Family Counseling Services in Farmersville, TX.

Family counseling helps family members gain an understanding of disruptive problems and improve communication skills so as to provide new ways of reaching solutions that lead to greater family harmony. Family counseling also enables the various family members to interact with honesty and acceptance and to lessen family habits that cause pain and unhealthy behaviors. Families often come for counseling when they have difficulty resolving an issue, when there is tension in one or more relationships, or perhaps when they are struggling with a particular life transition (birth, death, marriage, divorce, relocation, retirement). Parenting and step-parenting are a common focus of counseling as well

Having a healthy family with fulfilling relationships is very possible. Its normal to argue and fight with your family members but having a unified family full of meaningful connection is very possible. Relationships are difficult and require a lot of work. Every family is unique and once you are aware of what your family's patterns and dynamics are you can become a strong, healthy, fully connected unit.

Family Therapy is an important aspect of my practice as I strive to help families stay together, maintain a happy atmosphere for children and teens, and loving parental relationships as a foundation for the home. Much of my approach to family counseling is focused on healthy communication techniques that allow for different perspectives while still maintaining respect for each family member. Oftentimes this is important for adolescents as they start to want more independence and privacy. A mediator in the room could be the missing link for your family to connect in a positive manner.

I provide counseling to families when an issue is affecting multiple family members. The advantage is that everyone involved gains understanding of the problem and the feelings of other family members. In turn, that enables the family to work together to resolve problems more quickly than if each family member had individual therapy sessions. I recognize that families have busy schedules so I offer after school and evening appointments.

Family therapy...sounds like it could be a greatly humorous scene from a well made blockbuster movie. But, family therapy in real life to most would sound like a real live nightmare! Akward, and uncomfortable maybe...But family therapy can be one of the most healing processes a family can experience. Family therapy can also be the most effective way of treating a dysfuntional system as a whole versus treating individual people with individual symptoms. As a family systems theorist, Harmony believes that for the system to be its healthiest, it would make the most sense to treat the whole family!

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.

Families who come in for counseling as a family are given a chance to work through issues in a safe environment-- where trust, respect, and honor are learned, given, and received--because the family is intentional about learning new strategies. Families learn that it is counterproductive to have an "identified patient" in the family, where one family member is "tagged" to be the only one acting out and causing family distress. Biblical and Family Systems principles may be applied to have the whole family become engaged in the positive change and nurturing process.

My approach to family therapy is to help families find tools that will help improve communication and resolve conflicts. In my therapy sessions I help families become aware of certain roadblocks to good communication and guide them in removing these obstacles. By teaching parents positive behavioral supports, conflict resolution skills, and coping tools, family dynamics are likely to improve helping the family grow together in a positive direction.

Most family therapists inadvertently create more chaos through their well-intentioned efforts to assist a family move through a change process. Why? Brains are inherently deregulated (all of us, may I add) and most talking and dialoguing misses brain-centric problems that need more intensive help. Many times the emotional trauma created by years of solving problems ineffectively can wreak havoc on the brain's parasympathetic nervous system, not ever giving the family a break from flight or fight thinking. Contact us for an innovative neuroscience solution to family dysfunction. Kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or 877-606-6161.

Everyone is a part of a family and family work can be an important component in counseling. Changing the behavior of one member of a family causes significant changes in the entire system. Dr. Jackson has found that working with families often brings about behavior changes in the family much quicker than working solely with the identified client. Her work in school settings with families has utilized Family Systems Theory to affect changes within family dynamics that lead clients to experience a more satisfying and engaging family community.