Family therapy is used when every family member is ready and willing to engage in therapy. It is a time where your neutral therapist encourages each family member to listen and communicate with each other. This is done by creating a safe space for everyone and encouraging each person to share their reality.

Most often in family therapy, each member has a different version of events that has taken place in the past. Families work on any past hurt and move forward towards a common goal. The primary focus of family therapy is to strengthen the family unit by improving communication and resolving past conflicts. It is also a therapist’s job to identify subsystems in a family. These subsystems may look like the siblings vs the parents, one child and one parent together, or both parents vs the child. It is important for the family to discuss with the aid of their therapist how to make those subsystems blend closer together. Boundaries between subsystems and between each family member are also discussed so that everyone feels that their needs are being taken into consideration.