If you're going through a rough patch in your relationship(s) or with family OR even if you're not with any of it, according Yahoo, it's still best to go through counseling with your partner and family.
From Yahoo:
When the words “marriage,” “family,” and “therapy” all come up in the same sentence, it’s often assumed that things within that particular relationship aren’t great. Broken beyond repair. Doomed. But this isnotthe case. In fact, seeking support for a relationship throughmarriage and family therapy(also often calledcouples therapy) shows your commitment to improving interpersonal dynamics in many ways.
Seeing a therapistto identify problematic behaviors and seek solutions, both individually and interpersonally, can be incredibly helpful — and despite the name, marriage and family therapy isn’t just for married couples. Any couple in a romantic relationship can benefit, as can people in families who have other interpersonal dynamics.
If you’ve been struggling to find symbiosis with your partner (or partners), spouse, or family member, this form of therapy might be exactly the means of healing you have been looking for. Below, learn what it’s all about, its methodology, and why it isnota sign a relationship or family is failing.
What is marriage and family therapy?
Marriage and family therapy, or MFT, is a form of psychotherapy. It addresses the behaviors of all members of a particular family or relationship, though it’s most commonly employed by couples. This therapy modality is a solution-focused approach that creates specific, attainable, therapeutic goals, including improving communication, working through intimacy issues, and more. Marriage and family therapists typically practice short-term therapy, or about12 sessions on average.
Marriage and family therapists are recognized as a “core” mental health profession alongside psychology, psychiatry, and social work, and those who practice have completed graduate or postgraduate programs. As of 2018, there were around48,000marriage family therapists currently practicing in the United States.
How is MFT practiced?
According to John Carroll, a therapist at theInstitute for Human Identityin New York City, this particular treatment doesn’t adhere to the old psychotherapy cliché in which a practitioner says, “Lie on a couch and tell me how that makes you feel.” Rather, this form of therapy is practiced in a few ways. When people in a relationship see a therapist, they often see their therapist together, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, they’ll attend individual sessions, or if it’s a group of people (like in a family, or polyamorous relationship), two or more people may break off into smaller sessions to talk about interpersonal dynamics.
“While traditional therapy focuses more on the individual, MFT explores how an individual’s behavior affects both the individualandtheir relationship as part of a couple or family,” says Carroll. “In MFT, the unit of treatment is not just the individual, even if only a single person is in the therapy session, treatment is focused on the set of relationships in which the person is embedded.”
“MFT can provide an opportunity to re-wire unhealthy relational patterns, allowing new, unexplored strengths and tools to be discovered.”
“The methodology behind MFT is that regardless of whether a problem appears to be within an individual — intrapersonal — or within a relationship — interpersonal, getting other members involved in the therapeutic process will result in more effective, sustained solutions,” Carroll explains. So, both intrapersonal and interpersonal issues are talked about through the lens of how they may affect the dynamic of the relationship. The therapist is there to advocate for the relationship unit, rather than for one individual versus another.
This is interesting! I'll have to check this out for myself!