Family therapy is a psychotherapeutic method, which works with the whole family. Family can be defined as a group of people linked by blood, marriage, or just people who live together. This type of psychotherapy is particularly effective in overcoming marital misunderstandings and behavioral problems in children. It is also an effective method of work where serious bodily or mental health problems appear with a chronic course like: diabetes, hypertension, asthma, depression, anorexia, addiction to alcohol and psychoactive substances and others.

Family therapy is a relatively new psychotherapeutic method. With the increasing of the recognition that family is important for maintaining mental comfort of its members, appeared the first steps towards working with the whole family, not only with its individuals. The American anthropologist Gregory Bateson, who describes patterns of relationships in small groups, laid the theoretical foundations. With this, he changes the focus of the interventions from the inner world of the individual to the family system. Since then the field of family therapy is constantly developed and enriched with models based on different theoretical foundations.

Family is a flexible group that decides its own rules and that is more than the sum of its individuals. When two people live together, except “I” and “You” there also appears “We”. The rules in each family are different and this makes the period of adaptation in a new family very important, because the new family must develop their own rules. The therapy focuses on the relationships and communications between family members. It is believed that family relations are a major source for good mental health and for the occurrence of discomfort.

Communication is important because it determines the nature of human relations. It covers both the information that is transmitted and adopted and the meaning, which a person sees in this information. The elements of the communication are verbal (our words) and non-verbal (body posture, intonation, etc.) Important is the situation in which a message is transmitted. The same message can acquire different meanings depending on how it is expressed and what the partner hears. The sentence “I have a headache” can have the meaning of “I need to be alone”, it can also mean, “I am angry and I don’t want to talk to you”, or “I had problems at work”, or “I need to share with you my emotions” and others. The options are many and depend on the state of the person who says these words and on the state of the person who accepts them. The misunderstandings arise when the person who says them implies one meaning and the person who accepts them doesn’t understand this meaning.

Family therapy is practiced in a meeting (sessions) between family and therapist. The therapists mobilize the resources of the family to build a strong relationship and to achieve a good communication between family members.

We all know that sometimes seems quite hard to communicate with your family, but with the help of a good therapist you can avoid this from happening to you.

Author Bio: To find out more about family therapy (interesting to know is that the Danes commonly call it parterapeut) take a look at this website.

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: family therapy, mental health, psychotherapy, family acceptance