Family Counseling Services in Montclair, NJ.

The family can be the very foundation of support, comfort, and love, but it can also be the greatest source of stress, strain, and sorrow. Our compassionate and experienced family counselors help family members have a closer, stronger, and more rewarding relationship with each other and teach family members how to resolve conflict in a healthy way. Our counselors can assist parents to address the unique needs of children and adolescents with emotional, behavioral, communicative, and learning issues. They will help facilitate much-needed dialogue between feuding family members. The counselors will assess how best to treat the family. Sometimes, counseling will be conducted with the entire family present and sometimes with just the designated child. At...(view profile to read more)

We are part of something larger than ourselves and that is why we tend to encounter difficulties in dealing with simple things in life such as learning how to live together, raising children or coping with adolescence. In Family Therapy, as opposed to Individual Therapy, we explore, understand and address issues family members present at their source. Emotional origins of personal conflicts get exposed throughout roles and dynamics; part of my work with families include to question and re-frame them to mobilize stagnation and create room for new experiences.

My approach to family therapy is to look for the source of the family conflict. After over 37 years of practice, I can usually zero in on what is going on. Sometimes one parent is out of control. Sometimes parents are in conflict over child-rearing practices; one is too permissive and one too strict. Sometimes one child is favored over another. I generally meet with the whole family over a period of time, encouraging honest and constructive communication. Through patient guidance, the problems surface and are worked out.

Each of you has a role being played out in your family - and possibly not the obvious one you imagine. I take a 'structuralist' approach to family therapy - looking at what is taking place between members rather than to individuals. We will explore these events/relationships and work on changing patterns of interaction that on one hand have developed in your family, but on the other are likely continuations of patterns played out before, perhaps for generations. These can change - and it is usually for everyone's benefit.

I work with parents and family members of children with developmental delays. It is hard enough to raise a child in this day and age. The stress and conflict associated with caring for a child with special needs can be devastating and overwhelming if you do not have the support and tools you need. Know that you are not alone. One in five children are diagnosed with ASD and it seems that almost everyone has a family member or friend touched by special needs issues. I am here to help whether it be working through feelings, venting, managing difficult issues or behaviors with your children or navigating the difficult systems that are in place to get them the services they need.

Families are complicated. Each person in a family plays his or her own role, and the way each person behaves when the whole family is together is not necessarily the same as when they are apart. At the Lukin Center, we use emotionally focused therapy to help families understand the complex dynamics among all family members and to help each individual in the group feel heard, supported, and understood.

When a loved one has an addiction or alcohol problem, the whole family suffers. The impact may not be immediately evident, but it is there, festering and creating anger, resentment, insecurity and other emotional and often financial issues. Families often feel beat up by the addict and then beat up by the treatment centers, who offer addict focused education and minimal family treatment. Who is supporting you, the family, when your family weekend is over? You loved one is released from treatment with an aftercare plan. What is your aftercare plan? Living with a newly recovering person doesn’t have to mean walking on eggshells. Compassionate family focused education, coaching and therapy help families heal and create lives worth living.

In working with families and conflicts, I approach it more as an organic facilitation process rather than traditional therapy. Utilizing new human technologies, we come to understand that there is no right or wrong or good and bad. Yet, there are insidious unconscious dynamics that are powerful and can cause blind spots. Our process together will tease apart these dynamics while working on resolving them, thereby uncovering new fields of possibilities.

I focus on specific relationships , rather than the entire family. Like I do in couples work, I would see the two of you both together and individually. I evaluate these cases carefully to make sure that I would be able to be of service to both of you. Usually whatever is going wrong has a long history, and we will unravel that. It may take a bit of time, but can be done if you are willing and patient.

Families are the most important elements of society. We believe that healthy families form great communities. It all starts with the couple. We do intense couples and family therapy. Our relational skill building approach has helped many couples and families to reduce violence, conflict, miscommunication and anger at home. We are the only ones who give you a two-for-one treatment. We provide couples and family treatment along with anger management treatment at not extra cost.

Family can be a wonderful source of strength and love, but the dynamism of so many individuals and their own needs and desires can also create different and new challenges. My goal as a therapist that works with both individuals and couples is to help you understand your family dynamics and needs so that I can provide you with the tools and techniques to thrive within your family life as it is now.

What do you do when your family life is such a struggle…when you’ve read every psychology book, magazine and blog to get answers but the advice is contradictory and usually impractical? If it seems like you don’t know which way to turn, then you’ve come to the right place. Through proven, practical techniques, I can help you work through the stress, anger and conflict that arises from issues that can prevent you from fully enjoying time with your family.

Dr. Vaughan has helped families to enhance connections and heal wounds for 15 years. Working with the entire family or particular members, Dr. Vaughan provides a non-judgmental setting in which individuals can openly express needs and concerns. She helps individuals gain the skills needed to foster understanding by and for other family members. Family therapy with Dr. Vaughan improves family bonds and mutual acceptance among family members, and provides families with the tools needed to sustain meaningful connections.