Parents worry about their children, The problems of adolescents are often particularly frustrating and frightening for parents. After all, adolescence is not just a period of change for the child. The whole family needs to change long established ways of relating to each other. And, even though it isn't true, teenagers can often act as if the family doesn't matter to them anymore. Parents can respond to a child's difficulties with fear, with anger, and with guilt. They may have strong disagreements about how to respond to their child's problems. They often wonder if they are somehow at fault.

Certainly children and teenagers can act as barometers in families, developing problems when family problems occur. They may develop problems when a parent is depressed or seriously ill, or when their parents are having conflicts with each other, or after a divorce (and in some families the impact of a divorce is still noticeable years after the couple separated). We all know that problems in a family can impact on children (and on adults as well). But families also have a tremendous power to heal.

In difficult situations families can fall into repetitive patterns that don't help and may actually maintain problems. Family therapy helps families to change those patterns and access their strengths. This can have a much stronger impact then therapy with the child alone. After all parents are centrally important to their children, and on a basic level know them and care about them in a way that therapists cannot.