Family Counseling Services in Marina del Rey, CA.

Most family therapists inadvertently create more chaos through their well-intentioned efforts to assist a family move through a change process. Why? Brains are inherently deregulated (all of us, may I add) and most talking and dialoguing misses brain-centric problems that need more intensive help. Many times the emotional trauma created by years of solving problems ineffectively can wreak havoc on the brain's parasympathetic nervous system, not ever giving the family a break from flight or fight thinking. Contact us for an innovative neuroscience solution to family dysfunction. Kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.

Family therapy is helpful in understanding your family unit. Understanding each member of the family as having roll, responsibility and expectation is the beginning of the process of understanding what works and does not work within your family unit. Working with the family from this starting point, will hopefully open the door to improved communication among each family member.

Family Therapy or Family Counseling is a therapeutic tool to help a family to resolve the many problems that are causing the family to hurt. Sometimes this is just an adjustment to a big life change, such as, a career change, a new baby, a move, a death in the family, launching young adults, or the sad event of the loss of a loved one. This can also involve unhealthy patterns of behavior, addictions, or abuse. With each of these family challenges I utilize a Christian model of counseling to help your family be restored to the healthy loving one you envisioned.

Families enter therapy for different reasons. Many families are seeking help for an immediate problem or crisis, while others need support changing long standing negative patterns. Family therapy can be beneficial as, it provides opportunities to identify and build on strengths, improve communication, and better understand roles and dynamics that shape the family system. I have experience working with families in crisis and am skilled at assisting parents and children/adolescents increase positive communication and connectivity.

Is your family struggling to connect or navigate challenges? Family therapy sessions provide a safe space for open communication and exploration of family dynamics. I'll guide your family in identifying unhealthy patterns and developing healthier ways to interact with each other. We'll work together to build stronger communication skills, improve conflict resolution, and foster a more supportive and loving family environment.

When a crisis hits it can be hard to know what to do. Family can be messy, my role is to help you and your family come together in a deeper more meaningful way. Not only will we be looking at the specifics of the conflict/situation at hand, we will also work on developing tools and strategies that uniquely meet the needs of you and your unique family's dynamic. If you feel we might be a good fit--I'd love to hear from you and see how I can be of support.

Whether your family is struggling to communicate, fighting to stay together, or figuring out how to manage the pressures of a blended family, life with a newborn or divorced co-parenting, therapy can help. Having a safe, supportive environment where you can express your feelings freely and without judgment, work on developing healthy, compassionate communication skills and establish new relationship patterns can support you in suturing a fruitful and fulfilling reconnection. One of the primary focuses of my work is helping families work together, thrive and flourish.

Families are the places where we should find the love and support to face the world and all its challenges. However, sometimes families loose their way due to poor communication and misunderstandings , anger, acting out behaviors, hurt feelings and lack of knowledge. Maya Angelou has said: "People do what they know; when they know better, they do better." My plan for families is to help them know better so they can do better. Where there is loving-kindness and a will to make change the future seems brighter.

As a family therapist, I facilitate fair discussions, offer suggestions for changes, teach communication skills and new ways of coping. This helps with understanding each other and finding solutions. I look at the whole family to see whether certain patterns or traits were learned from the previous generation without realizing that some of them may have been ineffective or harmful, even though they seemed familiar and "normal.” Since parents are the heads of the family, they need to work together, not against each other. It's important to make sure that boundaries between the family members are clear, visible, and consistent. This all can improve your family life considerably.

Abby offers family therapy to support healthier communication, stronger relationships, and greater understanding among family members. Using a collaborative, trauma-informed approach, she helps families navigate conflict, life transitions, and emotional challenges in a safe, structured environment. Her work focuses on repairing connection, enhancing empathy, and building practical tools for managing stress and improving dynamics. Whether addressing parenting struggles, sibling conflict, or intergenerational patterns, Abby guides families toward more cohesive and supportive relationships.

One of the ways we know who we are, is in the context of our relationships with other people. Of all the relationships that we have, it is the ones with our families that most impact us. Sometimes family members forget how to communicate in loving and supportive ways. Often times there are subjects that are too hard to talk about. Silence is often in the place of healthy discussions. I believe that the home should be the safest place for everyone to express themselves. Let me help your family learn how to keep each other emotionally safe and to get to know each other on a deeper level. Call for an appt. Jeannette York,818.200.9513 I charge a flat rate of $150.00 per session

Everyone has a family, even if no two families are identical. Family may mean different things to different people, but there is no denying that the relationships we have shape us as individuals. Some families have healthy traits and some have more toxic traits. In my family work, I aim to help to uncover systems both that are working, and systems that are not working. I also aim to help each member of the family feel heard in asking for their own needs and boundaries to be met, appropriate within the family and cultural context.

A family is like a living organism. When one part of the organism is off, the rest of the organism is affected. Sometimes, the relationships among family members need to be addressed, and communication needs to be restored. Stress on families today is hard and too much is put on parents. Having an outside person can help. I will make sure that everyone is heard and restore fun, connectedness and peace with your family.

My approach in family therapy is to focus on the problem or set of problems, not to assign blame to a person or the family as a whole. In family therapy, we will hear how problems affect everyone. There is not always a "solution," but more often than not there are untapped resources that a family can call upon to help reduce a problem's influence on each person's life.

I believe that as we grow up we are shaped by our relationships; this starts from the time we are little and continues for the rest of our lives. Through these relationships we are also shaped by society. In being shaped we create various meaning from our experiences as well as receiving and giving instructions on how to live. When we form new relationships of any kind, this gets challenged; coming together and finding a path forward that celebrates all involved is the key to success.

Family therapy sessions aim to strengthen all members of the family so they can work out problems together. Often, if one family member is identified as having an illness, the cause can be traced back to a larger family problem. If the person with the illness is treated while the rest of the family does not change, then the symptoms will persist. Family therapy breaks these cycles by teaching everyone to better interact with one another.

I have found in my many years of experience that many emotional issues and dysfunctional patterns occur in the context of the family system. In family therapy, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This means that the family system can influence the emotional well being of its members. In our family therapy sessions, we understand the presenting issues through the lens of the family. For example, what are the relationships and connections that provide the foundation for a particular behavior? What is the structure of the family and how does it support the members' behavior? Many behavior patterns and issues respond well by working with the family

Families engaging in therapy with me will find a compassionate and strong leader who understands the profound stress that family conflicts and perpetual problems can create. My approach is centered on guiding families through their tensions and difficulties, providing a structured and supportive environment where each member feels heard and valued. By focusing on your family's unique dynamics and challenges, I facilitate open communication and collaboration, leading to practical and lasting solutions. Clients will leave with a renewed sense of connection and the tools to foster a more harmonious family life, turning seemingly insurmountable problems into opportunities for growth.

Let me guess. One partner feels alone and like they don't matter and the other feels they are always being criticized and can't get anything right. The more one asks for the other to show up, the more the partner disappears physically and emotionally. You both bicker and fight and the idea of sitting and just hanging out seems elusive, if not impossible. Something like this? Often we crave connection but are blocked by the pain and the history that gets in the way. Small fights about little things become battles that highlight our struggle to have our basic relational needs met. I can help you get under the bickering to the parts crying out for connection- to an enriching relationship.

I work closely with families throughout my treatment to focus on understanding the family as a system and each member as having a unique role. Working together we can often uncover unmet needs and ways in which we can support one another towards our mutual goals. Further, by working with the family as a whole, we are able to acknowledge each of our role in the identified barrier and take ownership in our plan towards a solution.

Family therapy looks at the entire family system—parents, children, extended family members—to identify strengths and problematic behaviours. I collaborate with families on strategies for utilizing their own capabilities for resolving problems, and on developing effective communication and problem-solving skills for preventing conflicts. I specialize in working with families of teenagers, which is an age that can be challenging for both the teenagers and their parents.

Family therapy is about more than solving conflicts. It is about restoring balance, improving communication, and creating a foundation where each member feels valued and respected. Families often come to me feeling exhausted by repeated arguments, misunderstandings, or dynamics that seem impossible to change. I understand how discouraging it can feel when home no longer feels like a place of comfort. My approach to family therapy begins with creating a safe and structured space where every voice matters. I work to ensure that parents, children, and other family members feel heard and understood, even when disagreements run deep. By observing interactions and listening carefully, I help families identify unspoken patterns, subtle triggers, and the small...(view profile to read more)

When working with children and youth, the therapist cannot ignore the family system in which the child lives. I work with parents in multiple ways to help support youth in treatment, which may include separate parent sessions, co-parenting sessions, systemic family therapy, or Filial Therapy, a play therapy practice that coaches and guides parents in special play sessions with their child to decrease unwanted behaviors, improve relationships and communication, increase the child's emotional vocabulary, and increase the child's self-esteem.

Is your family life chaos? Are your kids running things? Are you going through a divorce and don't know how to tell the kids? Dr. Eris Huemer has worked with familes and children as a counselor and coach as well as being a Supervisor for Behavior Interventionists and Floortime Therapists for children and adolescents with behavior disorders such as Autism, Learning Delayed, ADHD, Mental Retardation and more. There are very few family dynamics and problems that Eris hasn't helped a family solve. Dr. Eris works to help the family identify its strengths and to reach a concrete solution in a brief period of time.

Most family therapists inadvertently create more chaos through their well-intentioned efforts to assist a family move through a change process. Why? Brains are inherently dysregulated (all of us, may I add) and most talking and dialoguing misses brain-centric problems that need more intensive help. Many times the emotional trauma created by years of solving problems ineffectively can wreak havoc on the brain's parasympathetic nervous system, not ever giving the family a break from flight or fight thinking. Contact us for an innovative neuroscience solution to family dystunction. Kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161