Marriage & Family Therapists
Marriage and family therapy, also known as couples therapy or family systems therapy is a branch of psychotherapy that works primarily with relationships between families and couples in intimate relationships, with the objective of nurturing change and development.
Family therapists typically focus on the patterns of interaction, and how those patterns maintain the problems a family is dealing with, instead of working to find a cause. For some families, finding a cause may lay blame on one family member, which is generally not viewed as healthy within the family dynamic. Marriage and family therapists look at the family unit as larger than each member.
Marriage and family therapists usually come from a variety of professional backgrounds. Some are specifically trained, qualified or licensed and registered in family therapy, although licensing is not required in many areas.
Family therapists have been most effective in families, or with individuals in families that have experienced or suffered from:
- Crises based on interaction or transitional issues, such as conflict, estrangement, child and adolescent problems or divorce.
- Serious psychological problems, such as anxiety, depression, personality and conflict disorders addictions or even eating disorders.
- Additional support for other therapy.
The marriage family therapist uses a range of counseling and other techniques such as communication theory, psychotherapy, systems theory, coaching, and psycho-education. Some of the important ideas behind family therapy include structure, strategic therapy, cognitive and behavioral approaches, psychodynamic, intergenerational and experiential. Many family therapists differ their approaches depending on the patient, or patients, and often use multiple forms of therapy to treat their patients.
The marriage and family therapist will usually meet with several members of the family at the same time, which is said to have several advantages, including helping family members see the differences in how they perceive relationships, as well as helping the family therapist see interactional patterns between family members. These patterns usually mirror what happens outside the therapists’ office.
Occasionally, a family therapist will use interventions as treatment. These usually focus on relationship patterns instead of looking at what caused the patterns, like other methods of psychotherapy.
Marriage counseling focuses solely on how a married couple interacts and deals with the issues of a couple, rather than the entire family. If the couple has children, the therapy may extend to marriage and family, but only if the marriage therapist notes that the issues deal with matters beyond the couple. Marriage counseling can be done separately, and as a couple, and some couples choose to engage in marriage counseling before the wedding ceremony takes place, to work out any prior issues.
Both marriage counseling and family therapy is more about a way of thinking. Marriage and family therapists are relational therapists, and examine what goes on between people, rather than the people themselves. A family therapist usually will point out family interaction patterns the family may not otherwise notice, and suggest different ways of interacting with each other. They view these relationships as systems and focus their work there.
Marriage and family therapists work with both families and couples who are seeking answers about their relationships and how they interact with one another. The therapists look at the ways families work and make suggestions on how to improve the pieces, rather than looking for the source of the problem.