Therapy, in general, provides ways to express feelings, understand patterns of thinking and relating, gain perspective on past events and current relationships, discover strengths and resources, set goals, clarify dreams, and move forward in growth, healing, and change for the better.
Marriage and family therapy, more specifically, is a systemic approach that looks at problems and difficulties with an eye toward relationships. Therapists consider the context of a person’s life-their life story, their culture, their family, and other important relationships. The unit of treatment isn’t the individual person, even if only a single person is in the therapy room; it is the set of relationships in which each client is embedded.
Using the systemic approach, we view problems as existing not within individuals, but within these relationships. We also consider social and cultural factors that help us understand the people we serve.
Despite its name, marriage and family therapy can be applied to individuals. But whether the client is one person, a couple, or a family, the therapy tends to be brief and strength-focused. Marriage and family therapists help people to develop specific and attainable therapeutic goals and then identify resources, solutions, and ways to grow that work for their particular situation.
The federal government has designated marriage and family therapy as a core mental health profession along with psychiatry, psychology, social work, and psychiatric nursing.
Clinicians at the Couple and Family Therapy Institute help individuals, couples, and families deal with a variety of life issues, including those related to:
- Adolescence and young adulthood
- Adoption or birth of a child
- Anxiety, worry, fears, phobias, and panic
- Anger management
- Attention deficit disorders
- Behavior problems at home, school, or work
- Body image and eating disorders
- College adjustment
- Communication problems
- Concerns specific to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning community
- Couple relationship check-ups
- Cultural adjustment
- Depression and other mood disorders
- Divorce, separation, and post-divorce
- Family and stepfamily concerns
- Gender and gender identity
- Grief, loss, and death in the family
- Intimacy and sexual problems
- Marital and couple concerns
- Military deployment and return concerns
- Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors
- Parenting, co-parenting, and single parenting
- Premarital, commitment, and couple enrichment
- Roommate or co-worker disagreements
- School-related issues
- Self-esteem and self-image
- Sexuality, sexual orientation, and coming out
- Stress management
- Work-related stressors
Family Therapy clinicians are trained in the world-renowned Prepare/Enrich® couple inventory. The Prepare/Enrich® facilitator (a clinician who is specially certified in Prepare/Enrich®) provides a free information session and then three feedback sessions to help couples understand their results and enrich their relationship skills. In these sessions, the facilitator helps the couple:
- Explore strengths and areas of growth.
- Strengthen communication skills.
- Learn new ways to resolve conflict.
- Understand and appreciate personality differences.
The new 2009 Prepare/Enrich® is customized to each couple based on their stage of life, family structure, and value system. The assessment, taken online, addresses the handling of money, family roles, the rearing of children, work aspirations, leisure time, spiritual and religious beliefs, communication skills, intimacy, and conflict resolution.
Call and ask for the couple check-up, pick up a brochure, or visit www.prepare-enrich.com for more information on this relationship-enhancing opportunity.
How much experience do the student therapists have?
Students in our program often bring prior clinical experience with them. Many have a range of experience working with different populations, varying from little to many years of experience.