrupted time to calmly work through conflict and enhance the connection you share.
If you’re still unsure about being able to make room in your schedule for weekly sessions, reach out so we can discuss options for making therapy more accessible to you and your family.
A therapist will just point fingers or take sides with my family member.
I approach the counseling process with the understanding that every system is made up of complex parts and that each family’s challenges don’t just boil down to one person.
My role as a family therapist is to be a coach, not a referee. As a specially trained relational specialist, I know how to create an empathetic yet neutral counseling space where families can come together and explore their challenges openly, offering meaningful support to the family as a whole—and not just the individual people in it.
My family member refuses to attend counseling
Opening up about deeply held emotions and experiences is a vulnerable process that requires trust, so it’s normal to feel intimidated by the prospect of therapy. It’s important to keep in mind that your loved one’s resistance is understandable—and in fact, it’s probably serving a purpose in their attachment style.
I am confident that if you can get your family member to commit to at least five sessions of therapy, they will be able to see for themselves how everyone in the family unit can benefit from stronger communication, more attuned emotional awareness, and healthier boundary setting. If they’re still resistant to counseling, remember that we can do great work together in individual treatment. Visit my relationship therapy page to find out more.
Learn To Live In Harmony
If your family could use new tools and insights on the path to healing, therapy is available to parents and teens, adult children/siblings and their parents, and parents of young children in need of coaching. Get scheduled for a free consultation or contact me to find out more.
Recent Posts
