Tag: family therapy

Sibling Fights Could Indicate a Need for Family Therapy

If your children are fighting frequently, family therapy may be able to help. Sibling aggression and bullying are usually the result of an unhealthy family dynamic. That’s why the whole family needs to seek help. Focusing on just the victim or just the aggressor will not ultimately solve your family’s bullying problem. It’s possible that your family as a whole may benefit from family therapy as a group, or on an individual level.

It’s certainly normal for siblings to fight. If you grew up with siblings, you can probably look back on your childhood and remember some of the awful fights you had with your brothers and sisters growing up. But fighting between siblings can do lasting damage to your children’s mental health. A study published last year in the journal Pediatrics linked sibling fights to increased levels of depression, anxiety and anger among those children who were the victims of sibling aggression.

Sibling Aggression Linked to Mental Illness

The study, which was done by the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, interviewed more than 3,500 children and adolescents over the phone, using numbers selected at random. The interviewers asked questions about the participants’ mental health problems as well as the specific kinds of sibling aggression they’d experienced in the past year. The three types of aggression covered by the questionnaire included physical aggression, properly damage and psychological aggression, like verbal abuse.

About one-third of the children and adolescents surveyed said that they had been on the receiving end of sibling aggression, violence or bullying in the past year. Those who had been the victims of sibling aggression reported higher levels of depression, anxiety and anger than those who had not. The more often a child becomes the target of sibling aggression, the more likely he or she can benefit from family therapy.

This is not the first study to examine sibling aggression and violence. Another study determined that sibling aggression is common. At least half of children under the age of ten experience aggression at the hands of their siblings. Among children aged 3 to 17, 80 percent reported experiencing violence at the hands of a brother or sister during the year of the study period.

Could Your Children Benefit from Family Therapy?

It’s unrealistic to expect that your children will never fight, just as it’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll never have a fight with a spouse or a disagreement with a relative. Siblings fight.

But you shouldn’t just let your children “fight it out” – use sibling fights as an opportunity to teach your children to resolve their differences constructively. If aggression and violence between your children becomes a common occurrence, or if bullying is occurring, our family therapy center can help correct the dysfunctional dynamics in your family.

Is It Normal Sibling Aggression, or Bullying?

How can you tell if the fights your children have are normal sibling aggression, or bullying? Normal sibling aggression flows both ways. If your son pulls your daughter’s hair and she retaliates by kicking him in the knee, that’s normal sibling aggression. When each of your children seems equally capable of picking a fight with the others, the aggression between them cannot be labeled as bullying – although even normal sibling aggression can lead to an increased risk of mental health problems in children.

Bullying, on the other hand, takes on a pattern. When one of your children is consistently the aggressor and one of your children is consistently the victim, that’s a sign of bullying. A child who is a bully wields power over the child being bullied. The bullied child will not fight back. The aggression flows only one way.

When this happens, it’s definitely time to seek the help of our Florida family therapy center. Bullying by a sibling can cause lasting and severe psychological and emotional damage. Family therapy can help correct the family dynamic that is encouraging one or more of your children to bully. One-on-one therapy may also be helpful for individual members of your family.

Fighting between siblings may not be as harmless as it was once thought. If your kids are fighting a lot, our family therapy specialists can help.

Call us today at 561-338-7725 to set up an appointment.

What are Some Benefits of Family Therapy?

The benefits of Family Therapy are that it is an approach to therapy in which a family is guided to work together to solve a given problem within the family unit.   Family therapists view the family as a distinctive social system that functions through its own unique structure and patterns of communication.  When the family experiences changes within one family member, it not only affects the entire family as a whole, but also each individual member.  The benefits of Family Therapy are that it can generate significant positive changes for families as well as individuals and can provide useful insight that leads to a more comprehensive understanding of one another.

The benefits of Family Therapy are that it can help families to resolve specific conflicts, prepare for major life changes, or address how the family plays a role in each individual member’s life.  Some of the benefits of Family Therapy include the promotion of understanding of the wants, needs, and personalities of each individual.  Oftentimes, the benefits of Family Therapy are in helping to identify strengths or weaknesses within the family system that the family can build upon or improve, respectively.  Another of the benefits of Family Therapy are that Families faced with specific challenges can work together to identify contributing factors, set goals and develop strategies to overcome their struggles.  It can also be used in conjunction with a family member’s work in individual therapy in order to strengthen their system of support.

The general goals that provide the greatest benefits of Family Therapy are the improvement of communication skills, patterns of interaction and conflict resolution skills within the family and to create a more unified and supportive team.  Through these goals, families can not only overcome current challenges or disruptions, but they can also be better prepared to handle future setbacks.

The benefits of Family Therapy can be felt in just about any family.  It can address a wide range of issues from poor communication skills to devastating challenges.  If you feel that family therapy could benefit your family, a family therapist at Proliance Center would be happy to answer any of your questions.  

How to Find the Best Family Therapist for Your Family

The decision to seek family counseling for you and your family is one that requires a great deal of consideration.  You want the experience to be positive and successful and therefore, want a family therapist that will best address your family’s needs and help you improve the communication and cohesion within your family.  At Proliance Center in Boca Raton, we believe that you should choose a family therapist once you have developed a thorough understanding of that therapist’s education, experience, reputation, and approach family therapy.  You must also feel as if you have a personal connection with this professional after an initial consultation, either by phone or in person.

Education and experience are the foundation of a family therapist’s expertise.  Do your homework when it comes to choosing a family therapist.  Many therapists today make this type of information available on their practice websites, online therapy directories or print advertising.  Your therapist should have a minimum of a Masters degree in the field of mental health and significant experience working with families.  Don’t be afraid to ask a clinician about their education and experience by phone or email before scheduling your first appointment.

Reputation is also an important factor in choosing a family therapist.  Look for recommendations from trusted friends and family members.  Ask local professionals such as physicians, religious institutions, school counselors and other trusted sources.  The internet can also be an excellent resource to gather information from the family therapist’s website and online review and recommendation sites.

A family therapist’s approach to family therapy is unique to each professional.  You can often read about their treatment approaches and preferred models of therapy on their websites but you can also call and ask.  A trusted and experienced family therapist will be able to share with you their personal views about family therapy and their preferred models of treatment and educate about these approaches.  Listen to the information they provide and ask questions as needed.

Finally, your relationship with your family therapist is as important as all of the factors listed above combined.  Make sure you feel comfortable with them and are able to communicate your feelings and concerns freely.  Do your best to assess this relationship in an initial phone consultation or face-to-face meeting.  At Proliance Center, the best and most successful families we treat are those that are open with their family therapists and are comfortable with the process.  Adjustments can always be made to make your experience the best possible.

The Benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL

At Proliance Center, we believe in the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL as a power tool to help struggling families as well as their individual members improve their functioning and degree of happiness.  There are many dynamics and steps involved in the process to attain the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL and this process varies with each family we assist.  Though you might often hear there are benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL, we hope to help you have a better understanding of why and how.

There are many approaches that various professionals take to achieve Benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL, but what is most often at the basis of treatment, is improving communication.  At Proliance Center, we help the individual members of each family increase and improve their communication skills.  In order to obtain the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL we strive to help each family recognize and express the thoughts and feelings of each individual member.  We do this in an effort to enlighten each family member with a greater understanding of one another so that messages can be better received and responded to by the family as a whole.

Another important aspect of the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL at Proliance Center is to help families recognize themselves as a working system, with each part of the system influencing the next.  In striving to help you attain the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL we teach each individual to understand how they are affected by their family members and, in turn, how their individual actions and behaviors affect the rest of the family.  One of the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL is that we often find that conflict arises and develops in families because of a lack of awareness about how one’s behavior affects another.  As a result, in order to obtain the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL we stress the concept of each family as a team in which every member does their part to make the team successful.

Once the basics of family functioning are established and addressed, Proliance therapists incorporate the individual needs of your family based on your presenting concerns so the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL can be attained.  Families choose counseling for a variety of reasons including communication problems, parenting issues, divorce, family violence, substance abuse, trauma, and more.  In our work to helping you find the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL we will work with your family to help you address your specific concerns.  We will then equip you with necessary skills to help you not only communicate about the issue at hand, but also effectively problem solve together as a family to overcome the problem.

Often at Proliance Center, we find that families have trouble identifying their specific needs and staying on track to make necessary changes and identifying this leads to important benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL.  We will help you to structure the family and the communication within it in a way to best manage the stresses of life as well as the joys.  We are often amazed by the influence an unbiased outside party can have on a family to help them step back and recognize how chaotic and ineffective their communication and behavior has become!  Therefore, we consider it our duty and privilege to guide you and your family along a path to health and stability and the attainment of the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL.

If you feel your family is struggling and you don’t know how to make a change, a Proliance therapist is a phone call away to help you identify your needs and determine whether you can attain the benefits of Family Therapy in Boca Raton, FL.  Feel free to call us at anytime and we’d be happy to answer your questions and help you find happiness in your family once again!

What is Offered in Family Therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida?

In family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida it is not only a therapeutic approach we offer, but also it is something we believe in fully.  With family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida we’ve seen the power that the family unit can have when they come together, in both positive and negative ways.  Therefore, with family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida we take our approach very seriously and work with our families to develop and strengthen the bonds between family members so they may function most effectively!

Whether you are a first-time participant in family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida or you have had experience with family therapy elsewhere in the past, we feel it is important to let you know what you can expect when attending family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.  First and foremost, you will be working with a highly educated and experienced therapist in the area of family therapy, who will be able to assess your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan that best reflects the goals you have for your family.  You will also be treated in a setting that is comfortable and private, helping you and your family feel the ease and trust needed to fully participate in the experience of family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.

Sometimes, not all members of the family are ready or willing to participate in family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.  This is something we encounter fairly often in family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.  As such, we use our experience and expertises to not only help your family fully understand the process of family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida, but also value the potential benefits.  We are here to answer questions before, during, and after your experience for each member of your family.  We also take the time to develop a positive working relationship with the family as a whole to ensure the best possible outcome when undergoing family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.

The actual process of family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida generally consists of a period of assessment in which the therapist works with the family as a whole to determine the issues that are causing problems for you.  We will also determine the existing strengths within the family that contribute positively to your functioning.  From this point, we work to lessen problem areas and replace them with positive interactions and bonding family members by capitalizing on and further developing your strengths through family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida.  We believe that families function as a working system, with the presence and behavior of each family member affecting this system.  We help you understand how you each contribute positively or negatively to the family and how to make the changes necessary to make effective changes.  Lastly in family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida, we help you to develop your communication skills in order to best manage interactions and decision-making.

There are a variety of reasons why family therapy at Proliance Center in South Florida may help you and your family.  Whether you have experienced loss, crisis, or have a general problem with communication or behavior within the family, we are here to help you through it!

What Marriage Counselors Do for their Patients

As a therapist who works with many couples, I’m often asked by first-time patients, “what can I expect when I come?” or “what will you do for us?.”  In essence, they want to know what marriage counselors do for their patients.  Though what marriage counselors do for their patients seems like a simple question to ask, the answer is never the same from one couple to the next.  Here at Proliance Center, what marriage counselors do for their patients is that we approach marriage counseling with the goal of personally tailoring the treatment we provide to each individual couple, based on their needs at the time of therapy.  What marriage counselors do for their patients here is that we recognize that each couple’s needs are different, depending on the stage of their relationship, environmental and situational factors, family lives, and other influences that have unique effects on each couple we see.  What couples can consistently expect at Proliance Center (what marriage counselors do for their patients here) is not only the highest degree of professionalism and training, but also personal regard and support as you move through the process of marriage counseling.

As therapists, we consider it a privilege that what marriage counselors do for their patients is to be invited into the couple relationship and we therefore treat this privilege with a great deal of respect and dedication.  It is often difficult for couples to take the step toward marriage counseling and know that it is frequently deemed last resort.  At Proliance Center, what marriage counselors do for their patients is to approach each new couple that seeks our services without judgment or bias. What marriage counselors do for their patients here is that we form a supportive alliance with you as a couple, not with one partner or the other.  Here what marriage counselors do for their patients is to view the day you decide to start counseling as a new beginning in your relationship and while we can’t repair the past, we can help you move forward in the most healthy and loving way.  What marriage counselors do for their patients at Proliance is to help you see the strengths in your marriage that frequently go overlooked and encourage you to build upon these strengths to make the future more satisfying.  We will also help you to find acceptance in the past and hope for the future.  Our goal in what marriage counselors do for their patients at Proliance is for each couple we assist is to guide them to a place where their marriage is the most satisfying part of their lives.

At Proliance Center, what marriage counselors do for their patients is evident in our therapists who truly love what they do and it is reflected in their work every day.  We strive to provide you with the highest quality of care because we truly care about you and the well-being of your relationship.  We will work with you and your partner to tailor a personal plan that best addresses the areas of your relationship that need improvement.  We invite your feedback and consider the process of therapy a team effort, involving consistent evaluation of the treatment process to ensure your progress.  Though we are experts in our fields of practice, we view the patients we see as experts on their own lives and relationships. What marriage counselors do for their patients is to highly value this expertise in the therapeutic setting.

If you feel that your relationship is in need of extra attention and support, a Proliance Center therapist would be honored to help you and your partner on your journey to a more happy and satisfying relationship!

How to Find a Family Therapist in Boca Raton, Florida

Some of the greatest joys for parents are experienced within the confines of a stable and healthy family relationship.  There is little question that when a family is happy and healthy, life is pretty good.  Unfortunately, not all families experience this health and happiness at all times.  Outside stressors, lack of balance, family crisis, or other mental health challenges can bring a family into a state of instability at any time.  It is during these times that a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida is often sought out to help families find the resiliency needed to cope with their circumstances in the healthiest way.  With so many choices out there, it is difficult to determine how to choose a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida that is right for you and your family.

How do I narrow my search of a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida to someone I can trust?

One of the best ways to find a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida is to ask trusted sources in your life for referrals.  These sources might include your physician, family and/or friends, or a representative from your religious affiliation.  Good family therapists often come with good reputations.  Proliance Center therapists not only have years of education and experience to offer, but also come with reputations of success in treating individuals, couples, and families in South Florida.

How do I know if the Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida I choose is qualified to help my family?

One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a qualified Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida is their education, training, and experience in the field.  At Proliance Center, your Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida holds a doctoral-level degree in family-specific therapy as well as over 10 years of experience working with families in a variety of treatment capacities.

It is also important for you to have an understanding of the therapist’s approach to Family Therapy in Boca Raton Florida.  There are a variety of theories and treatment modalities used in the field of family therapy.  We feel families should have a solid understanding of the treatment process that their Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida will use.  We encourage you to ask questions and are here to provide you with answers and support in your decision to choose a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida that will be the best fit for your family.

What other factors should I consider in choosing a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida?

Once you have established that your Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida is educated and trained in family counseling and has been recommended by a source you trust, you have to make sure they are the right person for you and your specific needs.  Use your intuition to evaluate whether this is a person with whom you and your family can share their concerns and experiences.  Take notice of whether you feel heard and understood.  Before committing to a Family Therapist in Boca Raton Florida, take the time to interview your options.  A Proliance Center family therapist is always a phone call away to answer any questions you might have about their background, experience, and treatment approach and help you to feel supported through the process.

How to Find a Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton, Florida

One of the most difficult decisions to make as a couple is to agree that it’s time to seek help from a Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida.  For many people, it is considered a weakness, or even a failure, to need outside help to manage the struggles you face together.  Here at Proliance Center, we view this decision as an act of strength and courage.  Finding help from a Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida means that you not only recognize the patterns in your relationship that have caused your relationship to suffer, but that you are ready to make a change together.  You’ve decided to put your marriage first!

While we recognize this decision as one of progress, we also realize how difficult it is to find the right professional for you.   Therefore, we hope to help you prioritize your needs in marriage and couples therapy to find the Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida that is the best match for you.

What are some important qualities to look for in a competent and caring Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida?

At Proliance Center, we believe that marriage therapy works best when you are comfortable in your relationship with your Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida.  It is important to use your intuition and determine if you not only like the professional, but whether they are able to understand your needs.  Some important questions you may want to ask yourself might include, “Is my Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida interested in my partner and I?  Does my Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida ask important questions?  Does my Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida take the time to get to know us and understand our strengths and struggles?”

Once you have determined that your Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida is someone with whom you can have a positive working relationship, the education and experience of this professional should be reviewed.  At Proliance Center, couples work with a doctoral-level couples Counselor with specific education in the dynamics of couples counseling.  Couples can also find comfort in the 10+ years of experience your Counselor has working with couples through a variety of struggles and presenting problems.

Often, the above-mentioned factors are all that couples need to choose the Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida that is right for them.  However, other characteristics may influence your decision as well.  It may be important for couples to consider geographic location, referrals from trusted sources, and scheduling/availability, as examples of more specific factors that may influence your decision.  Whatever your personal needs might be, your Proliance Center Marriage Counselor in Boca Raton Florida is here to answer any questions you may have about the process.  We invite you to communicate freely with us before, during, and after your experience.  We encourage you to express your concerns and questions so that we may best serve you and your partner!

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