Family Counseling Services in Mead Valley, CA.

Dr. Laura Adams is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Psychoanalyst in South Orange County CA. Dr. Adams has extensive experience working with couples, individuals and families dealing with communication problelms, anger, teenager issues, blended families, and gay/ lesbian issues. For an appointment please go to www.SouthOCTherapist.com or call Dr. Laura directly at (949) 244-1992

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.

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.

Family therapy is often the treatment of choice for families who are confronted with specific crisis situations, (such as death, divorce, illness, or child/adolescent issues). When the family is the client, I assess the way members interact and work to improve communication and problem-solving skills, as well as resolve the current life stressors. Each family member plays a role in the way the family interacts and is seen as a vital participant in both the healthy and dysfunctional styles of interaction. Therefore, in family counseling the goal is to assist each member to work together more effectively to create a more functional family unit.

It has been said that " people do what they know how to do, and when it doesn't work, they do more of it." If your family is "stuck" in repetitive negative and unhealthy patterns, I will work with you to identify these patterns and help you move forward as a family toward positive and more loving ways of living with each other. Family systems and developmental theories about life-cycle stages guide my work with families. These approaches are also appropriate for families making post-divorce adjustments and especially for launching adolescents.

I use Emotionally Focused Family Therapy to help with the underlying negative cycles that lead to major communication disconnections between family members, such as mothers/ daughters. Sometimes families find themselves at an impasse and need a third objective party to help problem-solve. I work to help families bridge these impasses by bringing involved parties together and looking for common goals/strengths, what is currently working, what needs to change, and then helping the family to talk together to find resolution.

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.

Exploring Family Therapy and the options and benefits it can bring to your family is important. Family is a unit, and when there is a problem, there can be a need to go through therapy to discuss ways to solve the problem and to improve the way in which the unit works and functions. This can often times be a mode to help improve communication and to make intentions and actions clear for one another. Using solution-focused techniques in family therapy helps us accomplish goals and objectives set for all members of the family and help us use our strengths for the advantage of the family as a unit.