How Does A Family Therapist Play A Vital Role?

Many families nowadays experience various fallouts owing to complex psyches of family members and psychological issues that may draw a wedge in their lives. The worst situation is the separation or divorce of parents and its effects on the family as a unit, especially children of the parents. This is when a family therapist comes into play. A family therapist helps a family resolve their issues and conflicts and teaches them various techniques to improve the relationship between each member. Here are a few techniques a therapist may use:

Communication - The most important factor that shapes the relationships between family members is how they communicate with one another. It’s important for a family therapist to teach members how to listen to each other and express themselves effectively so that there are no miscommunications as well as to ensure that they understand each other perfectly. 

Reframing - Reframing is essentially turning negative behaviors into positive ones. This is done to show family members that each problem can be looked at from a different perspective which is the first step to solving it. Limited perspectives can be detrimental. 

Tracking - This method is used to track certain events and occurrences as well as their sequence of occurring so that they can be understood better. A marriage and family therapist does this primarily to point out a timeline and when something has gone wrong which helps them to formulate the necessary treatment plans and interventions. 

Family Floor Plans - This is a unique method of intervention used by family therapists and is typically used to gather information of different age groups of the family, spanning generations. The elders of the family are asked to chalk out a basic family floor plan. Through this, therapists try to gauge the comfort levels between members as well as the rules that the family functions by.