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Family Therapy
Family therapy typically
consists of parents and their children who come into therapy to resolve
issues within the family structure. Occasionally other members of the
family also are invited into the family session. This may include
grandparents or other extended family who are closely involved with the
family.
Family therapy usually
involves working on such issues as communication, parenting and discipline,
family members' emotions, developmental family stages (moving from having
small children to having teenage children, etc.), grief and loss (death of
grandparents, pets, etc.) and any other issue that affects the family's
overall functioning.
Blended family therapy may
vary more than other family therapy. Depending on the relationship between
divorced parents, blended families may choose to involve both parents or
only the parent with whom the child lives. This may also involve
step-parents and step-siblings.
On a rare occasion family
therapy can be completed in one or two sessions; most of the time, however,
it requires several months. Length of therapy depends on the problems, the
goals, and the motivation of the family members. Most of the time the
family and the therapist decide to terminate when goals are completed. The
family needs to know, however, that they may stop therapy whenever they
choose.
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