Going to Family Counseling

Sometimes, affliction of the psyche in relations to oneself or family members or spouses can arise, and even if such problems are not a physical injury, they can have a devastating effect on one’s life and health. Unresolved issues, problems with trust or anxiety, and general depression can impact many more areas of a person’s life than many may expect, everything from performance at work to diet and body weight to sleep patterns. If a person feels depressed or anxious, of if someone’s family member or spouse is having these problems, it may be time to turn to family counseling so a professional can examine everyone’s mental status and guide them to recovery. Finding therapy services nearby can be easy, and traumatic situations nearly always call for therapy for one or more people, from a death in the family to a divorce to a major career loss. Couples counseling is another form of family counseling that is often needed by American adults today.

Who Needs Family Counseling?

A perfectly sound psyche is not always easy to come by in today’s fast paced, busy, stressful world of work and relationships. In fact, around the world, it is believed that 350,000,000 people are suffering one form of depression or another, and about 50% of Americans who have depression will not even attempt to find medical help for it. However, the collective loss of productivity among depressed adults adds up fast; in the United States, some $80 billion every year is lost due to reduced productivity among depressed adults. Women are 70% more likely to become depressed at some point in their lives than men are, and around 11% of teenagers will suffer a depressive order by the time they turn 18. However, therapy for depression, anxiety, marital problems, a death in the family, and much more exists, and family counseling is out there for anyone who needs it. How effective can therapists be?

The Power of Therapists

Although many people or married couples do not end up seeing therapists for depression or marital trouble, many others do, and this has accumulated into large stockpiles of statistical data. The Chicago Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy has shown that among couples who took part in the Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, around 50% of them recovered by the time the program was over, and 70% had recovered within three months. What is more, about 98% of surveyed couples who underwent therapy said that they had good or excellent help during that process, and 97% of those surveyed reported that they got all the help they needed, according to research done by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Similarly, aro0und 94% of patients who worked with a family or marriage therapist reported that they now had more effective means of dealing with any problems they might have in the future, and respondents also said that they had improved physical health and functioned better at their jobs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, family counseling will bring together several family members for therapy sessions together, and such sessions may take 50 minutes to an hour. Family therapy will typically last for 12 sessions, during which the family members may go over their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their relationships and behavior, and go over family roles and rules, or else examine problem solving skills. A therapist may also help family members whose existing communications and problem solving attempts have been unsuccessful. With a therapist’s help, individual and family goals can be set as well as ways to reach them, and learn new ways of interaction and unlearn unhealthy communication habits, Overall, family counseling cannot simply make the problems go away, but it can help the family’s members communicate better and work toward solutions to problems together.

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