Family Therapy
Family Therapy
Family therapy helps families improve their communication, resolve conflict, and build stronger relationships. It is a confidential process that involves meeting with a Rosecrance counselor to discuss the family’s goals and challenges.
How family therapy works
Rosecrance incorporates evidence-based family therapy and support across our continuum of care, including residential treatment and outpatient treatment. As our clients begin their healing journeys from mental health and substance use disorders, family members are included along the way to:
- Better understand family dynamics (including parenting styles for teens and young adults)
- Receive motivation and support
- Learn more about the mental health and substance use disorders their loved ones are navigating
- Begin work on setting boundaries
- Learn about relapse prevention
Benefits of family therapy include improved communication and conflict resolution skills, increased intimacy and connection, reduced stress and anxiety, improved mental health, and a stronger, more resilient family system.
Supporting someone else’s treatment experience is difficult to do alone and we are here to support you in figuring out how to restore healthy family relationships, how to set boundaries, and encourage caring for yourself.
Types of family therapy at Rosecrance
Rosecrance can tailor family therapy to the unique needs of you and your loved ones. Families today can look very different and don’t have to be limited to two married parents and a child or children.
The family unit today can be very diverse and comprised of parents (single, married, and unmarried), grandparents, adoptive parents, and foster parents.
Understanding the diverse needs of families, family therapy at Rosecrance can include:
- Single-family sessions with one parent, both parents, or parents and siblings.
- Multi-family groups, which could include parents and extended family members such as grandparents.
- Family support groups for specialized audiences such as first responders and frontline workers, and support for families who have loved ones in residential treatment.
You can reach out directly to Rosecrance for more information about family therapy. And oftentimes, children and adults in individual therapy can add on or shift into family therapy based on challenges they’re experiencing and higher level of care they need.
If extended relatives and family members are part of your family, we can work to include them in family therapy as it makes sense for your needs and goals.
How family therapy benefits parents and teens
During family therapy, all family members—children and adults—should feel supported and confident to communicate their challenges, questions, and needs. Input from everyone is important to understand the full family dynamics and begin rebuilding trust between children and adults.
Family support is especially important for children and teens, whether that’s during individual therapy or family therapy sessions. Oftentimes, if a child is doing individual therapy, we begin to identify challenges with substance use or mood/emotional disorders like anxiety and depression in the broader family that can be affecting day-to- day interactions and support the need for family therapy.
If a child is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for example, a family history of unprocessed trauma or grief may be identified. It’s possible that parents, grandparents, and other loved ones never got the help needed to understand these challenges, so working through struggles together can improve the opportunity for healing and recovery.
Addressing all these challenges, both individually and as a family, are key to improving family communication and relationships. Understanding these family dynamics can help prevent disagreements or de-escalate arguments.
See Rosecrance locations near you.
Why are we asking for this additional information?
With your current insurance information and location, we can better match you to programs and services that best fit your specific situation.
Frequently asked questions about family therapy
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Family therapy sessions last about 45 minutes. The initial session is usually a little longer (about 60 minutes) to leave enough time for introductions, discussing goals, and evaluating needs. The timeline for family therapy will be individualized to your family’s needs. That schedule is also dependent on availability—how often your family can meet, for example. We will constantly evaluate how things are going and can scale back on sessions as progress is made or increase sessions based on your needs.
Everyone will have the opportunity to talk, to be heard, and feel supported. Your therapist may use a combination of treatment methods to help facilitate conversations, including DBT, CBT, motivational interviewing, and theraplay. Those treatment methods are all intended to help with communication and connection, and they bring structure to the family therapy sessions.
Some of the topics we cover include defining responsibility and taking ownership, and how those have different definitions for people. Each person gets to explain their points of view, and we talk about how to meet in the middle to improve communication moving forward.
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All children and adults who are integral to your family unit can participate in family therapy as it makes sense. Parents typically initiate family therapy because they have broader access to resources, but children can also make the request for family therapy. Family therapy can help bridge the gap between mental health knowledge and understanding between children and adults.
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Rosecrance offers both in-person family therapy and virtual family therapy. In-person can be helpful for people who live in the same household or live close by, while virtual family therapy can be useful for individuals who may be living separate from their families. Individuals who are in Rosecrance residential treatment can also access virtual family therapy if their loved ones live out of town.
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All families experience struggles, and no two families are the same. The purpose of family therapy is to offer a safe space where everyone is being heard and seen and feels supported. Family therapy can be utilized while a loved one is in treatment with Rosecrance, or it can be requested/initiated anytime.