Family Counselling Services in Burlington, ON.

Family therapy often benefits from a client-centered approach. Throughout our sessions, we will focus on communication and the openness to share one’s feelings honestly. Using exercises, we will work on improving communication, listening skills and emotional honesty. The use of behavior therapy may also be incorporated where we seek to recognize and change destructive behavior patterns. Use of these approaches encourages families to engage in healthy communication styles and break habitual cycles of unhealthy behaviors.

My approach is systemic, meaning I will look at the ways the family is functioning as a whole to gather potential insights and ideas for gently helping the family imagine a different way of being together. I believe family environments are fundamental learning grounds for building attachment and love. I deeply value your own expertise and insight on the ways your family has already come to know how to best love and support each other. My aim is to help you explore the boundaries, frameworks, and patterns that get you closer to where you hope to be as a family. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit.

Within each family are the experiences of each family member. In family therapy, you, and your family can explore how each member’s roles and perspectives impact the family as a whole. You can learn to cultivate a family environment grounded in respect for individual experiences, sense of connection and shared understanding. I work with individuals, couples and families. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit for therapy.

Are you a parent challenged by the illness of a child? Do you feel exhausted & sad at times? Has your partnership or marriage become strained? Is your family unit having trouble staying positive and enjoying one another due to stress and anxiety? I can help you develop coping strategies, restore balance, and manage the day to day challenges using brief solution focused therapy.

Family therapy is in many ways the most difficult of all therapy’s simply because you have the issues of not just one person but also all involved. There is a multiplication factor equal to the number within the family plus the dynamic of how the family organizes itself around communication, conflict, and intimacy and supports it. All successful families do two things extremely well . . . create a sense of belonging and allow for the freedom to be an individual. When I work with families I bring over twenty five years of experience to every session. Almost 100% of us across the nation . . . when asked what is the most important thing in our life, will answer ‘family’!

Conflict and other issues often challenge the integrity of the family. Poor communication can be one of the main contributors. Many families give up unnecessarily, leaving minimal or even no contact between family members. Family therapy can help individuals understand the root of the dysfunction and open respectful lines of communication presenting the potential for healthy family relationships. Learning to let go of the past, healthy communication and conflict resolution can often lay the foundation to build a solid future of healthy relationships.

Sometimes the difficulties occurring in a family are systemic - which means that there is not really a 'problem person' but a family interaction malfunction. In family counselling, it is understood that everyone in the family impacts and affects everyone else and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is also understood that the way to 'fix' a family problem is not by simply changing specific behaviours, but by changing the structure of the family. This can be a very important process for the many different types of families that we have in our society.

A common problem that I see when helping families is that parents struggle to get their kids to finish tasks, stay organized, and cannot motivate them to do, well, anything. “Unless it’s YouTube or a video game they’re just not interested and I don’t want them always depend on me for everything.” There are a number of tools and methodologies that can help with these problems. It does take time and commitment; however, with the right support and guidance easier, friction-free, happier days are very possible.

Familial units can oftentimes become caught in cycles of miscommunication and misinterpretation that builds up and solidifies through the years. My approach to working with families is identifying such cycles and unearthing and understanding each member’s intentions. I believe that more often than not, family members have good intentions, and when this is brought to light, defenses can soften, and the healing process can ensue. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to ensure we are a good fit.

I am a firm believer that nothing impacts our spiritual and emotional well-being or happiness more than the quality of our closest relationships. There are countless complicating factors that impact families, it may be blending families, parenting differences, ex-spouses or in-law problems, financial stress and health problems, to name a few. Family therapy addresses the psychological and emotional problems hurting families. Interventions are customized to the requirements, needs and directions of clients. The goal is to empower the family to function in a way that better meets the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of each member and the family system as a whole.

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.