Family Counseling Services in Ojai, CA.

Family conflict can cause a great amount of distress in your life, making it hard to function. I can provide an opportunity for families to sort through their issues in a safe place, with someone who has the training/experience to teach healthy communication skills in order to make progress on resolving the issues the family is facing. My goal is to restore harmony to the family and allow them to thrive and be a source of support and comfort for each other, rather than a source of pain and conflict. It takes courage to change, but if the circumstances have become overwhelming, change is essential for things to improve, and the first step is to be brave enough to reach out for help.

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.

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.

Family therapy can provide a greater understanding of the dynamics of our families. Although there may be one person who is identified as the "problem" or "patient," we have found that exploring dynamics and communication styles can re calibrate the system. It is often the youngest child that brings the greatest clarity to a family session. For us, Including the parents in a child's therapy is a must. Our goal is to improve the harmony of the home.

We need our families. If your family is in danger of disconnecting or falling apart, let's work together to lean toward each other instead of away. No one family member is ever the cause of disfunction. We each must learn our responsibility in the mix. My approach to healing families is to help each member understand how they absorb stress, and explain it to the group in a way that will be heard. Our family is our home base. Let's keep it that way by learning empathy for each other's struggles.