Family Therapy

Very often families need to be involved in the treatment of one of their members. Although I don’t specifically practice Traditional Family Therapy, I often do therapy with families. Most commonly this happens when I am treating a child or adolescent, but it can happen with adult children, with spouses, or with siblings. Often I meet with the parents to support and help them understand their child better. Sometimes we all meet to work on difficult issues together. What family therapy looks like depends on what is needed in a particular moment with a particular family.

Family involvement in the treatment of a family member is often critical to that person receiving the best and most timely care possible. This is because we all have blind spots, meaning we don’t see certain aspects of our behavior and feelings. The more limitations a particular person has, the bigger the blind spots and the more critical the outside input. Your family member cannot tell me what they don’t see, know, and understand. Thus, critical information from family members will help me more accurately diagnose and especially treat a patient who comes in alone, especially if there are major mental issues in their life. Even if the patient has not given permission for me to talk to family members, I can always receive information from concerned family members. But without permission, I cannot provide information to family members.