Family Counseling Services in Torrance, CA.

Abby offers family therapy to support healthier communication, stronger relationships, and greater understanding among family members. Using a collaborative, trauma-informed approach, she helps families navigate conflict, life transitions, and emotional challenges in a safe, structured environment. Her work focuses on repairing connection, enhancing empathy, and building practical tools for managing stress and improving dynamics. Whether addressing parenting struggles, sibling conflict, or intergenerational patterns, Abby guides families toward more cohesive and supportive relationships.

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.

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.

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.

I work closely with families throughout my treatment to focus on understanding the family as a system and each member as having a unique role. Working together we can often uncover unmet needs and ways in which we can support one another towards our mutual goals. Further, by working with the family as a whole, we are able to acknowledge each of our role in the identified barrier and take ownership in our plan towards a solution.

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.

A family is like a living organism. When one part of the organism is off, the rest of the organism is affected. Sometimes, the relationships among family members need to be addressed, and communication needs to be restored. Stress on families today is hard and too much is put on parents. Having an outside person can help. I will make sure that everyone is heard and restore fun, connectedness and peace with your family.

I specialize in helping families find harmony within the home. I have extensive experience working with individuals, couples, families, and children of all ages. Whether you are dealing with a family conflict, a difficult transition, or a new challenge, I am here to help. My practice focuses on providing a safe and supportive environment for all family members. I will work with you to identify the underlying causes of the conflict and develop strategies for improving family relationships. I believe that all family dynamics are unique and strive to provide each family with the attention and care they need.

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.

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.

My approach in family therapy is to focus on the problem or set of problems, not to assign blame to a person or the family as a whole. In family therapy, we will hear how problems affect everyone. There is not always a "solution," but more often than not there are untapped resources that a family can call upon to help reduce a problem's influence on each person's life.

A family is a unit composed of several individuals, that form its dynamic, communication style, interaction, needs and desires, and sometimes these ‘clash’ or do not go hand in hand or in great harmony, to say the least! When working with families it is important to know that each person and each family is unique and has its own style, challenges and differences in character and personality. Our primary aim will be to explore, with each of you, as well as together, the concerns and challenges and guide you to create a more harmonious and balanced family relationships.

I use a family systems approach when working with families. I work with families in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It is suggested that individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family, as the family is an emotional unit. By working with families we can see patterns that are sometimes dysfunctional. Families who are able to see their dysfunction are able to make the changes that bring about healthy relationships within their unit.

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.

A family is not just a collection of people. Everyone in the family impacts the family dynamic, how the people relate to each other. And, each person changes that dynamic, in a unique way, even when they may not intend to. If you’re having difficulties in your family, we can address how the family’s rules of relating and the patterns of relationships can help to make things better. We’ll also see how unproductive patterns can be eliminated.

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.

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.

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.

I am a Los Angeles Therapist specialized in parent coaching to help you and your family have a more intimate relationship. When I work with kids, I always work with the parents, because anything that goes from you to your child is more meaningful than anything that goes from me to your child as you have the permanent relationship. If I can empower you through my knowledge and experience to implement some strategies at home, you can achieve your goals for your family. In Los Angeles CA, parent coaching helps parents and children address behavioral and relational issues like ADHD, ODD, and technology addiction. Call me for a free 15 minute consultation about your needs.

I am an expert in Family Therapy based in the Satir model. Working with the whole family can have a dramatic positive impact on everyone involved. The problem is often not the problem. It is how you cope the problem that is the real issue. I can help your family work together to change the how you cope, as a family, with difficult situations and problems and bring peace to the household.

Is your family struggling to connect or navigate challenges? Family therapy sessions provide a safe space for open communication and exploration of family dynamics. I'll guide your family in identifying unhealthy patterns and developing healthier ways to interact with each other. We'll work together to build stronger communication skills, improve conflict resolution, and foster a more supportive and loving family environment.

Therapy focuses on the patterns of interaction between family members, and emphasizes improved communication and connection as an important factor to create change. Involving various family members in treatment helps to benefit so that everyone has a similar understanding of the issues within the relationships, and expectations of others. The most important factor within those connections is personal accountability so that each member is taking responsibility for any actions they cause to the system, versus being focused on how other members may have hurt them.

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!

Family relationships can be the most beautiful and the most frustration relationships in our lives. My approach to family therapy includes the whole family as a system. We will identify roles in the family, creatively problem solve family issues and build positive communication skills between family members to facilitate honesty, compassion love and togetherness.

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