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Couples and Family Therapy
Couples Therapy
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Couples who may having difficulties in their relationship may benefit from attending a counselling session that focuses entirely on their relationship.
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Many couples approach their first session with trepidation and apprehension, but they quickly relax into the process and come to value the experience and the benefits.
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The first session is primarily an information gathering session where the couples counsellor will ask you to discuss your history and your concerns.
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Couples counsellors use a variety of modalities and techniques to help you work through your relationship problems. Techniques include: open discussions, role modeling, role playing and analysing negative patterns of behaviour.
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Professional couples counsellors and are trained to avoid personal bias when counselling a couple.
Many couples are apprehensive if they have never attended a relationship counselling session before. Very often, couples have questions about how the counsellor will conduct themselves during the interview, whether the counsellor will take sides or what they may have to reveal as part of their couples therapy.
While relationship counselling might seem rather intimidating at first, many couples find that their relationship will benefit if they attend with an open mind and a willingness to work with their partner. Not only can couples resolve current conflict and distress, the benefits have been shown to last for years after therapy.
In many cases, the couples counsellor is able to narrow down the focus of the therapy in order to identify the primary issues which need addressing. Although every practitioner has their own unique approach to relationship and couples counselling, there are a few common elements to be found. Communication issues, different values and expectations, and trust issues are just a few of the most common areas of conflict in relationships.
Family Therapy
At Mental Health Counselling Geelong we provide Family Therapy where we will work with a variety of different situations from adult estrangements (adult family work), parents who need parenting support, parents who are separated or are wanting to separate, blended families, families where a significant person has passed away and families where there is a teen or child struggling with the complexities of life. A teen or child might be struggling for a variety of reasons so it is crucial that the Family Therapist not only holds the skills to work with the family but also has extensive knowledge about childhood development and the child/adolescent brain.
Quite often, school counsellors and other professionals will refer a family to Family Therapy because individual counselling isn’t getting the desired results. And these days, more and more parents are realising that Family Therapy might be the fastest and most effective way to help a struggling young person or child.
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What happens in Family Therapy?
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One person (typically a parent) makes contact with the Family Therapist and outlines the situation. From there the Family Therapist will have an initial meeting with parents together, separately (if they are separated), or with the whole family group together.
A Family Therapist likes to hear everyone’s perspective on a problem, including the opinion of young children. Once the Family Therapist has understood the problem they will give the family feedback and outline a plan for the work that is likely to follow.
Sessions do not always involve every person in a family group – some things aren’t appropriate for children or adolescents to hear, for instance. Sessions are often a mix of parent sessions, whole family sessions and sessions for teens/children on their own.
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