​Family Counselling services at InnerSight

When to seek family counselling

You could benefit from family counselling when:
  • Individually or even in pairs you are alright, but somehow coming together is stressful
  • Gender roles and expectations are becoming a challenge
  • There are conflicts or challenges between parents, children or other sub-groups that is affecting everybody
  • There has been a family crisis that is affecting everybody, and it is hard to cope
  • A major change is being planned
  • One or more persons in the family are affected by a health or other crisis and you want the family to rally behind them and need support
  • You learn something about a family member and need support for the family to understand and deal with it

What is family counselling

Family counselling is a counselling space for three to six in a family to interact with the counsellor for any matter that affects the family as a whole.  While often there might be a single core issue/ particular person identified as in trouble, the family as a whole is in some distress. 

The counsellor works with the family as a system to help the clients understand how each of them work in the system and how the system can often be more than the sum of the parts

What happens in Family Counselling
Family counselling sessions are usually longer and start with a 90 minute assessment session where the focus is on the family as a whole. The counsellor  helps each of the family members talk about their experience of the family and in doing so, create a goal for counselling. The counsellor's focus is on helping the family understand how they interact with each other, isolate unhealthy/ unhelpful patterns, understand how each individual’s behaviour influences and is influenced by the family. 

The counsellor helps family members improve their awareness of each other and the system, adopt more helpful patterns and develop better communication and conflict management skills. The counsellor uses a variety of tools and techniques for this purpose, and often coaches the family and assigns homework where needed.

Weekly sessions are usual, and generally the whole family is required to be present for all the sessions. Sometimes, the counsellor may meet each of the clients separately as well, however the focus is on the family as a whole. If needed, the counsellor might refer one or more to individual/ couple counselling support as well. On an average, family counselling relationships can last anywhere from 2-8 sessions.

What are the outcomes of Family Counselling

Families in  counselling generally cope better with issues, create stronger bonds with each other and increase their resilience when faced with issues