Each member of your family has issues of some kind. Also, your family as a whole has problems. Every family has problems. How you deal with family issues is much more important than having them.
Family issues need family therapy with a licensed marriage and family therapist. Working with a professional to improve your family functioning offers huge benefits. Below are nine reasons why family therapy is essential.
1. Communication Skills
Everyone in your family has a different communication style. Sometimes the various types can get in the way of listening, reflection, and empathy, three skills needed for making decisions, forming bonds, and resolving conflicts.
Family therapists teach you how to communicate effectively, so you each feel valued. You learn to express your needs and discuss feelings without ending up in an argument. Sharing information appropriately is crucial to a family. The more information you have, the better you can respond to your family’s needs. This starts with healthy communication.
2. Conflict Resolution
As communication improves, so will how you fight and makeup. You may even realize your arguments start taking less time to resolve. Arguing is normal among family members. When multiple personalities living under one roof, there will be disagreements.
It’s how you argue and reach a solution that matters most. Conflicts should never result in physical, verbal, or emotional abuse. Your family therapist can teach you to disagree and work together calmly.
3. Parenting Challenges
Having children is hard enough when you are on the same page as your spouse on handling challenges at all developmental stages. If you are not on the same page, it can lead to arguments, hurt feelings, and discipline issues, and your children will be able to manipulate you against one another easily. To effectively parent, you must do it as a team.
Working with a therapist will help you and your spouse decide how to discipline and reward your children, depending on their behaviors.
4. Divorce or Separation
Not all marriages make it, and for some, divorce is inevitable. You must remember your divorce or separation will impact the rest of your family. A therapist can help you explain divorce to your children. It can also help you become great co-parents during this transition. Other family therapy benefits during a divorce:
Working through your emotions regarding the divorce
Adapting to change
Receiving support from an objective person
Developing a custody plan that works for everyone
Working through your issues in family therapy can help you avoid involvement with the courts.
5. Grief
When a loved one passes away, it can impact each family member differently. Grief is a process and must occur naturally. However, not everyone does this. Some stuff their feelings and avoid them for years. Others become overwhelmed by emotions and find it difficult to function.
Family therapy helps each of you process grief appropriately using specific techniques to help you deal with emotions such as denial, sadness, anger, and eventually, acceptance.
6. Major Life Changes
Significant life changes happen to every family. Examples include your job transferring you to a different state, losing a job, a sibling transitioning to another gender, someone with an addiction, losing your home due to fire or natural disaster, or a major illness affecting one or more family members.
Major life changes are out of your control but can cause stress for everyone in your family. Family therapy helps you adjust to necessary changes, process your feelings, and learn coping skills to help you get through the tough times. You can also create a crisis plan as a family if future life changes occur.
7. Blending Families
Second and third marriages are common today. With those marriages comes a blending of families. The children didn’t have much choice in the matter. They are forced to live with people they barely know and are expected to get along with them right away. This doesn’t always happen, though.
Family therapy helps this merge go smoother by treating you and the children before blending begins. Therapy teaches each family member how to set healthy boundaries. You can also discuss family roles and allow the kids to express their feelings without judgment or recourse. You can develop support, trust, respect, acceptance, and forgiveness.
8. Family Mental Health
Each member of your family has mental health. The family as a whole also has mental health, influenced by the combination of how each person is functioning mentally. If one person has a serious mental illness that is untreated, it can negatively affect everyone else in the family. Everyone in the family begins adapting their lifestyle to meet the needs of the one with a mental illness.
More family members with untreated mental health issues create more problems for the family as a group. Family therapy allows individual and group mental health to receive attention. The goal is to help everyone implement techniques that will improve mental health so that the overall mentality of your family is healthy and happy.
9. Family Physical Health
Physical health is directly related to mental health. When you feel bad physically, your mood is not as happy as when you feel physically fit. Also, when you have a positive mood, you are more eager to be active. Families can build stronger bonds and have more fun together when the whole group focuses on improving physical health. Family therapy is a great place to create a physical fitness family plan that will directly improve your mental health.
Takeaway
Family therapy is essential for your marriage, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and even for extended family. Because no one is given a handbook on how to be a great family, it’s important to take opportunities like family therapy to educate yourself on what it takes. Going to family therapy means you love your family and want to ensure each member’s needs are being met. Start today by talking to your family about the benefits, then reaching out to a licensed marriage and family therapist.