Marriage Family Therapy

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Therapy and Counseling in San Jose

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Family Therapy

Family therapy is a type of psychotherapy that helps families or individuals within a family understand and improve the way family members interact with each other and resolve conflicts. It emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health. As such, family problems have been seen to arise as an emergent property of systemic interactions, rather than to be blamed on individual members.

When doing family counseling, I usually meet several members of the family at the same time. This has the advantage of highlighting the differences in family members perceptions for the therapist and the family. These patterns frequently mirror habitual interaction patterns at home. Therapy interventions usually focus on relationship patterns rather than on analyzing impulses of the unconscious mind as individual therapy would do.

Family counseling is really a way of thinking, an epistemology rather than about how many people sit in the room with the therapist. Family therapy is often relational therapy, focusing on what goes between people rather than in people.

Depending on circumstances, I may point out to the family interaction patterns that the family might have not noticed; or suggest different ways of responding to other family members. These changes in the way of responding may then trigger repercussions in the whole system, leading to a more satisfactory system state.

Your family can be your greatest source of support, comfort and love. But it can also be your greatest source of pain and grief. A health crisis, work problems or teenage rebellion may threaten to tear your family apart. Families can be torn apart by illness, divorce or other problems that create conflict and stress. Family therapy can help families identify and resolve problems.

Family therapy may help your family weather the storm. Family therapy can help patch strained relationships among family members and improve how your family works together. Whether it's yourself, your partner, a child or even a sibling or parent, family therapy can help all of you relate more harmoniously.

Who can benefit from family therapy? In general, anyone who wants to improve troubled relationships can benefit from family therapy. Family therapy can help with such issues as:

Marital problems
Divorce
Eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia
Substance abuse
Depression or bipolar disorder
Chronic health problems, such as asthma or cancer
Grief, loss and trauma
Work stress
Parenting skills
Emotional abuse or violence
Financial problems

Family therapy may be an addition to other types of treatment, particularly for certain mental disorders that require more in-depth treatment. Family therapy shouldn't substitute for other necessary treatments. For instance, family therapy can help family members cope if a relative has schizophrenia. But the person with schizophrenia should continue with his or her individualized treatment plan, such as medication and possibly hospitalization.

When doing family therapy, you and your family will examine your family's ability to solve problems and express thoughts and emotions. You may explore family roles, rules and behavior patterns in order to spot issues that contribute to conflict. Family therapy may help you identify your family's strengths, such as caring for one another, and weaknesses, such as an inability to confide in one other.

For more information about how I work, please call my office for an appointment ().

Articles by Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.

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Experiencing the freedom of forgiveness opens up the gates to new realities.
~ Debbie Ford

To picture health is one of the most scientific ways of producing it in the body. To picture health is one of the quickest roads
to healing.
~ Catherine Ponder

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Randi Fredricks is a Psychotherapist and Licensed as a Marriage Family Therapist MFC 47803 and not licensed with the California Bureau of
Naturopathic Medicine. © 2012 Randi Fredricks, Marriage and Family Therapist, Inc. All rights reserved. Serving San Jose, Sunnyvale,
Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Mountain View, Scotts Valley, Campbell, Willow Glen, and Milpitas CA.