Family Counseling Services in Brea, CA.

When our relationship becomes unhappy, it always affects and impacts the entire family. Working with couples to improve the relationship is important but we cannot overlook the impact to the family. In family therapy we explore problems that have negatively impacted the family from wherever it has come. We will help each member of the family to understand what is happening, how it has impacted them and explore methods of adjustment and remediation. We will identify problems and work to resolve them.

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.

When communication inside a family breaks down, people slip into fixed roles and stop saying what they truly feel, often to keep the peace. Over time that silence breeds distance and resentment. In our work, we slow things down so each member can actually be understood, while paying attention to the deeper currents underneath the friction — the unspoken expectations, old hurts, and recurring scripts that drive conflict on every side. As those come to light, family members begin to hear one another differently, and situations that felt stuck start to move. I hold space for everyone fairly, without judgment. I'm confident we can rebuild trust and care in your family.

I am an expert in Family Therapy based in the Satir model. Working with the whole family can have a dramatic positive impact on everyone involved. The problem is often not the problem. It is how you cope the problem that is the real issue. I can help your family work together to change the how you cope, as a family, with difficult situations and problems and bring peace to the household.

Sometimes we feel as though the people that love us most don't listen to us or understand us. Family therapy is a way to be heard and ultimately understood. The approach that I take is to ensure that all members are being respectful of one another and not only listening to the other person but truly hearing them. The benefits of working together as a family is better communication, stronger feelings of closeness, and increased respect and support between loved ones.

Many times families need help to deal with struggles between them, or to get through difficult circumstances. Each relationship within a family is different from all others, and may need specific opportunities to express thoughts and feelings. Supportive and encouraging therapy may be just what is needed to remove blocks between family members so that the love can flow again. I often work with parent-adult child pairs or siblings, to clear up old misunderstandings, find ways to share more deeply, and strengthen family connections.

Who doesn’t sometimes experience family problems? Family therapy effectively addresses issues that arise as a family grows and changes. Whether it’s balancing work and school demands, finding quality time, solving problems, setting boundaries, or blending a family, I help families develop the tools and techniques that will create a positive and healthy home environment. I help families handle challenges great and small, with humor, insight, and caring. With adult children and having been married for more than thirty years, I bring both professional and personal experience, which creates a unique caring environment. I can be contacted at 949.370.4726 or at info@southoccounseling.com.

My approach to treating families begins by understanding & observing how the family functions as a unit rather than focus on individual problems which arise when this is not occurring. Families face more challenges than ever before in this fast-paced world which praises achievement and success over unity. I am passionate about families and consider it a privilege to work alongside them.

Each person in a family has a voice and each person in a family has an impact. I am careful to make certain that the family looks at all the members and how they all interact as a family unit. It is important that each member is respected. We look at how the family is not in a state of health due to choices that the family is making. We work together toward connection, understanding, and growth for all memebers. Unhealthy alliances and interactions are acknowledged.

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.

I offer family therapy for families who have young children and/or adolescents. This is a speciality! I have three therapists who have different specialtes with family therapy! One is a teen and teen parenting specialists, another specializes in families with young children and another specializes in difficult families, families and trauma and another still with single parent families or blended families (families coming together with other families). I specifically work with families and parents of teens and alterative families (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families - either parents are GLBT or families who have a GLBT child). Call me and one of us will be the perfect match!

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)

I offer a balanced approach which gives a voice to each member of your family unit. Validating individual concerns while promoting inter-familial harmony is my specialty when it comes to counseling troubled families. I will teach you and your family how to communicate in productive ways, how to set healthy boundaries with one another and how to respect your differences in an atmosphere of love and understanding.

Often times we don't realize the impact our birth families have on how we function on a day to day basis and the difficulties we face. Take this opportunity to explore the dynamics of your childhood, learn how your relationships with immediate and extended family members has impacted your approach to current relationships, work, changes in life and potential stressors.

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.

When I work with the family, the approach is often related to understanding the quality of parenting and the quality of attachment to the children. I will help each family member understand their role within the family responsibilities. We will discuss and identify those roles, and the expectations. We will develop ways for you to better cope and manage painful situations. We will work together to improve communication during difficult times. We will work at redirecting negative thinking in a positive direction.

As someone trained in family therapy, I see each family member as part of a team. Sometimes, one member is in pain and acting out. The whole family will then feel the effect. I love my work with families to help them get unstuck and see the growth. For the children / teens, family counseling can help sort through the acting out (or acting in sometimes) and help them more appropriately express their needs and wants. I can help!

Family relationships can be the most beautiful and the most frustration relationships in our lives. My approach to family therapy includes the whole family as a system. We will identify roles in the family, creatively problem solve family issues and build positive communication skills between family members to facilitate honesty, compassion love and togetherness.

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.

In today’s culture, having children derived from more than one relationship is common. Divorce and remarriage can lead to a complex view of what is family. With these complexities come pressure, confusion, frustration, anxiety, and depression. These emotions can be experienced by any part of the family; the children, the father(s), or the mother(s) or even with extended family like the grandparents. Often these emotions are advanced as the lines of connection and boundaries are blurred or misunderstood. Counseling can help you to discover the importance of boundaries, understand the need for healthy relationships, and find balance.

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 use a family systems approach in my therapy, so having family members in the room, in my opinion, is the most efficient route towards healing and growth in individuals. I encourage clients to address relationships that are causing distress in their lives and work towards healthy differentiation of self. This can be done in individual therapy as well, but is more effective when all members of the relationship are present.

Looking for Family Therapy? Are you wanting to improve your relationships in your family? Family therapy is often a great support to someone who is being seen in individual therapy. I help families become emotionally connected. I am passionate about empowering family members understand each other, feel heard and respected, improve communication, work through conflicts, and learn new, positive coping skills. My goal in family therapy is to help family members to create a shared vision and great relationships. Call, click or text (949)791-7127 or (310)729-7971 for a free 20 minute phone consultation.

I use a family systems approach when working with families. I work with families in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It is suggested that individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family, as the family is an emotional unit. By working with families we can see patterns that are sometimes dysfunctional. Families who are able to see their dysfunction are able to make the changes that bring about healthy relationships within their unit.