Colorado Springs Family Counseling
Family therapy addresses specific issues within a family system affecting the health and functioning of the family. At Eleven Six Counseling’s Colorado Springs family counseling families are assisted through difficult periods, significant transition, mental or behavioral health problems in family members.
Family therapy employs a family systems theory that views individuals’ problems in the context of the larger unit of the family. Systems theory suggests that problems are understood and successfully addressed and solved within the dynamics of the group. People exist in the context of relationships within family systems that have specific rules developed over time. When dysfunctional rules present, the family system ensures (homeostasis) moving back to what is known regardless of its functionality. Family counseling changes the organization of the family, allowing presenting problems to be resolved.
Systems theory defines a family as two or more individuals existing within at least a dyad. Families include more than blood relatives, including anyone who plays a long-term supportive role in one’s life. Family therapy employs techniques and interventions from cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, or other types of systems theory. As with other types of treatment, the methods employed will depend on the specific problems the client present.
Marriage and Family Therapists expand the traditional emphasis on individuals to address the role of individuals in primary relationship networks such as marriage and the family. MFTs take a holistic perspective on health care. They are concerned with the overall, long-term well-being of individuals and their families. MFT’s are mental health professionals trained in systems theory and licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the marriage, couples, and family systems. MFTs have specialized graduate training (a Master’s or Doctoral degree) in marriage and family therapy. Marriage and family therapists are recognized as a “core” mental health profession alongside psychiatry, psychology, social work, and psychiatric nursing.
In family counseling, I help families identify and learn new ways to relate to one another free of negativity.