Family Counseling Services in Charter Oak, CA.

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.

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.

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.

Family therapy is the treatment of more than one member of a family at the same session, based on the idea that problems going on within the family can best be understood and corrected by observing the interaction of family members and identifying methods for improving their interrelationships. The behaviors of one member of the family affects the emotions, perceptions and behaviors of another member of the family. They are intertwined as something larger than themselves. Together, I will teach you a variety of tools that will help your family's interaction. For example, through reframing, we can often turn a negative experience into a positive one. Call me for a phone consultation to determine when we can meet to discuss your family issues.

As a licensed marriage and family therapist, my education, training, and experience has had an emphasis on the family system. When working with families, a focus on the structure of the family, roles, rules, boundaries, and communication are areas included in our work together. Families of origin, extended families, and blended families can participate in family therapy and I find it beneficial when we can include all involved so everyone has a voice.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Family counseling is helpful with problems setting limits with children, dealing with grief, divorce, loss that can cause behavior problems, school issues, or family problems. Sometimes parents want help with boundaries for teenagers with anger issues, reblelliousness or entitlement problems. In some cases family therapy involves young adults who need support building an indepentent lifestyle and recovery from drugs or alcohol. Family therapy helps you learn how to help without enabling!

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.