Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. – Deuteronomy 6:4-7, NIV

Hurting people can be found anywhere, likely even in your own family. Also, one or more hurting individuals can have a significant impact on an entire family. The God who created you in love and brought you together as a family wants you to love Him and one another with everything you’ve got: heart, soul, and strength. He wants to be the center of your life together whether you’re seated around the dinner table or driving school or sports carpool, from breakfast time to bedtime. Rooting your family life in God should draw you together in a cohesive whole. Yet if your family is facing a difficult circumstance or has fallen into an unhealthy pattern of behavior, you may need help recovering the joy of your life together and refocusing on God.

Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(972) 694-0137

Schedule an appointment

What is Family Counseling?

Family counseling, also called family therapy, is a type of counseling that addresses psychological, behavioral, and emotional issues that cause problems within the family in order to strengthen and maintain healthy relationships.

While family therapy won’t immediately solve conflicts or vanish unpleasant circumstances, it can help family members improve their communication and resolve conflicts. It may include every member of the family or just those available and willing to participate. Counseling can help you and your family members better understand one another and the unique challenges a family might face as well as provide you with skills to manage those challenges more effectively.

Working with a professional therapist can teach you and your family members skills to deepen your connections and handle difficult situations long beyond your last meeting with your therapist.

There are several types of family therapy depending on the combination of a family’s needs and a therapist’s expertise. They include:

Family systems therapy which focuses on helping family members use their relational strengths to support one another and overcome problems;

Functional family therapy, often used when teens or children experiment with risky behavior, violence, or substance use. This approach promotes solutions while building trust and respect among individuals;

Narrative family therapy encourages individuals to tell their own stories so that they and others understand how they have been shaped and relate to one another. Storytelling can help people to see problems objectively rather than subjectively;

Psychoeducation helps everyone to better understand mental health diagnoses, medications, treatment options, and self-help approaches so that family members will be equipped to operate well as a support system; and

Supportive family therapy centers on creating an emotionally safe environment in which family members can express their feelings and receive support from their relatives.

In addition, your therapist might employ different techniques such as:

A behavioral approach that will focus on skills training to help your family address specific problems;

A psychodynamic approach, evaluating how each person in the family interprets and responds to problems they and/or the family is facing in order to learn how to respond more effectively; and

A structural approach, centered on helping individuals develop boundaries in order to balance family power dynamics and improve how the family functions.

Problems in a family can affect family members’ lives across a wide spectrum. Perhaps you’ve noticed one or more family members with issues flaring up at work, at school, or in personal interactions. When your family has tried to handle things on your own without success, or when challenges feel too weighty, a family therapist may be able to help.

Family therapy can improve relationships between spouses, parents and children, siblings, and extended family relationships. Along the journey, therapy can help family members better understand one another and learn skills that will bring you closer together.

In particular, family counseling may be beneficial in equipping family members to the unique challenges of one member of the family. For example, when one family member struggles with depression or experiences a sudden change in circumstances, such as a health diagnosis, family members often want to be supportive though lack awareness of how to help. As a result, they may engage in behaviors that undermine their own desire to be helpful and potentially make the situation even worse. Family therapy can equip everyone in the family to support one another.

For family counseling to be most effective, it’s best if all members of your family can participate in the process. If that’s not possible for whatever reason, family therapy can still benefit one or more family members. Sessions will last about an hour and typically you will meet once a week for three to four months or until you and your therapist determine that you have completed the work required by your situation.

During a session, the therapist may talk with your family as a whole, directly with individuals, or in combinations. Some may find it initially difficult to open up about feelings and concerns, so it will be paramount to find a therapist with whom everyone feels comfortable developing a rapport. Additionally, you should keep in mind that your therapist has been trained to help family members work through intense conflicts and difficult emotions which can be difficult work. You may even feel worse before you get better, so please hang in there trusting both your therapist and the process.

In your first session, your counselor will seek to understand why your family has sought therapy at this time. They will ask each person questions that will help them get a picture of your family’s life together, including how individuals view problems, their perspectives on when and how issues arose, and how the family has been coping thus far. Your therapist will work with you to develop a treatment plan with a goal to improve communication, resolve conflicts, and develop new and more helpful patterns of interaction. During the course of your therapy, you may learn how to express emotions productively, explore family roles, rules, and patterns, and identify your individual and family strengths and weaknesses.

You can also expect that your therapist will suggest exercises to try between sessions. Please take this work seriously. You will need to practice new skills that you’ve discussed in therapy in order to bring about healthy change in your life together.

Your family’s situation is unique to you and your therapist will listen well and guide your conversations in productive ways. Some of the topics a family therapist can assist you with include:

  • Conflicts between family members
  • Issues with extended family members
  • Parenting
  • Infidelity, separation, or divorce
  • Planning for shared custody of children
  • Defining family roles
  • Improving communication
  • Developing healthy boundaries
  • Dealing with a sudden change for one or more family members
  • Substance abuse or other forms of addiction
  • A family member’s mental or physical illness
  • Financial problems
  • Challenges related to work or school
  • Behavioral issues in children or teenagers
  • Caring for someone with special needs
  • Trauma or grief
  • Stressful events or major life transitions

There may be as many reasons to seek family counseling as there are families wanting to heal their hurts and strengthen their connections. The family unit is affected by each individual and the experiences they have separately and collectively. What affects one impacts the whole.

Christian families have a special purpose to grow healthy individuals and model healthy relationships grounded in God’s love. Jesus described the foundation of the Christian faith: to love God, love others, and love ourselves. As families grow in love, individuals grow in love. We learn and model what we have been taught, and our first introduction to loving others well should take place within the family. No family is perfect, obviously, yet Christian families should take seriously the importance of learning skills that will help them to create a healthy and loving environment in their home and life together. Christian family therapy can help.

Next Steps

If you’re looking for support for your family, feel free to contact one of the counselors in our online counselor directory. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss your family situation and help you develop practical techniques for approaching challenges in your family from a Christian perspective.

Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(972) 694-0137

Schedule an appointment