Family Counseling Services in Moraga, CA.

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.

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.

Healthy communication is the foundation for any strong relationship, building trust and supportive boundaries in the process. Sometimes, communication in a familial context becomes fractured-simply because of our busy lives and schedules or because of a major event like divorce. No matter what brings a family system into my office, I am excited to begin helping everyone involved begin to really listen to one another, hear one another, and find a way to understand and support one another without feeling their own needs threatened or unmet.

Are you feeling stuck? When you’re depressed, anxious or overwhelmed, it feels that life is always difficult. Taking the time to work through challenges in therapy improve your life in ways you never imagined. I am a therapist who helps clients manage anxiety and break through depression. My style is warm and nonjudgmental, and I work collaboratively with a wide range of clients. I especially enjoy working with parents, and I have a great deal of experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. Using insight-oriented psychotherapy and mindfulness techniques, I will help you find a way to stop feeling stuck and move forward.

Family therapy looks at individuals in the context of family. A person does not develop in a vacuum. Family dynamics, roles and messages greatly impact adult and child behaviors. In talk therapy we may look at your history and attachment patterns in your family of origin and/or your current family. Allowing time and space to talk about these issues allows emotion to flow through you instead of causing blocks and dysfunction.

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 help families work through their struggles, differences, and patterns by getting each member to focus on how the struggles, fights, and cycles happen. I help families tune into their patterns while exploring the collective and individual meaning behind those patterns. I start by getting a general feel for the dynamic by observing how you function. Then I try to guide discussion in very simple and concrete ways so that each member can see how they are interacting with the larger dynamic. This allows opportunity for a new perspective while creating the space for change and growth. I will work with you in discovering how you and your family affect each other so that you can grow together.

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.

Matt Lindgren offers family therapy in Oakland to help adults & children adjust to deaths, births, child behavioral problems, & attachment problems, & childhood trauma. Why not use therapy to build & strengthen your relationships with family and friends? Have someone help you move past stumbling blocks & old resentments and pain toward healthy relationship of love and respect. Can you think of a better way to invest your time & money than to grow closer to the people you love? I practice systems theory, a scientific theory that describes how complex systems, like ecosystems function. Systems theory focuses on how families find balance between resisting change and adapting to new information.

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.

Family therapy is a process that targets relationships between and among members of an immediate or extended family. I recommend that families pursue therapy when a family member experiences problems which upsets family dynamics. This includes, but is not limited to, illness of a family member, a separation or divorce, a child experiencing problems that impact the family and the challenges inherent in blending families. My purpose is to help each family member learn to interact more effectively and handle conflicts within the family both positively and constructively. I work with both the adults and children in the family as they work together to function successfully as a family unit.

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 therapy looks at the entire family system—parents, children, extended family members—to identify strengths and problematic behaviours. I collaborate with families on strategies for utilizing their own capabilities for resolving problems, and on developing effective communication and problem-solving skills for preventing conflicts. I specialize in working with families of teenagers, which is an age that can be challenging for both the teenagers and their parents.