Family Counseling Services in South Gate, CA.

Each person in a family has a voice and each person in a family has an impact. I am careful to make certain that the family looks at all the members and how they all interact as a family unit. It is important that each member is respected. We look at how the family is not in a state of health due to choices that the family is making. We work together toward connection, understanding, and growth for all memebers. Unhealthy alliances and interactions are acknowledged.

As a family therapist, I facilitate fair discussions, offer suggestions for changes, teach communication skills and new ways of coping. This helps with understanding each other and finding solutions. I look at the whole family to see whether certain patterns or traits were learned from the previous generation without realizing that some of them may have been ineffective or harmful, even though they seemed familiar and "normal.” Since parents are the heads of the family, they need to work together, not against each other. It's important to make sure that boundaries between the family members are clear, visible, and consistent. This all can improve your family life considerably.

Every family has some sort of dysfunction since individuals are not perfect. I have worked for over ten years with youth and their families. I believe family therapy is essential when working with youth since children and adolescents have limited insight and need structure, guidance, and discipline from parents/caregivers. I begin the initial session meeting with the parents/caregivers to identify and discuss problems and confidentiality. I then meet with the youth/children with the parents to work on agreed treatment goals. The ultimate goal of family therapy is to increase open and respectful communication and improve parent/child relationships.

Families are complicated machines. There are many parts, all of which must work in unison and balance with one another. When this balance is disrupted because one or more family members are having an issue or a hard time, the entire machine (family) stops functioning optimally. Like any machine would, your family may need a "tune up" at that time. You must relearn how to function at your best.

Family Therapy is essential when a family is unbalanced and in need of guidance on how to become a family unit with a healthier structure. Working with a therapist you will be able to validate each family members desires, discuss family goals and improve communication skills to continue using even after therapy ends. Family therapy is not only essential to the family unit but for each individual to be able to feel important and included in family decisions.

When working with children and youth, the therapist cannot ignore the family system in which the child lives. I work with parents in multiple ways to help support youth in treatment, which may include separate parent sessions, co-parenting sessions, systemic family therapy, or Filial Therapy, a play therapy practice that coaches and guides parents in special play sessions with their child to decrease unwanted behaviors, improve relationships and communication, increase the child's emotional vocabulary, and increase the child's self-esteem.

Many times families need help to deal with struggles between them, or to get through difficult circumstances. Each relationship within a family is different from all others, and may need specific opportunities to express thoughts and feelings. Supportive and encouraging therapy may be just what is needed to remove blocks between family members so that the love can flow again. I often work with parent-adult child pairs or siblings, to clear up old misunderstandings, find ways to share more deeply, and strengthen family connections.

In working with families, we will collaborate on addressing the couple's need to be in charge. Family rules and boundaries are sometimes unclear to children. We will work together to communicate your expectations. When acting out, underachievement, conduct problems, defiant or oppositional behaviors present in the children, the the parents need to be on the same page. Your family will learn, insession, preferred communicatin styles; empathic listening, group problem solving skills, tolerance, respect and acceptance of each other. Family members will learn to interact without anger, resentment, sarcasm or disrespect. Parents need to be authoritative without being authoritarian.

I specialize in working with families through a process of designing the family you've always wanted. When each family member is given the opportunity to describe what they need or like that helps them feel valued in family it becomes the beginning of lasting change. I help families design their system in such a way that produces happiness. I will take your family through a 6 step process of design which gives shape to the kind of family you would like to be in.

Sometimes we feel as though the people that love us most don't listen to us or understand us. Family therapy is a way to be heard and ultimately understood. The approach that I take is to ensure that all members are being respectful of one another and not only listening to the other person but truly hearing them. The benefits of working together as a family is better communication, stronger feelings of closeness, and increased respect and support between loved ones.

One of the ways we know who we are, is in the context of our relationships with other people. Of all the relationships that we have, it is the ones with our families that most impact us. Sometimes family members forget how to communicate in loving and supportive ways. Often times there are subjects that are too hard to talk about. Silence is often in the place of healthy discussions. I believe that the home should be the safest place for everyone to express themselves. Let me help your family learn how to keep each other emotionally safe and to get to know each other on a deeper level. Call for an appt. Jeannette York,818.200.9513 I charge a flat rate of $150.00 per session

Family Therapy or Family Counseling is a therapeutic tool to help a family to resolve the many problems that are causing the family to hurt. Sometimes this is just an adjustment to a big life change, such as, a career change, a new baby, a move, a death in the family, launching young adults, or the sad event of the loss of a loved one. This can also involve unhealthy patterns of behavior, addictions, or abuse. With each of these family challenges I utilize a Christian model of counseling to help your family be restored to the healthy loving one you envisioned.

Everyone has a family, even if no two families are identical. Family may mean different things to different people, but there is no denying that the relationships we have shape us as individuals. Some families have healthy traits and some have more toxic traits. In my family work, I aim to help to uncover systems both that are working, and systems that are not working. I also aim to help each member of the family feel heard in asking for their own needs and boundaries to be met, appropriate within the family and cultural context.