Families
We, by design, come into this life via a family. We don’t control the family we are born into or those circumstances. We do not have a say over this pack and its bond. We function as products of our environments in large part growing up. Nature and nuture are both at play here.
The overall health of the family effects every individual in the system. There are specific common family roles that each member plays. The rigidity or flexibility of these roles or the family’s ability to adapt in healthy ways to change or crisis is directly correlated to the mental and emotional health of its primary leaders. Leaders change based on power, dynamics, influence, age and circumstances.
Just as in a pack of animals, we seek family for safety and connection. We need others to survive. We look often those around us inside or outside of our system to provide direction, guidance, and help us navigate the wilderness of life.
We may have a family and feel happy in it. We may not have a family. We may have chosen family. We may feel unhappy in our family dynamics or roles. We may get confused how to separate self and family while maintaining relationships and keeping communication healthy.
In treating mothers and women, families often come with that. Children and teenagers need healthy avenues of support. Wherever and whenever possible, I seek to have mothers and women bring their family members with them to aide in their healing as a whole.
I believe in a systemic model of change and can’t do my counseling work while dismissing the impact of the family as a whole on an individual.
I provide some services individually to children and teenage girls on a case-by-base basis.
I also have referral sources in the community that I work closely with to help me treat the entire family unit when applicable.