Family Counselling Services in Port Moody, BC.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Every family has it's strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes despite our best intentions we get stuck in cycles that cause wounds that can undermine unity and peace. I use Emotion Focused Family Therapy to help you identify the stuck patterns, build on your strengths as a family, and works on creating new ways of relating so that you can face the challenges together. As a Father and husband I am with you on this journey, knowing I'm far from perfect. Through extensive training I have learned and applied these skills in my own life, and I know they can help bring your family from chaos and conflict to peace and harmony. I'd be honoured to travel with you on your journey.

Family counselling involves creating a safe environment where each family member is given opportunities to share their thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Once each member is heard, issues are addressed, processed and examined. Barriers and pitfalls such as communication are explored together. Along with the guidance, support and empathy of the Counsellor, family members work on creating solutions to problems. I have over twenty years of experience with working with children and families, I look forward to using my "client-centered" approach to help families move toward increasing their communication skills, valuing the input of each other and living happier and healthier lives.

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 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.

Families operate much like a watch. There are several systems working both individually and together, preforming a common task. When conflict or problems arise, it is important to take into consider all members of the system as the most effective approach relies on the strengths the family has as whole. Changes to the parenting dynamic will effect each child individually and as collective. Like wise one child's challenging behaviors will have rippling effects on the rest of the family. By addressing how the family works together and supporting the whole system, everyone benefits and becomes stronger.

You may find yourself going through interpersonal issues with your family, having conflict or communication issues, or other family problems. Using Internal Family System, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, and other techniques, we help you to better understand your family system, build better communication skills, work toward conflict resolution, and discover your triggers in your interpersonal relationships. We hope to help you recover from issues within your family.

Family therapy is important for those that are having a hard time connecting with someone in your family(partner, sibling, parent, child) and it can be quiet distressful. It also is important that if you are alone working yourself and others family members have similar therapeutic goals. My treatment plans involves understanding the belief system of the unity, and how people within that system communicate and relate to one another. We peel the onions together, and bring on healing to create unity and uniformity within the family system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My hope for clients who are experiencing challenges in their family relationships is that they will create greater understanding and acceptance of one another. Clients will build healthy communication skills that will assist them in resolving current issues, as well as preventing future conflicts from occurring. It is my hope that each family member will develop a willingness to accept the uniqueness of the other members in the family, as well as a willingness to listen and understand one another. Through this process of learning how to come together with openness, each person will be affirmed that he/she matters and has a voice in the family.

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.

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.