Family means more than just being related by blood. It’s having people to rely on to give us unconditional love even through the toughest times in our life. But families are rarely as perfect as you see them on television. Big transitions, lifestyle changes, and even old grudges can put unnecessary tension on your family.

My Winnipeg Therapist helps couples and families patch up their relationship with each other and develop a stronger family life. By forming stronger, healthier bonds with each other that are built on mutual love, trust, and respect, your family and its individual members become more empowered to deal with life’s challenges together.

What Therapy Can Do for Your Family

Therapy gives families and couples a chance to improve their relationship. Sometimes, our differences can make it hard for family members to reach out and address old hurts and new problems. Family members respond to situations differently and may deal with family problems by ignoring them, acting out, or completely shutting down about.

With a professional family therapist, you can help your family communicate their needs and reconnect with each other on an emotional level.

Therapy helps families deal with a number of issues relating to family life.

• Communication Problems: It’s not uncommon for families to experience communication problems. Parents struggle to communicate with their children and spouses struggle to communicate with each other. Usually, this is because of a generation gap and/or differences in values among many other things. Because of the lack of communication and support, new problems arise and old problems worsen. A good therapist can help address these problems before it hurts other family members and creates other issues for the family.

• Grief: When families lose a loved one, they go through a wide range of emotions such as anger, guilt, and loneliness. It makes them feel empty and they struggle to find meaning in what they do. Family members may start to look after themselves less, both mentally and physically, and allow their social ties to each other weaken and fade. Our team uses methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to provide families with grief counselling services that help them grow past their grief.

• Financial Distress: It’s almost inevitable for a family to go through leaner times. When financial struggles are felt, it not only makes a family less financially secure but can also lead to weakened relationships between spouses. Financial problems are the leading cause of divorce. The stress of not having enough and seeing their parents worry can cause children to feel panicked and stressed. Seeing a therapist can help your family identify better coping solutions in the face of financial strain.

• Anger Problems: It’s hard to raise children when homes become an outlet for anger. Although it is perfectly normal for family members to feel angry, anger may mask underlying issues that threaten a family’s safe space. A family therapist can not only help with anger management issues but can also address other mental health problems related to anger.

• Mental Health Issues: There are various mental health problems that your children or spouse could have. When a family member experiences mental health issues, it doesn’t just affect their health but also the mental health of the entire family. Living together under one roof with the expectation of a long term healthy relationship makes it important for a family to address mental health issues together.