Family Counseling generally refers to a psycho-therapeutic process meant to help married couples and other family members come up with a viable and long-term solution to their challenges or nurture development in the family. Family counseling does not involve direct giving of a solution to the clients or counselees (those seeking a solution to their problem), but a counselor provides a number of options or choices from which the clients can choose their best solution. In doing so, the counselor needs to attach all the consequences involved in the alternative he/she gives. As one of the most sensitive areas, family counseling requires careful consideration of the sources of family or marital problem for which the solution is being sought.
An effectiveness of family counseling lies in the proper identification of the true problem (some problems are often symptoms of the true problem). There is a need for a couple or family members to seek to counsel from highly qualified and licensed family counselors for effective decision making on how to solve existing problems within the family. Qualified family counselors have a wide mastery of several family counseling theories or approaches in the field of counseling psychology from which they derive techniques used in the family counseling process.
Major counseling theory used in family counseling is called Family Systems Therapy by Murray Bowen, a family counseling psychologist. It is based on the principle that individuals cannot be separated from a network of relationships they form in their families. This theory relies heavily on the systems thinking which holds that behavior is informed by the functioning of an individual’s family.
Family Systems Therapy uses three major approaches in counseling. These are structural family therapy, strategic family therapy, and intergenerational family therapy.
Structural family therapy
This therapy posits that family relationships and behavior patterns are exhibited within the session of therapy and these behaviors can be used to evaluate the family structure. It makes use of activities like role play and dramatization. In this approach, therapists examine subsystems of the family structure such as parental subsystems and siblings subsystems.
Strategic family therapy
This evaluates family functions and processes by examining family behavior outside the session of therapy. The process may involve redefining or reframing a problematic scenario. It can also involve use of paradoxical interventions to create the desired change. For instance, the counselor can probe the family to act in a seemingly opposite way to the goals of that particular therapy. This is done with a goal of solving and existing problem with a view that desired change can be achieved without intensive analysis of the family structure.
Intergenerational family therapy
This therapy acknowledges that generational influences can cause modifications on individual and family behavior. Aspects such as temperament and anxiety management have roots in previous generations. These approaches can help people to understand sources of their problems and come up with an effective solution.
In a nutshell, family counseling is instrumental in providing a long-term solution to the existing family or marital problems by examining the source of their problems to help the client(s) come up with a consistent solution. Family counseling should be handled with qualified professionals with a thorough mastery of family challenges and theoretical understanding of their roots. The goal of family counseling is to enhance emotional peace among family members. It is advisable that if a family counselor handling the problem cannot meet the goal of family counseling due to some factors, he/she should refer the case to another counselor for an effective solution to be sought.