Family Counselling Services in Altona, MB.

The family is the most intimate context where positive change can be nurtured and developed. Sometimes, in family, we find ourselves repeating roles from our own family's of origin or sometimes we find ourselves simply repeating a pattern of behaviour that maintains a "stuckness" that limits our family's development. When you are swept up into the emotional stream of family interaction, it is often difficult for any family member to see how what they do maintains family dysfunction. Family counseling provides an outside pair of eyes that can help facilitate a positive evolution in your family.

Families are systems of interconnected and interdependent individuals, none of whom can be understood in isolation from one another; the family is an emotional unit. As a therapist I view problems within the family as the result not of particular members' behaviors, but of the family's group dynamic. The family is seen as a complex system having its own language, roles, rules, beliefs, needs and patterns. As a therapist I endeavour to help each individual member understand how their childhood family operated, their role in that system, and how that experience has shaped their role in the current family.

Despite the best intentions of ourselves and our family members, we are often tangled in patterns of invalidation, rejection, frustration and blame. It can feel so messy that we operate in a constant state of fear and a crippling sense of unworthiness. In 2008 I started my counselling career as a family therapist. A combination of individual and joint sessions will take place to allow the space for all voices to be respectfully heard, while helping to identify bigger ‘systems’ patterns that keep you stuck in pain and finger-pointing. I will help to smooth out communication, make room for wants and needs and to heal the old wounds holding you back from having a healthier relationship.