Family Counselling Services in Aylmer, ON.

I am a Family therapist with experience in a children's mental health setting. I do parental coaching, helping parents find effective strategies, and I help blended families find a way to integrate those big changes smoothly. I will help you understand each other, we will identify the behavioural patterns that no longer work for you and develop new strategies for effective communication.

Each family has its own unique personality that impacts the functioning of its members. I am trained in a variety of therapeutic models and the approach I take will be catered to your family dynamics and the special challenges that brought you here today. When working with the family, I help improve their ability communicate openly to challenging issues and work through ups and downs in their relationships.

Do you find that your relationships with your adult children are strained, and you struggle to form relationships with your grandchildren? Do you wish you could rely on your parents as an adult but find they have difficulty respecting your boundaries? Family therapy can help you understand one another better and help you learn to communicate so that everyone feels respected and understood.

Imagine a family as a tree with branches, roots, trunk representing parts of the immediate and extended family. When working with families, all elements are considered. Usually there is a request for family therapy due to one of it's members in crisis, often a child. However, when an analysis of need is done it becomes apparent that more than one member of the family needs help in adjusting, growing and learning new behaviours. Clients contact me for a variety of reasons: to improve communications, solve family problems, support in special situations such as death, divorce, marriage, illness, child or adolescent issues.

I would use the Systems Theory and Narrative approach to help families communicate what they view as the concerns within their family. Also using Middle Path, from DBT, as an approach to bridge the dialectical views between the individuals in the family which is causing conflict. Validating the different perspectives as individuals and looking for the kernal of truth, allows them to see the bigger picture through the lens of other members within the family.

Family dynamics are complicated. Each family has established patterns, such as how everyone communicates within the family system, how they deal with stressful situations and conflict, their roles in the family unit and how members seek support from one another. While I do not offer family therapy sessions, my clinic, Psychotherapy Collective has many child and family therapists availability to schedule a free 15-minute consultation to ensure they are the proper fit for your journey. Visit our family therapy page to find a therapist https://www.psychotherapycollective.ca/services/child-and-family-therapy

I believe that families should be a place where love, respect, value, care, support and encouragement are received consistently. Where children honour and obey their parents and parents are considerate and understanding towards their children as they strategically and intentionally raise their children. Through counseling, I can help to develop healthy relationships between family members in general and between parents and children specifically. It is possible to have a healthy and happy family.

The ‘secret’ to successful help for distressed families is clear-eyed application of what we commonly know: although linked by blood, generations and/or commitment alone, we are much more different from one another than alike. But it can be very hard to appreciate some differences at such close range. Like when our child, partner, parent, sibling, or combinations (and with moods/ other changes, do we ever stay the same?) seem out to hurt instead of love or even like us. Some differences make that hard to attain, even impossible. Yet making sense and discovering how to ‘navigate’ these complex primary relationships is essential to our wellbeing. My experience as family therapist is reliable.

Working on the parent-child relationship and/or sibling relationship can set the foundation for a happier and healthier family. Our therapists have extensive experience in supporting children, youth, adults and their caregivers to learn skills and process emotions that are necessary to feel more connected as a family unit using a variety of different tools and techniques.

Families can experience stress, conflict and fall apart at any stages of the life cycle. Blended families also pose a great deal of stress no matter what the age is of the children involved. I meet with families as a group to explore areas which are causes distress. I offer support to immediate and extended family to regain balanced family ties. Through offering everyone a chance to express themselves and reflect on problems that interfere with family relationships we will work through issues to offer resolutions and peace of mind.

Families go through a lot together. Managing changes and transitions, experiencing illnesses and loss, as well as employment or school issues, divorce or trauma can be challenging to navigate and can lead to disagreements or differences within a family. As a family therapist working with your family, I will support you all in being able to share your experiences as a member of the family, better understand each other’s perspectives and work through difficult feelings in a safe, non-judgmental space to help you meet your goals. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit.

As a family therapist, I witness the transformative power of family therapy every day. It offers a unique opportunity for families to come together in a safe and supportive environment, fostering understanding, communication, and healing. Through therapy, families can address underlying conflicts, improve relationship dynamics, and develop healthier ways of relating to one another. By exploring family patterns, beliefs, and behaviors, we uncover root causes of distress and work collaboratively to implement positive changes. Family therapy empowers individuals to express themselves authentically while promoting empathy and connection among family members.

Gestalt therapy is a systems‐oriented, immediate‐experience‐oriented, and affect‐oriented therapy that is highly effective for families. Unlike other therapies, gestalt regards the client system's emergent processes as the central focus, and it emphasizes that growth occurs as the family and its members are helped to greater self‐awareness and responsibility for their own functioning. Dynamic forces within your family may need some the maintenance. How can a sense of peace and equilibrium be brought back into your home? I am not afraid to work with intense emotional outbreaks. I can help support family unity with strength and care! Develop better ways of communicating with each other!

At Talking Works, we help families gain an understanding of the interactional patterns that keep them stuck in negativity and disconnect and increase awareness of each person’s diverse perspective of the problem. Family therapy helps to improve communication and conflict resolution between family members leading to deeper connections and improved relationships within the family unit.

If you drive with a flat tire the whole system is affected. Your car will not go smoothly nor straight. You use lots of effort trying to get to where you want to go; and the passengers are stressed! The same happens in families. If there is a problem with one or more family members, we tend to point at him/ her/ them. We want to "fix" them. However, I believe there are more than one way to look at the same situation: it is usually a systemic problem. Join the whole family in therapy. In a safe and friendly environment, you can each be heard and seen as you really are, and together arrive at a solution. This can be a very rewarding, educational, FUN and loving experience for all.

Much of family therapy is about uncovering old pain and hurts, often unconsciously inflicted on people. The ability to communicate openly and honestly is a very rare skill in our society and it is even more uncommon amongst families. Because we have either raised or grown up with the people in the family we often assume we understand them and why they say or do the things that they do. The truth is that is rarely the case. I work with families to create a safe space for truth to come out, but in a way where it is nurtured and communicated through me to help with greater understanding and empathy.

Family therapy is a wonderful way to tackle family issues. It usually means learning to communicate differently and more effectively. Each family has its spoken and unspoken family rules. Helping these unspoken rules to become more visible or to revise current ones, can clarify misconceptions and assumptions. Since every family has unique problems, they also have unique solutions as well! Therapy can help a family to "see themselves in a whole new light" and realize they have everything they need to make their lives even better.

Family therapy works because each of us is really also like a small group - with parent, child, sibling aspects (part selves) within us. It’s as if you personally contain an internal family. So when your own actual family is working well, those 'sides' of the family members do learn with each other. But they can also clash... Family (or couple) therapy is about harmonizing these relationships, both in each person as well as within the family group. I have over 35 years of experience in family therapy and see positive change occur even in tough situations. Family members move past simple role routines of who Mom, Dad, son and daughter are Supposed to Be, more aware of how to live in harmony.