Family Therapy
Over the past 40 years the breakdown of the American family has left may families shattered, torn and distant. In the 1950’s there was no such thing as kids yelling at their parents, or families eating dinner separately. Families were kept together under one roof and participated in each others lives. Almost nothing occurred that didn’t involve the entire family. Times have changed though and many families have basically broken down to roommates or people who live in the same house with little to no interaction. Kids in today’s world are so disconnected with video games, music and just locking themselves in their rooms. Parents don’t know how to relate to their children and some don’t even try. Lack of interaction between parent and child leads to the child hating and resenting their parents. And when a child has no one to turn to at home they turn to their friends. Peer pressure then runs a child’s or teen’s life and they give in to things like drugs, gangs, and clothing and appearance changes. At this point the parent has no idea what to do. This is usually where the real problems start to emerge. Some parents choose to try and relate to their children, but more often then not it’s too late. Other parents choose the escape route and send their kids of to boarding schools. This route can sometimes end well or can end in complete and utter disaster. The rest of the parents just give in and either let their kids do what they want or they fight with them and can’t wait for them to move out. With the growing number of single parents situations like this are becoming more and more common. Most parents in today’s world cannot relate to their children and have no hope in doing so. Luckily there is hope. More and more parents are reaching out for help and finding it in family therapy.
Family therapy provides an outlet for both parent and child to express what they are feeling without the role hats of mother, father, son or daughter. Kids can fully express themselves without persecution from the parents and parents can express their desires for their children. In the beginning the counselor is needed to get the ball rolling. The counselor opens up channels of discussion to help loosen both parent and child. Sometimes some one on one secessions are needed so that the counselor can better understand both sides and come up with a plan to address the problems with as little conflict as possible. Other times there are some cases where the child would like to speak to the counselor in private possible pertaining to an issue regarding the parent. There are times where the child is afraid to talk to the parent because of abuse or neglect. Other times it might be the child one has over run the house and the parent is the one who needs to gain back control. All of these issues can and will be addressed by the counselor. And in the end the parent child relationship will be that much stronger.