Family Counseling Services in Fairview, CA.

One of my main specialities is family counseling. I work with families of all varieties; sisters, fathers, daughters sons, mothers, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or your "family of choice" etc. I also work with business associates. Straight as well as members of the LBGTQ community. I enjoy this work immensely and have helped many families find more closeness, safety, compassion, ease and care for each other. No matter how old and deep the problems are in your relationship, I can help you finally move past these issues for good.

If your family is facing a significant issue or major transition like separation or divorce, family counseling can help you to ensure that no one is overlooked. Every member of the family will be given a voice and I will work with your family in a professional, balanced and non-judgemental way. I will also help you to communicate more effectively with one another.

I provide family therapy for a variety of families including those with young children, teens and young adults. I help by having everyone present in the session to hear each other and to support each family member in being heard and understood. I help each person understand the underlying feelings that are often not seen, but have an impact when they are expressed as frustration or anger. Understanding each other to improve the closeness between family members can help resolve conflicts and provide a sense of safety and security.

The most successful approach in the world today to creating loving and close families, endorsed by the American Psychological Association for couples, is Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and I am here to offer my services as an Emotionally Focused Therapist. With an astounding success rate, EFFT can enrich, stabilize, connect, and support families as they move from disconnect to healthy loving connections. Forget about learning to argue better, blaming, or analyzing your early childhood and instead, get to the core of your needs to feel emotionally connected to those you love by learning how to create a secure and lasting family bond. EFFT works and you deserve to learn more!

Family counseling is often a great way to help support family members working through a wide range of difficulties. Each member of a family is growing and developing at their own pace and in their own way. Often times conflict will arise between members due to insufficient understanding and a lack of proper communication. Family therapy can help clearly identify the conflict and how it is affecting ALL members of the family. It puts the power and responsibility for change on each member. Family therapy provides a compassionate, supportive place for members to hear, feel heard and build stronger, healthier connections.

When one person in the family is hurting the entire family is hurting. I work with stressed families to help them gain greater understanding of their difficulties, including ways to recognize maladaptive behaviors that may be getting in the way of their working together. Using a family systems approach I help the family to heal and move forward with compassion and understanding.

Family therapy is usually called for when families are in transition such as the addition of new family member, launching of a child, or when there is grief & loss or crisis. It is during this times when the family needs to be adaptable, but problems arise when the family fails to adapt to the changes. I will assess the family relational dynamics, challenge them to learn new ways of relating to each other and adapt to the changes. I give each member in therapy a voice to speak and share their needs, wants, and desires. They learn how to communicate and problem solve effectively. I do provide a free consultation, if clients ask me.

Families come to therapy feeling stuck in repetitive patterns of negative interaction. Oftentimes one or more families members feel like they have become the "scapegoat" for the family's problems and are fearful of entering therapy, concerned that doing so will only further cement that role for them. My approach to family therapy helps avoid that dynamic by not taking sides, but rather giving all members an equal voice, and helping each person feel respected and heard. At the same time, I understand that a parent's role is different than a child's, and I work to empower parents to have more "healthy authority" with their children. I am trained in Multi-dimensional Family Therapy (MDFT).

Family therapy can be highly effective for conflict resolution, healing relationships, and making clear agreements that work for everyone. Many families feel more connected during, as well as after, effective counseling. Family therapy is a safe place for each family member to express their views and experience without judgement. It is important to discuss the issues that "nobody talks about" and this enables each family member to be more authentic within their family as well as in other relationships (i.e., work, school, etc.).

Issues arise in a family for a multitude of reasons, both big and small. In individual or marriage/couples counseling, the individual or parental unit learns skills to apply in their everyday life, including at home. In family therapy, I will work with your family and your values to help you resolve issues in a collaborative, effective and structured manner. I will work with you and your family in developing communication skills that allow each member of the family to express his/her needs in an open and honest way. Because we work within your family's value-system, the family unit learns and develops these skills together, knowing their thoughts and needs were acknowledged and respected

I particularly enjoy working with pairs within a family system—a mother and daughter for instance or siblings. Family members who are longing to be closer to each other and having trouble doing it, or wanting to better communicate. This isn't about trying to fix another person or convince them of our views. In therapy, getting to deeper levels of empathy and understanding with the people closest to us can solve a lot of issues on its own, building respect and tolerance for differences, and a gratifying sense of connection. It takes courage, effort, and the willingness to lay down our swords and shields, but it is worth it.

Family life if complicated. Not only do we bring our own baggage to the relationship but all of the other family members bring theirs too. Many of the issues that come up are communications issues and many are due to our nervous systems being either on hyper alert or shut down from past traumas and an overaccumulation of daily strresses. Working as a team we build on the strengths of the couple/family and we also tease apart the less functional areas to understand them more fully. Then we devise a plan for working with the issues. That might involve working as a couple/family or it might involve individual session to resolve whatever issues we each bring into our relationships.

Family counseling is designed to strengthen the bonds within the relationship. Many times families will be struggling with day-to-day living (small problems will start to add up to larger problems). We tend to fall into ruts of the way we do things and sometimes that creates resentments and conflict that are not communicated in a way that helps others within the family to understand your concerns. By bringing everyone together. we can work on communication, division of labor, finances, and other issues that may be making home life not the sanctuary that we all want our homes to be.