Family Therapy in Bucks County, PA

Importance of Family Therapy

Our relationships—particularly those with our loved ones, family members, spouses, and children—play a significant role in our mental health. Distress in the family can affect members' lives on a tremendous scale. All couples and families go through rough patches, which can sometimes be overcome and repaired independently. However, many times, those rocky moments leave notable marks in relationships; members who feel they are not understood are impacted in terms of trust, their perception of each other and their understanding of the relationship. These factors combined may damage the future of their relationships. Family therapy can help.

 

Family members might encounter barriers that prevent them from communicating in a healthy way. Many times, those barriers can cause family members to become more distant from each other, leading to feelings of hopelessness as if the situation will never get better and they will never change. In some instances, these feelings might even lead members to emotionally cut off or stop communication with each other.

 

Family conflicts can be incredibly complicated and challenging. Sometimes, family members see each other as the problem. They blame one member of the family and they might not see the real issue; what’s more, they might not recognize how their behaviors contribute to their present situation.

 

In other circumstances, parents’ relationships with the family of origin might cause some problems in their familial relationship. In-laws who are overinvolved in the couple’s relationship or their attitude towards raising children can frequently cause tension. One partner might share too many details about their private life with their family, which can bother the other partner. On the other hand, disengaged relationships with the family of origin might lead partners to feel unloved or unaccepted.

 

In a family dynamic, it is easy to become overwhelmed with your partner and your children’s misbehavior, resulting in difficulty balancing your home responsibilities and work. You might have difficulty understanding your child’s behaviors and anger, leading to feelings of resentment.

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How Family Therapy Can Help

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When dealing with family conflict, the best way to help is to look at the family system. In family therapy, each family member's individual problems are assessed through the lens of the family system, understanding how they play a role. In these family sessions, family members not only learn about each other, but also learn about themselves and how their behaviors have been contributing to the negative interaction cycle. Sometimes, small changes in the family system can be a solution for many seemingly unresolvable issues.

 

In our family therapy sessions, we can support you by helping you understand each other on a deeper level, manage those conflicts and talk about those rocky moments that affected the relationship and your perception of each other. We can help you deal with those dysfunctional patterns and build healthy relationships with one another. We can also support you during difficult transitional periods, which might be caused by death, grief, illness, divorce, or re-marriage.

 

Long-term impacts of family therapy:

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• Decrease constant arguments.

• Improve problem-solving skills.

• Learn more about each other's expectations.

• Rebuild a healthier family structure.

• Prevent repeating dysfunctional patterns.

• Help balance parenting, household chores, and work/school responsibilities.

• Rebuild healthier relationships with one another.

• Help prevent and manage future conflicts. 

• Improve communication.

• Develop healthy coping skills.

• Enhance sense of connection to one another.