FAMILIES
Family Counselling and Therapy in Fremantle
Sometimes families and couples need assistance with decision making, conflict and a range of other issues. When families experience disconnect they can feel powerless, but there are methods to work through these situations. Family therapy is a broad term that encompasses couples counselling and also counselling with other members of the family or extended family - for example, adult or teenage children with one or both parents. At Fremantle Counselling Service, we offer family counselling and therapy to help families get back on track.
The Family Therapy Focus
There are a range of topics that often form the focus of family therapy. Identifying these focus can help families to heal and reach resolutions. These topics include:
- Decision making
- Managing negotiation and conflict
- Issues with in-laws, friends and extended family members
- Coping with the transition to parent-hood and other life changes
- Affairs
- Sexual problems
- Parent-child conflict
- Marital breakdown and separation
- Assisting couples deal with the impact of difficult working arrangements – such as fly in-fly-out or shift work
- Step-family problems
- Family violence and
- Life crises and change.
Managing Conflict
When we feel strongly about things, we need those around us know to know how we feel. Sometimes we need them to change or to do things differently. We can’t always expect everyone to know what we need of them or to feel or want the same things we do. And that’s when conflict often arises.
Conflict is often hard to deal with. It makes us feel uncomfortable and stressed but it can also lead to change. In families, where ‘sticking together’ is important, we need to find ways to express difference and negotiation change. When we can do this well, we can get our needs met. The result is we feel loved and valued. When we can’t express our feelings and get our needs met, resentment often builds and we grow apart.
Counselling can assist couples to understand conflict in their relationship, their family and in the worlds they come from, assisting each partner to understand the nature and importance of conflict and how to manage it better. Learning how to assert ourselves and manage conflict is one of the most important things we can do for our relationship and ourselves. Conflict is an inevitable part if family life, and although it’s hard, it’s also an important part of life.