Family Counseling Services in Stanton, CA.

ARE YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS IN CONFLICTS OR CRISIS? Counseling helps! I take a unique and effective approach to family therapy- addressing the needs and clarifying the roles of every individual in the system so that everyone knows where they are, where the family is and take the steps they need to a healthier and happier family. Call for a free telephone consult.

I offer family therapy for families who have young children and/or adolescents. This is a speciality! I have three therapists who have different specialtes with family therapy! One is a teen and teen parenting specialists, another specializes in families with young children and another specializes in difficult families, families and trauma and another still with single parent families or blended families (families coming together with other families). I specifically work with families and parents of teens and alterative families (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families - either parents are GLBT or families who have a GLBT child). Call me and one of us will be the perfect match!

Many of our struggles are not just individually focused; they are shaped by and affect the family system around us. I have a passion for helping family relationships heal in places where they are broken, and thrive in places that are stagnant. I especially love journeying with parents and their children, strengthening bonds and decreasing family conflict. My training has predominantly been in family psychology, and I love to watch families transform together -- as individuals and as whole units.

Often times we don't realize the impact our birth families have on how we function on a day to day basis and the difficulties we face. Take this opportunity to explore the dynamics of your childhood, learn how your relationships with immediate and extended family members has impacted your approach to current relationships, work, changes in life and potential stressors.

When I work with families, a large focus of the work is learning to communicate with each other. It is also learning to hold space for one another and heal attachment wounds. My space is nonblaming and nonjudgemental. I am always aware of the power dynamics in the room. When I work with minors, I like to involve family members. That can be a caregiver or other family members.

When our relationship becomes unhappy, it always affects and impacts the entire family. Working with couples to improve the relationship is important but we cannot overlook the impact to the family. In family therapy we explore problems that have negatively impacted the family from wherever it has come. We will help each member of the family to understand what is happening, how it has impacted them and explore methods of adjustment and remediation. We will identify problems and work to resolve them.

Families are the places where we should find the love and support to face the world and all its challenges. However, sometimes families loose their way due to poor communication and misunderstandings , anger, acting out behaviors, hurt feelings and lack of knowledge. Maya Angelou has said: "People do what they know; when they know better, they do better." My plan for families is to help them know better so they can do better. Where there is loving-kindness and a will to make change the future seems brighter.

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.

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.

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.

My approach to treating families begins by understanding & observing how the family functions as a unit rather than focus on individual problems which arise when this is not occurring. Families face more challenges than ever before in this fast-paced world which praises achievement and success over unity. I am passionate about families and consider it a privilege to work alongside them.

All families develop their own unique 'dance' that is hard to discern when you are a participant. The dance steps started in our own family of origin and get recreated in our current families. Often there is an 'identified patient' that acts out what isn't processed within the family system. By entering the family system as a professional attuned to what healthy dynamics look like, I can help transform a limping, depleting family system into one that has vitality and encourages each family member to thrive and grow.

Family therapy sessions aim to strengthen all members of the family so they can work out problems together. Often, if one family member is identified as having an illness, the cause can be traced back to a larger family problem. If the person with the illness is treated while the rest of the family does not change, then the symptoms will persist. Family therapy breaks these cycles by teaching everyone to better interact with one another.