Family Therapy

Family Therapy can help those in close relationships to better understand and support each other. It enables family members to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on family strengths, and work together to make useful changes in their relationships and their lives.

Every family is a bit like a human body. Sometimes it feels great, and things work well. Sometimes even small things can feel like a huge challenge. When we hurt one part of our body, every part can be affected in some way. But all the parts of the body can work together to help if a bone gets broken, or if there is an infection. So, family therapy helps family members to work together when something is hurting, or just feeling out of sorts.

It enables family members, couples and others who care about each other to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions safely, to understand each other’s experiences and views, appreciate each other’s needs, build on strengths and make useful changes in their relationships and their lives. Individuals can find Family Therapy helpful, as an opportunity to reflect on important relationships and find ways forward.

At Working Minds, we aim to support and:

• Enable people to talk, together or individually, often about difficult or distressing issues, in ways that respect their experiences, invite engagement and support recovery.
• Inclusive and considerate of the needs of each member of the family and/or other key relationships (systems) in people’s lives
• Recognise and build on peoples’ strengths and relational resources
• Sensitive to diverse family forms and relationships, beliefs, and cultures
• Work in partnership ‘with’ families and others, not ‘on’ them

Our family therapists use their understanding of relationships to work with

bigger groups and organisations, so we can also be termed ‘systemic therapy’ as we are working with systems rather than families. Ultimately, we aim to co-ordinate teams to provide support like a family.