Mental health challenges don’t just affect the individual—they ripple across family units, friendships, workplaces, and other relationships. Loving someone with a mental health disorder can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re unsure how to help. Family therapy provides a structured space for family members to communicate, support one another, and develop strategies for navigating stress and emotional challenges. This guide explains family therapy—what it is, how it works, and how to get started.
What Is Family Therapy?
Family therapy, also called family counseling, brings members of a family together in therapy-led sessions to heal and grow as a unit. People pursue family therapy for a variety of reasons, including mental health disorders, substance use, trauma, grief, divorce, and more. Sessions can involve parents and children, siblings, couples, or even extended family members, depending on the family’s needs. While marriage and family therapy (MFT) focuses primarily on couples, family therapy addresses the dynamics of the broader family network.
Therapists may work with all family members together or meet with individuals separately to better understand perspectives and provide the most effective care. Sessions are guided by licensed mental health professionals using research-based psychotherapy techniques, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
Types of Family Therapy
As with any type of therapy and counseling, such as group therapy, couples therapy, and individual therapy, there are multiple modalities. This refers to the specific therapy technique or method that’s followed. All types of family therapy are led by a licensed and registered mental health professional. Based on the individuals they work with, they will utilize a form of psychotherapy (also called talk therapy). For instance, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy are two psychotherapy methods with different focuses.
In family therapy, some of the modalities we offer are:
- Structural family therapy
- Strategic family therapy
- Functional family therapy
- Family constellation therapy
- Multidimensional family therapy
- Cognitive behavioral family therapy
- Transgenerational family therapy
What To Expect in Family Therapy?
We understand family members desire to be involved in each other’s struggles, whether as a parent, sibling, child, spouse, or in-law. Family involvement in mental health treatment is valuable and encourages a patient’s recovery. Along with helping the individual who is in treatment, it also improves the wellness of other family members and the whole family unit.
If you don’t know what to expect from family therapy, here are just some of the benefits of working together to heal.
Firstly, family therapy encourages healthy communication. During times of increased stress and chaos communication skills can deteriorate, which can lead to emotional wounds. Family counselors help bring about better understanding of each other, leading to greater self-awareness and empathy. They also help resolve conflict with honesty and discussion. Further, for those who struggle with trauma, addiction, and mental illness symptoms, family therapy teaches coping strategies for trigger management.
Additionally, family counseling sessions help individuals process experiences or conversations they have had with other family members. Instead of letting wounds fester, this fosters a familial environment of recovery. Big changes are incredibly difficult to handle. But counselors help prepare family members for present and future challenges with coping skills. Some examples of challenges they help with are stress, trauma, upheaval, mental illness, and big life changes.
And in cases where one individual’s mental illness is challenging the family, therapy brings all willing members into involvement in a loved one’s treatment. Counselors teach them how to prevent codependency and exist as a healthy family group.
Who Can Benefit from Family Therapy?
Simply put, anyone who is a member of a family unit, including a non-blood relation, can benefit from family therapy. This type of counseling teaches people to better communicate, respect each other, and process and proceed through challenges. As a result, participating in family therapy will also lead you to personal growth, like increased empathy, better boundary setting, and stronger understanding of yourself.
What Is Family Counseling Like?
Family counseling is mediated by a trained counselor who is there to help you resolve familial issues and challenges. In some cases, families enter therapy torn apart, while in others, they are brought closer together by strife but don’t know how to proceed. Know that your therapist will hear from each family member who is involved to best understand the family dynamics. Your sessions can include all members together or work with smaller groups at a time. Yet, together you will set the goals and outcomes for your treatment. You can continue therapy for as long as you need, as well as transition into one-on-one therapy.
Examples of Family Therapy for Mental Health
To help you better picture what family therapy could look like for you, let’s go over some of the options.
You can participate in family therapy in a third-party space, such as a treatment center or therapists’ office. In some cases, having this impartial location where everyone feels equally comfortable helps sessions be more productive. However, another option is to attend family sessions in a personal space, like your home environment. In this case, your counselor may travel to you or you can attend virtual therapy sessions with phone or video calls. During outpatient treatment, this is a popular option.
Additionally, family therapy can have multiple intensions behind it. To elaborate, some families start therapy to help them process through divorce, loss, mental illness, or substance use disorders (SUD). Others have the specific goal of conflict resolution, or behavioral problems. Certainly, you can attend family counseling with multiple goals and wanting to address co-existing problems.
At Aliya Mental Health, many of our guests participate in family therapy to work through a diagnosis and recovery journey together. This ensures everyone is on the same page, everyone feels able to help, and everyone gets to ask questions.
Who Can Attend Family Therapy?
Anyone can attend family counseling! There are no requirements for who can attend. Even non-related people who have formed a familial bond can benefit from the program. For example, foster therapy for foster families exists as an important part of creating a new family dynamic. As long as multiple members of a family unit are willing to participate, their counseling is classified as family therapy. However, you are also welcome to process through family issues and challenges alone in individual counseling.
Family Involvement in Inpatient Treatment
Inpatient treatment is an early level of care for those who require around-the-clock care and monitoring. The name “inpatient” refers to how individual live in a treatment center for a period of time while they work through the program. Thus, they attend traditional and holistic therapy sessions, eat nutrition meals, enjoy free time, and sleep in-center for the duration. Notably, there’s no set timeline for inpatient. That’s between you and your care team to decide. Many people factor in their insurance coverage, obligations at home, and progression through the weeks as they recover. During inpatient treatment, your family can commute to center to attend therapy sessions with you.
Family Therapy in Outpatient Treatment
Outpatient treatment is a later level of care for those who have transitioned from inpatient treatment or otherwise moved directly into the level. During outpatient care, individuals no longer live in-center, instead living in their own home space. They stay connected to Aliya Mental Health with multiple hours of sessions and meetings each week, but return home at night. Thus, outpatient treatment is a less time-intensive commitment based on individuals’ readiness for more independence. Also, virtual sessions are available during this treatment stage. Thus, you and your family members can attend therapy sessions in-center or remotely.
Benefits and Goals of Family Therapy for Mental Health
Family psychotherapy is a goal-oriented approach to recovery. You’re not there to merely desire better health and communication, you’re there to set it in motion with goals. Here are some of the benefits and goals of family therapy.
Setting Clear Treatment Goals
When you first meet with your counselor to create a treatment plan for family therapy, they’ll ask you to name goals and intentions. Then, throughout the next weeks, months, or years, they’ll help you achieve your goals in actionable ways. For instance, if you want to improve communication, they’ll walk you through exercises and interventions to do just that! If you’re not sure right away, you can always set new goals later on. Family therapy is based around you, the members, so treatment will be flexible according to your needs.
Improving Communication
Of course, being able to communicate well is pivotal, no matter what other goals you set. Every challenge can be eased or made more difficult according to how you and others communicate. Your family therapist will act as a mediator between all family members to help you communicate clearly and honestly. Additionally, they’ll be there to help you clarify your words and meanings so everyone understands each other.
Promoting Personal and Family Wellness
Loved ones’ poor mental health conditions can and do affect the people around them, especially family. In many cases, one person’s deteriorating health drags down the wellness of the family as a whole and the individuals in it. Yet, it’s incredibly tough to avoid the outspread impacts of mental illness. This is where professional family counseling is so important to ensure everybody stays healthy and gets the care they need. Notably, family therapy places value on every person’s health, including the one in rehab.
Why Is Family Therapy Important?
When you love someone who struggles with their mental health, it’s easy to feel lost, frustrated, and confused. Your loved one may intentionally keep you on the outside of their challenges to lessen the burden. But as a result, you can feel useless to help when that’s all you want to do! Family therapy ensures individuals know how to help when someone in their family is struggling. Certainly, one person’s mental health disorder can impact their loved ones, such as a parent who enters treatment or a child who starts rehab. Additionally, it promotes better communication and equips individuals with the tools and resources to achieve greater health!
How to Make the Most of Family Therapy
You can make the most of family therapy by being open and honest. Rest assured that therapy sessions are a safe space to speak up, as your counselor will mediate the vulnerable situations. Holding back and sweeping things under the rug prevents true healing, which is why you’re all together in therapy. As uncomfortable as it may feel, do your best to be honest about your feelings, even if you struggle to put them into words. Your family members will ask clarifying questions to get to the heart of your meaning and your counselor is there to help, too.
Heal From Mental Illness in Family Therapy
At Aliya Mental Health, we know offering therapy for families is an important way to help bring healing in difficult situations. A family in disarray impacts one’s safe zone—the home—so you feel lost and alone.
We offer family therapy for substance abuse, family therapy for generational trauma, and family therapy for depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. We also offer family therapy for divorced families, for eating disorders, and any other family issues.
Banding together as a family and joining therapy to learn healthy coping mechanisms is the best thing you can do for yourself and those you love. The best part is you won’t be alone in what you’re going through. Instead of isolating or distancing yourself, let us help you bring your family closer together through family therapy. Give us a call to get started today.