Families exert a powerful impact on our lives. When families get stuck everyone is affected. When they are working well they are a deep source of support. Family therapists work with relationships and with the patterns of interaction in families, the ways that family members deal with each other. Generally sessions are with the whole family together, though a particular session might just involve a piece of the family, for example a husband and wife, or a father and son.

The most common reasons people seek out family therapy are to deal with relationship issues or problems with children and adolescents. Families can also come when an individual issue affects the whole family, for example a family member develops a serious illness or has a drinking problem. Some serious issues in families, such as divorce, substance abuse, or domestic violence, can continue to impact on family members and need attention long after the event or behavior has ended.

Families may  come to therapy to deal with the issues of divorce and remarriage, step parenting and blended families. They may come to deal with issues involving adult siblings, or adult children and parents.

Family therapists work with married and unmarried couples who are having difficulties. They may be fighting a lot or feel that they aren't communicating well. Some couples come when they are thinking about getting married, others on the brink of divorce. People may feel that their marriage has lost its spark or they may have conflicts that can erupt into violence. Though we don't often think this way, couples therapy can also be a useful way of treating individual problems. Research has shown, for example, that couples therapy can be an effective treatment for depression.

People often come to see family therapists because of problems with their children. They may be concerned about their relationship with their children- a child who doesn't do what they ask him to, or a teenager they find hard to communicate with They also come to deal with the whole range of problems that children and teenagers have: A child who is having problems at school, or not going to school; A teenager who is depressed, or drinking, or cutting themselves. Their child may have been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder, or ADHD. Parents can feel overwhelmed and without the skills to deal with their children's problems and hope that sending their child to a therapist will provide a solution. In fact, families have more strengths than they are aware of, and, as a family therapist, I have found that working with the whole family is quicker and more effective than working with a child individually.

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