Family Counselling Services in Toronto, ON.

When you stub your toe, your whole body acts to react to the pain. Likewise, when member(s) of the family hurt, the whole family is impacted. Drawing from family systems theory, I work with families to uncover and understand the unspoken emotional chain reactions that take place when the family is stressed, identify unhelpful patterns, and help family members find effective ways to work together as a cohesive unit to accomplish their goals.

I have counseled thousands of parents in the past 35 years. My book "Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice" outlines my philosophy of family life: harmony is of utmost importance to the well-being of every family member. I will show you how you can attain this harmony in your own home as we explore and address the specific issues and challenges that your family faces.

Family therapy is a process for everyone to feel heard, understood and that their needs matter. From the youngest to the eldest all our needs matter. Through a process of growing empathy for each other, we can explore creative ways where everyone can get their needs met and everyone can have space to be themselves. Sometimes we all get confused about what we are really wanting. So often conflict and misunderstandings create isolation in even the most loving families. Our work together is to make the time and space to understand each other and find the way back from conflict to connection.

It is family stability that provides a secure base from which your teenager can venture into the world. No matter which face your teenager wears, they all have in common an enormous underlying anxiety (about their changing bodies, fitting in, achieving, etc). Through parent and teen counselling, we can help save you and your family from even more turmoil. Successful Parenting is about helping develop in our children a sense of self and a sense of belonging.If you are a separated or divorced parent there are many added complications. When your teenagers have two families to be part of their are lots of added stresses for everyone. As a family therapist with 30 years of experience, I can help

Communication.empathy and forgiveness work are a primary focus in family therapy with me. We work with many modalities including Traditional talk therapy: Giving space for the family to explore and express feelings, own awareness’s, transform thoughts, grieve, vent, and neutralize guilt, anger and fear. New understandings and thus new neural pathways and patterns begin to form. This is a profoundly transformational set of tools that can bring families to stronger places of connection and union.

Most of my experience has been in providing family therapy. If you are interested in family therapy, I start by completing a thorough family assessment. For the assessment process, I require that all family members living in the household attend. This will be an opportunity for each family member to express concerns that are unique to them. After hearing everyone's concerns, I make a formulation. My formulation is my hypothesis on what factors may be contributing to your family dynamics. I then offer a treatment goal that is agreed upon by all family members.

Family Therapy can mean one of two things, generally speaking: 1) A client who wishes to process the affect their family (via their childhood or present-day events) has had on them. 2) Multiple members of a family unit (partial or whole) , who wish to -- in a way similar to couples counselling -- work out their problems. I am comfortable working with either scenario, however I do have a limit on the number of people I can fit in my office (4). If I'm working with multiple members of a family, I will often make available the opportunity to work with members individually as well as a whole.

Our families can benefit from family therapy when they experience any stressful event that puts pressure on family relationships, such as financial hardship, family fractures or break ups, or the death of a loved one. Some issues we would focus on in family sessions are improving communication and solving conflicts, exploring ways we can support a family member who is experiencing difficulties, and how to grow stronger moving forward. It can seem like a monumental task. However with hope, optimism and commitment families can get better.

When a family member is struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, the entire family is affected negatively. Communication barriers within families of addicts may cause the addict to withdraw into isolation, leaving their family members feeling frustrated, ashamed, lonely, fearful, depressed, hopeless and angry. The sources of addiction are mental, emotional and psychological in nature, and the addict, as well as their family, need to heal under the care of professionals. At Valiant Recovery, we offer counseling to the families of addicts to help them process the difficult emotions they have confronted, and to create a healthy, supportive environment for the addict to return home to.

We have excellent therapists at our clinic that work with both relationships and couples, and family therapy. Family dynamics can be tricky, and having a skilled therapist who can help you understand those dynamics is key. But understanding is not enough, a key to success in the family is knowing how to live happily with the challenges and create new ways of being a family that bring you closer together and support a peaceful and loving environment. Give us a call for a chat, and lets see if we can help?

Family counselling takes into account all members of the family, because you all affect each other. In addition, blended families have special challenges that stem from two styles and two sets of rules. It's tough to get the balance just right, but it can be done. I also have experience with kids and teens with oppositional defiant disorder. Let me help you improve the functioning of your family. Your long term happiness is at stake.

Working with families requires tact and understanding. Creating change requires intent and determination. a willingness to deepen the understanding of the needs of the individual and the common goals of the family can be an obstacle course which may lead to conflict and misunderstanding. Resolving conflicts (Re-)integrating a family member Creating new harmony through understanding Are you feeling left out? Is your family suffering the behaviours of one (or more) of its members? Is the burden / tasks distribution uneven, or even unfair? Through Strategic Intervention talk and techniques, you will create a greater understanding and harmony within the family you love.

Clients come to see me in my practice in downtown Toronto in order to help them focus on problems and conflicts between family members. In some cases, this includes parent-child conflicts. And in others, this may include conflicts between the adults in home, who may have differing approaches to parenting. Finally, excessive conflicts between siblings may also be a reason for family therapy.