Family psychotherapy – also known as family therapy – can help those in close relationships to improve communication and to better understand and support each other. It enables family members to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on family strengths, and work together to make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.
Different cultures and different groups of individuals have different notions of what ‘family’ means. Sometimes families are defined by those who live in the same household or have a biological connection. In our practice we see ‘family’ to mean any group of people who define themselves as such, who care about and care for each other.
We work across the developmental life cycle, from infancy to death and with diverse presenting issues. Family members can attend in different groupings as well as all together, to address specific issues as defined by the family. Where appropriate, we utilise Attachment-Based Family Therapy, a specialist family therapy intervention which is an empirically supported family therapy approach in treating adolescent depression whilst aiming to repair relational ruptures through rebuilding more secure family relationships.
Family therapists can see children and adults on their own, or with other family members. Sometimes they offer a mixture of individual and family appointments, if they think that will be useful. For more information on family therapy, please visit the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in the United Kingdom https://www.aft.org.uk/
