Individual,
Group and Family Therapy
Individual Therapy
How
do I know if I need psychotherapy?
If you answer 'yes' to any of the following questions, you
could well benefit from therapy:
a.
Have you been feeling down or depressed most of the time
for two weeks?
b. Does your anxiety keep you from living
a full, active and happy life?
c. Are you chronically dissatisfied with
your career, relationships or body?
d. Does your career or your personal relationships
suffer due to your own lack of self-esteem?
e. Does your spouse, child, parents, or boss consistently
make you feel bad about yourself?
f. Do you suffer from mood swings which interfere with
your relationships or career?
g. Do you tend to unintentionally alienate others who
are important to you?
h. Do you feel like a victim of circumstance, without
hope of overcoming your situation?
Group
Therapy
Need
to provide information. Didn't see this topic covered on
either of your sites.
Family Therapy
Q:
What is family therapy?
A.
Family therapy involves two or more members of a family.
Often, the entire family will come in to the therapist's
office together to discuss issues that cause tension or conflict
between family members.
Q. Are their several schools of family therapy?
A. Yes, several. However, many are closely related. I have been trained in
general systems theory as well as interactional family therapy. When I see
families, I generally do not see them as a whole every single time. I usually
work with one member of the family and see the whole family on an as needed
basis when issues arise that demand family cooperation.
Q. What are the benefits of attending therapy as a family?
A. The most obvious benefit is that everyone in the family gets their needs
heard and learns to more effectively interact with the other members. A less
obvious benefit is that the 'identified patient' learns to better understand
the family system and the manner in which their problems are closely connected
with the way this system operates. A typical challenge for the identified patient
is to gradually change his/her role in the system. The challenge for the parents
and siblings is to gracefully allow for this change by learning to function
in a healthier manner themselves.
Q. What kinds of problems are best treated by seeing the family together?
A. Some problems that can be effectively treated using family therapy are:
discipline problems in children, attention problems in multiple family members,
and depression or anxiety that is exacerbated by dysfunctional family dynamics
.
Q. What if my child or spouse is unwilling to participate?
A. Having a spouse who does not want to participate clearly does not bode
well for using family therapy as an approach. In this case, I would need to
work with the child and only those family members who are willing to make a
commitment to attend sessions. I would need to better understand the spouse's
unwillingness to participate in order to decide whether to use this approach
at all. If the child is unwilling to participate, then family therapy is clearly
NOT an option.
Q. Would you ever use family therapy when one of the parents is
the identified patient?
A. Probably not, particularly if there are young children in the family. It
is important for children to understand they are in therapy to 'fix'
a parent. I might
see a patient's children occasionally, but only in order to discuss difficulties
that they are having themselves and, of course, only with my patient's consent.
There are many excellent books and articles on the benefits of this very powerful
form of treatment. One of the most important reasons to try this approach
to treatment is that it takes the stigma off of the identified patient and
helps her/him to see that some of their issues are related to broader family
dynamics that can be altered over time. Whether or not to involve the family
in therapy
is an issue that we would need to discuss in person before a commitment to
use this approach is made.
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