Family Counseling

Family counseling helps family members improve communication with each other, reposition roles, rebuild healthy relational boundaries, and enhance the functioning of individuals or the entire family. Family counseling provides a space for family members to share their perspectives on issues and methods for problem-solving. It promotes communication and assists each family member in truly understanding what the others are trying to convey.

Family counseling can alleviate stress among family members, reduce defensiveness, and thus build trust and intimacy within the family. Compared to individual sessions, family discussions bring about more significant and lasting changes, and the core issues can be identified more quickly. When family members participate in sessions together, discussions can progress more rapidly, and plans suitable for the whole family can be designed more effectively.

Benefits of Family Counseling:

Facilitates communication among family members.
Family counseling helps family members understand the impact of generational trauma and provides a safe environment where they can express and process the pain and emotions associated with this trauma.
Family counseling empowers family members to take control of their own lives and make decisions that contribute to their own and their family’s well-being.
Breaks the vicious cycle in family relationships by identifying the sources of stress that trigger it and by enhancing conflict resolution abilities.
Re-establishes and repositions the roles of each family member.
Focuses on problem-solving skills that are effective for the entire family.
Assists children and parents in dealing with issues such as trust, responsibility, and independence, supporting your child’s successful transition from adolescence to adulthood in a healthy and safe environment.
Helps family members recognize each other’s strengths.
Encourages all family members to work together and make collective changes, rather than having just one member learn and practice new skills acquired in counseling.
Creates an inclusive space for your children/family members to change their problematic behaviors.

Emily’s recommendations for “Family Counseling” are as follows:

Most of the time, counseling will be conducted with all family members together, but there will also be sessions where family members may meet separately.
Since counseling involves more than two people at the same time, it is recommended that each session lasts for 80 minutes. This duration helps ensure that every family member has ample time to express their views.
The frequency of the sessions depends on the severity of the family issues. Typically, once a week is common, but due to busy schedules, some clients may opt for bi-weekly sessions.

Emily’s approaches:

Structural Family Therapy: is a type of therapy that focuses on how family members interact with each other. Therapists look at the family as one unit and work to make communication better between family members. They also help the family change the rules about how they function.

Typically, Structural Family Therapy is completed within a timeframe of 6 to 10 weeks.

家庭諮商

家庭諮商幫助家庭成員增進和彼此之間的溝通，重新定位角色、重建健康的關係界限，增進個人或是整個家庭的功能。家庭諮商給家庭成員一個分享他/她對事情的觀點，還有解決問題的方法。促進溝通並且幫助每個家庭成員真正的聽懂彼此想對對方說的話。

家庭諮商可以紓解家人之間的壓力、解除對家人之間的防備，從而建立家人之間的信任與親密關係。相較於只有一個人來晤談，家庭會談所帶來的改變更加顯著與持久，且更快可以找到問題的核心，當家人一同參加晤談，可以更快的討論並且設計出適合全家人的方案。

家庭諮商的好處：

促進家庭成員彼此之間的溝通。
家庭諮商幫助家庭成員了解代際創傷 (generational trauma)的影響，並且提供一個安全的環境，讓家庭成員可以表達和處理與代際創傷相關的痛苦和情緒。
家庭諮商賦予家庭成員力量，讓他們能夠掌控自己的生活，並做出有助於自身和家庭健康的決定。
藉由找出誘發惡性循環的壓力來源，以及藉由增進衝突解決能力，來打破您家庭關係中的惡性循環。
重新建立與定位您家庭各成員的角色。
集中焦點在對您整個家庭有效的問題解決技巧。
幫助孩子和家長處理下列的議題：信任、責任感、自我獨立，協助您的孩子在健康、安全的環境下，成功地從一個『青少年』轉變成一個『成人』。
協助您的家庭成員看見彼此的優點。
鼓勵家庭成員相互合作，共同改變，而不是只有其中一個成員去學習和演練諮商中學習到的新技巧。
建立一個包容的空間，給您的孩子/家人去改變他/她的問題行為。

Emily 給『家庭諮商』的建議：

大多數時間會和家庭成員一起進行諮商，但也會有家庭成員分開會談的時間。
因為同時和兩人以上一起進行諮商，所以建議每次80分鐘為一單位，以幫助每位家庭成員都有足夠時間抒發自己的觀點。
頻率要看家庭議題的嚴重性，一般來說，一週一次，但因為工作繁忙，所以也有當事人選擇兩週進行一次諮商。