James Hillman said that pain happens in families because the family loves one another enough to permit pain. What happens when the pain becomes too much? What happens when the family is stretched so thin that any pain is too much pain? Communication breaks down, resentment joins the family, and personalities morph among the family members in an effort to tolerate unrest, pain, loss, addiction, betrayal, or whatever situation has happened upon the family. From extensive training and practice experience in family therapy, I appreciate the tremendous positive changes that take place within families of distress, through structured family therapy efforts. Treatment includes psychoeducation, communication skill-building, building strength, and family esteem through recognition of and inventory of prior skills, strengths, and successes within and because of family. In the practice of family therapy, I intertwine concepts, interventions, and exercises from Virginia Satir, Family Systems and Structural Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Solution Focussed Therapy. Family therapy sessions are often very active, energetic, and emotion-filled. I take an active and directive role in the process. Additionally, it may help you to know that weekly sessions will be structured to some degree based on the evolution and progress of treatment, this results in different combinations of family members attending at times, for example; In the early stage of treatment parents can expect
to attend more sessions than the family in its entirety.
"One can only understand the power of the fear to be different, the fear to be only a few steps away from the herd if one understands the depths of the need not to be separated."
Erich Fromm