Family Counselling Services in Anmore, BC.

My approach is centered on fostering open communication, understanding, and cohesion among family members. Recognizing the unique dynamics within familial relationships, I tailor interventions to address the complexities of diverse family structures. By emphasizing effective communication strategies, conflict resolution, and the cultivation of a supportive family environment, my goal is to strengthen the bonds that connect each family member. Through a collaborative process, clients benefit from developing practical tools to navigate challenges, build resilience, and foster a harmonious family life.

Family therapy can be beneficial if you are struggling with parenting, bullying concerns, or conflict within your family to name a few. Family therapy can also be helpful during or after divorce or seperation as well. At West Coast Counselling, we work to support each member of the family and don't take sides. We work to address whatever concerns you may have and develop a plan to conquer these struggles.

Olivia finds great fulfillment in helping families thrive in a variety of contexts, including parents and children of all ages, single-parent households, and step-families. She has worked with parents and young children, offering tailored insights and practical strategies to strengthen their connection and address challenges. Olivia also supports teens and adult children in navigating family dynamics, fostering understanding and communication across generations. Olivia’s holistic approach ensures every family member feels heard and supported, promoting growth, harmony, and resilience.

Family therapy provides the opportunity to explore how unfinished business or unhealed loss in your family of origin affects how you cope with life challenges in the present. We will explore family history and major events in your family, sometimes going back generations, to find out how family members were affected by those events, and how you may be affected by them in your life now. We also have the opportunity to find the health, strength and wisdom in the family through the generations.

Relationships are hard work and sometimes families go through ups and downs and lets face it - it gets overwhelming. I will work with family members to address your struggles, stressors, breakdown in communication and unhelpful patterns. I take a very direct yet solution-focused approach to family therapy to help you find a more positive way forward together.

In family therapy I focus on creating secure emotional bonds. I help family members identify and express their emotions, fostering understanding and empathy. By exploring negative interaction patterns and underlying emotions, I guide families to reconnect and strengthen their relationships. My goal is to transform negative cycles into positive, supportive interactions, enhancing emotional connection and resolving conflicts. This approach helps families build a foundation of trust and security, promoting healthier, more resilient relationships.

Family relationships can be life giving as well as life draining. It is important to discover the foundational challenge that your family faces. With the real challenge identified, I can help you to better understand your family members and the ways they interact. If desired, I can help guide family members to better understanding of each other and possible reconciliation.

Working with families is complex, yet an essential part of building a healthy foundation for all family members. Using a Family Systems's approach to therapy helps members of a family understand that all people in the family affect the quality of the relationships within the family unit. Families are like a mobile, as one part moves, all the other parts are affected to some degree. Using the concepts of the Drama Triangle is valuable in helping family members understand the role he/she/they typically plays when interacting with others. Emeshment and triangulation are explored. One person is not viewed as the scapegoat but rather seen as one spoke in the "family wheel" of a larger system.

I am a trained family constellations facilitator (as seen on Netflix, “Sex, Love & goop”, episode 5) and also have training through my graduate studies in family systems. As well I have a 210-hour practical Certificate in Interest-based Conflict Resolution from the Justice Institute of BC. I bring all these and an inherent belief in the power of intention to heal and restore love’s flow in families.

Today family can mean different things to different people. Each family structure is challenged with their own set of difficulties and problems. Whether you are a blended family, single parent family due to divorce or loss, adoptive family, same sex parents, or traditional, we recognize family dynamics can be complicated. Together we will work to develop strong communication skills between each family member, while nurturing and solidifying the family unit. We will work to overcome conflict, heal the wounds of the past, build parenting skills and create a safe environment where all family members can be heard.

Family is where it all begins; where connection happens and wounding occurs. Each member is a part of the whole. I believe we all are doing our best to connect, with the resources we have, but we inadvertently hurt and get hurt in our families, and we each make different choices around how we deal with our emotional pain. In Family Therapy we build on the principles of safety, honesty and unconditional acceptance from an understanding that healing begins in relationship to self and others. While we can heal the individual pain that stems from family relationships in individual therapy, if members of a family are willing to work through issues together some of the deepest healing can occur.

When there is conflict within our family system it can feel heartbreaking and have major effects on each individual’s health and wellness. Finding harmony as a family ultimately comes down to finding effective ways to communicate and working to understand each other’s unique perspective. During family therapy sessions I seek to make sure each individual feels heard and understood by their family members by giving them the opportunity to express themselves in a safe space. From here we can build the skills necessary to express our needs and desires while maintaining everyone’s stated boundaries.

My approach to family counselling uses a family systems approach to understand complex family dynamics to promote relational competency. I hold the perspective that families are an emotional unit interconnected system comprised of interdependent members who influence one another. Recognizing behaviour patterns that create imbalance and generate dysfunction can be achieved by exploring each member’s role and adjusting to foster a healthy family. I can help the family create specific goals and improve communication. I offer support for family members to resolve conflict, improve parent-child interactions, support family transitions, and help family members deal with mental health conditions.

During the family therapy sessions , I create a safe space for the members of the family to express difficult emotions and missing needs which have blocked healthy connections. Rather than focusing solely on skills, by applying EFFT I will facilitate new emotional experiences within the families designed to enhance connection, safety, and closeness.

Can some one PLEASE give me an example or definition of a DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY? I think it might look like the families we've all grown up in. What does your family of origin look like? How does that affect how you function in your family today? Lets look together at ways of communicating, listening, and loving each other. "But your families different you say?" I welcome the challenge. Let's all put on gloves and high rubber boots and jump into the muck together - shall we? Lets face it, families are WORK, real WORK!! It is better to work smarter not harder. Let me share my tool box with you, and see if you would like to adapt to using some of these tools in your family dynamics.

Parenting is hard—especially when your child is struggling. If anxiety, behavioral challenges, or emotional disconnect are creating tension at home, I can help. I specialize in strengthening the parent-child bond by helping you understand your child’s emotional world and develop strategies that build trust and security. When parents feel supported, children thrive. Let’s work together to create a calmer, more connected family life.

Family dynamics can be a complicated and sensitive balance within a home. This can be made increasingly complicated by divorce, blended families, individual parenting, spiritual values, health issues and much more. Counseling can provide family members a neutral voice and a place to be heard when fighting and arguing is impacting daily functioning and happiness, of one or more family members. We also help develop necessary tools to resolve conflict in a healthy way, bringing peace and harmony back to everyday lives.

In family therapy everyone has a voice. Going around the circle in the family and hearing everyone's opinion and thoughts about the situation that the family is dealing with is how healing occurs. Families are viewed as a system, what one family member does or does not do impacts the whole family. Understanding this is how family members help heal each other.

Family therapy is the cornerstone to how we cope with relationships in our lives. This process focuses on relationships within the family unit. It looks at how the family has helped to form communication styles, relationships and conflict. As a therapist, I help people find connections between their present relationships and the ones within their family of origin. I work with the whole family system to help mediate concerns, and create more peaceful relationships.

Angela has been supporting families to work through challenges and increase their strengths for over 20 years! Her training and experience support families to address sudden crisis, trauma/loss, job loss, divorce/separation, conflict/violence, parent-child/teen relationship challenges, marital discord, serious illness & family caregiving, mental health concerns, communication difficulties & developmental disabilities. Begin to rebuild troubled relationships by discovering & building on your family's unique strengths and resources. Contact Angela today for your free consultation!

As family members present themselves for counseling, each person is invited to speak so that the individual issues the family, the dynamics as a whole, and the struggles. There will be a setting of goals around the target problem and steps to take to achieve the goal. Each family member will have a role to play in the achievement of the family's goal.

In therapy, I help you explore your family system and history to uncover patterns and dynamics that may be influencing your current thoughts, feelings, and relationships. By looking at how roles, beliefs, and communication styles were shaped within your family, we can gain valuable insight into how these experiences show up in your life today. This process allows us to identify your strengths, address unresolved issues, and challenge patterns that may no longer serve you. Through this exploration, my goal is to help you foster self-awareness and create healthier relationships, leading to a more empowered sense of self.

Real Solutions to Real Challenges. Common Sense Techniques. Martin very much enjoys working with families and children. Families are systems operating in close quaters, therefore upsets and miscommunications are natural and should be expected. They can be a source of extreme disappointment and pain or they can be opportunitiesfor growth. Martin is trained in Adlarian family therapy and uses Gestalt approaches to families. He has facilitaed parenting groups and worked with children as young as three years old and granparents who were in their eighties. It is his experience that families can enjoy, help, and grow together and most of the time it takes far less work than what they expected.

Family therapy can provide each family member with a voice. It gives families an opportunity in a safe environment to be heard and understood. Family therapy guides and supports each family member to understand their role in the family and how their actions impact the other members of the family. Charlene has worked with many families to change negative patterns and bring harmony back into the home. Call to set up an appointment for an initial consultation.

Family members are the people we interact with most closely, and they are meant to be our primary source of support. However, communication can sometimes be challenging, leading to frequent conflicts. Emotional Family Focused Therapy (EFFT) can help manage these conflicts by improving communication within the family, fostering stronger connections, and creating a more supportive environment.