Family Counseling Services in San Diego, CA.

Family therapy is a wonderful modality to assist families in improving communication, interaction, respect, support or addressing a concern that is impacting the family unit. Family therapy can increase understanding and assist family members in functioning at their optimal level and achieving their individual and family goals. Family therapy can help members and families attain healing needed to process difficult situations and trauma by improving communication, structure and boundaries.

Family therapy is usually the treatment of choice when there are parent/child conflicts. Such conflicts can come about due to many different causes: a highly conflictual divorce that involves children; a newly constituted blended family; adolescent behavior problems; failure to launch issues; inter-generational issues; and many others. My approach in all of these matters is to work to bring the conflicting parties together based on mutual empathy, forgiveness, and effective problem solving. I have helped many hundreds of families over the course of my career and have learned that each family situation is unique and must be approached on this basis.

So the kids are failing school? Your teenager is hostile and defiant? Or is depression undermining your children's success? Whatever the issue, we can identify your family strengths and weaknesses, and make adjustments that will allow your child or teenager to recover and thrive. There is no reason at all to accept failure. My approach firmly establishes parents as "Queen and King of The Castle", lovingly and resolutely leading the Kingdom. Your kids will LOVE YOU for it. And yes, you deserve that love!

I practice EFFT - Emotionally Focused Family Therapy whose goal is to help families in their relationships to become stronger and safer. We all have conflict from time to time with those we love. What matters most is to be able to have healthy repair with each other to heal and forgive and move forward in healthy, loving, lasting relationships with those who mean the most.

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.

At Relate Therapy Center, we help families that are struggling. Whether it's an unresolved conflict that has been too difficult to talk about, or a difference in parenting styles, or an unexpected loss or crisis. We can help! Meeting with a therapist can provide the support and direction that families need to help resolve difficult and complex conflicts.

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.

Families may be a source of security or conflict, love or strong dislike ( I did not want to say hate, although many a teenager has said the dreaded words "I hate you!) Many times families are able to work through the struggles and stay connected with each other, sometimes families need a little outside help. I want to improve the familial interaction and nurture change in order to create a safe haven that can endure any storm.

When I work with families, together we look for patterns and cycles that the family seems to be repeating but are creating problems for the family. When there is stress in the family, emotions tend to be very strong, so it can be difficult to think through each person's part in the family that may be keeping the system from changing. In family therapy we work at lowering the anxiety so that we can collaborate together for positive solutions.

Each stage of a family's life cycle presents new and unique challenges. Interaction patterns that were functional in earlier stages may no longer be effective. Coping with challenges and negotiating new boundaries and ways of relating can be difficult and problems can appear overwhelming. I assist families in developing manageable solutions, maintaining connections, and re-establishing an environment of mutual love and support. Don’t live with the pain and fear of family conflict any longer. Contact me so we can get your family the support you need.