Living with your family can be a tricky business. Problems can loom large, and one member of the family can often carry the blame for all the family’s difficulties. Family therapy helps by encouraging family members to talk to each other without blaming, by looking at difficult issues from new and different angles, and by engaging all the family members in finding solutions to the problems they are facing.

You may want to talk about:

• Ongoing conflict or hostility between family members, whether living together or separately
• Managing the challenges of divorce or separation
• Worries about a child’s behaviour at home or at school
• Long-standing family patterns that have continued into adulthood

I see my role as encouraging a different type of conversation, where everyone has an opportunity to talk and be properly heard, and where you don’t go round in circles. Families often find the process rewarding, as well as challenging. Sometimes huge shifts can be made in just a few sessions.

Family therapy is open to any group of people who consider themselves to be a family, and I will always leave it for you to decide who comes to any given session. If other family members are unwilling to come to therapy, you are welcome to come on your own to discuss the difficulties you are facing.

My family therapy clinic generally runs on Monday and Thursday afternoons and we will agree how often you would like to meet at our initial session. I tend to see families every two to three weeks, depending on everyone’s availability and requirements.