Guide To Exploring Family Counseling Services in Houston

Are you having trouble at home? Maybe you are experiencing communication issues within the family system? Do you feel like everybody within your immediate family are all on different pages? If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, then family counseling may be the next step. Family counseling can have such a negative connotation within today’s society, but actually, family counseling is one of the best methods of intervention that you and your family can use in order to strengthen family bonds, foster great communication, and resolve any underlying issues that may be causing friction within the household. No family is perfect. In fact, every family system experiences challenges and relational issues at one point or another. In today’s society, every individual seems to have demanding schedules, whether academic, vocational or extracurricular. These varying, demanding schedules can often leave family members traveling in and out of the house and passing each other like ships in the night. The family system in today’s society is not able to spend as much time together and while this isn’t always a bad thing, it certainly can lead to issues with communication which can lead to further issues. While a lot of these issues can seemingly correct themselves, they can also worsen with time if not dealt with effectively. Family counseling may seem like it is nothing more than having a family argument in a room with a mediator, but in reality, it is a safe and secure space that allows a family system to explore boundaries, relationship roles, communication styles, and how the family system can grow together rather than grow apart. Through this blog, we hope to explore family counseling services and how they can make a great impact both presently and in future-tense in regards to your family system.

Understanding the Role of Family Counseling

Family counseling is one of the most vital interventions used to promote healthy family dynamics. Family counseling is an intricate and detailed method of therapy that involves the entirety of the family system, usually the immediate household. Within family counseling, the licensed clinician will collaborate with the family to create a safe, secure and nonjudgmental space where family systems can explore current issues, disconnections and feelings they may be having individually or as a family unit. The counselor will then introduce new communication techniques, coping skills, and will work with the family to set goals and set a group agreement to hold one another accountable for taking the steps necessary to meet these goals. Family counseling can be a great tool to improve communication, ease relational friction, define familial roles, establish and maintain boundaries between family members, and allow for family members to voice their feelings and where they are currently at in life in a way that does not point fingers or place blame on other family members. If there are certain conflicts that have occurred within the family system, the counselor will work with the family to process these events and surrounding emotions in order to establish a plan to move forward as a unit. While family systems counseling can seem intimidating at first, the goal of family counseling is to help the family system, not to cause further harm. Family counseling typically includes outside-of-session “homework” and collaboration and group processing during family therapy sessions. At first thought, many individuals do not believe that family counseling is necessary. Maybe your family communicates very thoroughly and you don’t see the need for group communication within a therapy setting? Familial issues are not limited to communication issues. Additionally, each member of the family system is unique in personality, temperament and behavior. With differing individuals sometimes comes conflict, even within a family unit. Family counseling helps the family unit by adding an objective clinician that is not biased towards any certain member of the family, but can provide an overall breakdown of observations made as an “outsider.” Even the strongest of family units can benefit from adding an objective party to the mix. No matter what your challenge may be within your family system, family counseling can only help your family to grow in a healthy and inclusive manner.

Introduction to Malaty Therapy’s Family Counseling Services

Houston is a giant, metropolitan city that can certainly add external stressors to individual members of the family unit. Therefore, seeking family counseling from local therapists in Houston would best fit your family’s needs. Malaty Therapy is located within the heart of Houston, therefore, our therapists are no stranger to the high demands of such a booming city. When choosing to begin therapy, it is important to do your research and look for reputable and experienced family counseling providers that are local to your area. While family counseling may seem like a generalized practice, there are actually several different approaches and modalities that can be used under the umbrella of family counseling. Family systems counselors often use structural therapy, narrative therapy, and strategic therapy modalities when working with family units. Additionally, family systems counselors will also integrate varying techniques of behavioral therapy, psychoeducation and transgenerational therapy. While these can seem intimidating and clinical, each modality uses different therapeutic techniques to explore and observe where the family system is currently at, both relational and individual levels, as well as defining family roles, fostering improvement in the way that the family communicates as well as developing each individual’s sense of self, sense of resilience, and level of adaptability in order to strengthen the family unit as a whole. Above all, family counseling services are quite flexible. While each family therapist has a preference of modalities that they use within their practice, licensed professional counselors are trained to meet the family where they are at and tailor their approaches to what best fits the needs of each individual family. While one approach may work best for one family, another approach may work better for another family. It is the therapists job to customize a treatment plan in collaboration with each family unit in order to work towards achieving the best possible outcome from the therapeutic process.

Signs Your Family Might Benefit from Family Counseling

How do you know if family counseling might be the right step for you and your family? There are several common indicators of familial distress and dysfunction. This can include withdrawal and isolation from certain family members, an increased amount of fighting or conflict within the family system, erratic mood and behavior changes from certain family members when interacting with others, and sometimes, physical, emotional, financial or mental abuse from one family member to another. Sometimes, individuals can have a hard time identifying whether or not the family system is the one that is in trouble under the guise that oftentimes, we internalize our familial problems and place the sole blame on ourselves. Some indicators that individuals may be suffering from familial distress and dysfunction could be increased anxiety or stress-related responses, changes in sleep and appetite, fluctuations in moods, feelings or fear or discomfort when around family members, and increased reliance on unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol or other substances. However, family counseling does not only benefit those having extreme discourse within the family system. If you feel like there is constant miscommunication between yourself and the members of your family, counseling is also a great place to resolve these issues. Similarly, family units often seek counseling when there is an external conflict that is impacting members of the family unit. These family units are looking for guidance on how to resolve a group problem effectively. Sometimes, it can be hard to identify exactly what is causing familial issues. However, our internal nervous system can often tell us when something doesn’t feel “right.” Family counseling is a great intervention for these instances, too! Sometimes it can take beginning the therapeutic process to uncover and bring awareness to underlying issues that may be destroying the family system under the surface.

Learn About The Family Counseling Experience in Houston

When individuals decide to venture into the world of professional counseling, it can seem very overwhelming and confusing at first. However, the counseling process is nothing to be weary of. In fact, the only thing you have to do in preparation for your first session is show up! Within family counseling, the first few sessions are typically reserved for building the therapeutic alliance between the family unit and the therapist as well as gathering information and details regarding the family unit. In these first couple of sessions, your therapist will typically ask you a lot of questions to which you can share as little or as much as you would like. The therapist will sit together with the family unit and will ask questions about the family dynamics, the individuals that make up the family unit and instances that have prompted the family to seek professional counseling. The purpose of these early sessions, again, is for the therapist to gather information regarding the system and to observe how they interact with one another along with building the therapeutic alliance. The therapeutic alliance is the most significant part of counseling because it allows the counseling process to feel safe, secure, nonjudgmental and supportive for all participants. Once the therapist has gained enough insight into what the family system looks like, they will collaborate with the family members to come up with a list of goals that the family would like to achieve through professional counseling. These goals can be as simple as “better overall communication”. Once these goals have been established amongst the family system, the counselor will collaborate, once again, with the family members to set measurable and achievable “mini-goals” that will help the family unit achieve their ultimate goals. In these “mini-goals”, the therapist will introduce new coping skills, communication techniques, definition of familial roles, and will work with the family to reframe maladaptive thought and behavior patterns that may be contributing to conflict and friction within the family system. Each week thereafter will be a processing of the family’s time between sessions, how they individually did their parts to contribute to their ultimate goals, and will problem-solve as a group along the way. The family unit may receive “homework” assignments outside of sessions, but that is customized to the needs of the family. Ultimately, the therapeutic process for family counseling is taken “one step at a time” and is tailored to the family’s level of need as well as their comfort level.

How to Find Family Counseling Services

When searching for a family counselor, as previously stated, it is important to do your research. While every therapist is trained in some capacity with family systems counseling, not all therapists specialize in it. In order to receive the best outcome for your family, you want to choose a therapist who specializes in family counseling. When reviewing the profiles of qualified and experienced family counselors, it is important to take note of their credentials and areas of specialties. While family systems counseling should be the first thing that you look for on a potential counselor’s profile, it is also important to look at their other areas of expertise to see if any of their other specialties align with the needs of your family. For example, maybe a member of your family is struggling with addiction related issues? In that case, it might be helpful to find a therapist who specializes in family systems counseling along with substance-use disorder. Once you decide to start working with a therapist, please take note that the therapeutic alliance is built over time. However, you should feel safe and secure within the therapeutic setting at all times. Confidentiality is the highest ethical practice evoked by professional counselors as well as ensuring the cultivation of a nonjudgmental and unbiased space, especially within family counseling. You should always remember that once you choose a therapist, you are not locked in with them forever. If you feel after a few sessions that their communication styles and approaches to therapy do not align with you and your family’s needs, it is perfectly okay to try to meet with a different therapist. Our therapists are here to serve you, not the other way around.

Family Counseling Testimonials and Success Stories

At Malaty Therapy, we have served several families and have seen them through the therapeutic process. Our family testimonials say that we have helped our clients reach new levels of conflict resolution and both individualized and familial empowerment, resiliency, adaptability, and growth in sense of self.

Malaty Therapy Can Offers Expert Family Counseling Services

Even if you are still unsure about whether or not your family needs counseling, we encourage you to give it a try. At Malaty Therapy, we strive to leave our families better than when we first met them and through the collaborative therapeutic process, we have achieved great success. You don’t have to have a specific reason as to why you want to seek counseling for you and your family, but if you have a feeling that something is “off”, we encourage you to take the first step to see what the therapeutic process can do for you and your family. Therapy offers extended support to both the individual and the family unit as a whole and can help increase the overall wellbeing of the family system and the individuals within it.

Malaty Therapy: The Best Houston Therapists
Address: 11211 Katy Freeway Suite 300 Houston, TX 77079
Phone: (713) 628-3966
Email: tammer@malatytherapy.com

We invite you to take the first step towards holistic well-being by connecting with us. Together, we can grow, resilience, and positive transformation.