Family Counseling & Psychotherapy
Available in-person in our Pleasanton, CA office and by telehealth in California and Arizona.
Our Providers
What is Family Counseling & Psychotherapy
Family counseling & psychotherapy provide you tools for working with your family unit. This group can consist of many different combinations of loved ones, such as parents/guardians and their children, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, kinship caregivers, etc.
Family therapy can be an invaluable resource for individuals and families facing a wide range of challenges. Family therapy provides a safe and supportive space for families to address issues together, enhance communication, and navigate life changes in a healthier way. It can be particularly helpful in fostering understanding, healing relationships, and strengthening family bonds during difficult times.
Family psychotherapy can assist in adjusting to a new life change (like moving) or a medical condition, change, and challenges that come with aging, death and grief, relationship conflicts, such as parent-child conflict or sibling conflict, or divorce and separation.
Therapy can provide support, education, and guidance to you and your loved ones to help you function better and increase your well-being. Contact us to book a free consultation and see if family therapy is right for you!
Types of Family Counseling & Psychotherapy We Offer
At Merit Psychology Group, we use the following evidence-based models in our therapeutic care:
- Functional Family Therapy (FFT)
- Strategic Family Therapy (SFT)
- Structural Family Therapy
- Systemic Family Therapy
- Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
- Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT)
More About Our Therapeutic Approaches:
Our therapy approaches are grounded in science. If you are not sure about starting therapy, below are some of the types of treatment we offer.
What is Functional Family Therapy (FFT)?
- Therapists most often use this type to help families with children who have behavioral issues.
- It is an effective, short-term, evidence-based family counseling service designed for youth who are at risk or have been referred for behavioral or emotional problems.
- FFT assesses the family dynamics that have contributed to a child’s behavior, works to improve family communication and parenting skills, and supports positive reinforcement.
- FFT has been studied and is proven to reduce adverse behaviors.
What is Marriage Counseling or Couples Therapy for Families?
- This therapy involves you and your spouse or romantic partner.
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs) are specifically trained to help couples determine their problems and work on solutions.
- Issues may be related to communication around parenting styles, raising children, core values in raising a child, finances, spirituality and faith differences, understanding your or your partner’s mental health condition, and more.
- The goal is to increase communication and build understanding around core issues in order to make a cohesive family system that has tools to problem-solve around conflict without negative outcomes.
What is Strategic Family Therapy?
- This is a short-term family therapy that focuses on making positive structural and behavioral changes in the family environment.
- It’s based on the foundation that the family plays the most important role in the life and development of children.
- Therapists may use this therapy form for families with children who have behavioral issues.
What is Structural Family Therapy?
- This type of therapy looks at the inner relationships, boundaries, and hierarchies within a family unit (its structure).
- It focuses on direct interactions among your family members as the primary way to bring about positive change.
- The main foundation of structural family therapy is that when guided by a therapist, families will discover their own alternatives to their problematic patterns of relating to one another.
What is Systemic Family Therapy?
- The foundation of systemic family therapy is considering the family’s issues in the different contexts in which they live.
- For example, the therapist will consider how one family member functions as a partner in a romantic relationship, as a parent, and as a child to their parents.
- For families who are participating in therapy due to a mental health condition, psychoeducation is a crucial part of the therapy.
- Psychoeducation is the way that mental health professionals teach people and their families about mental health conditions.
- It involves basic information about the condition, causes, treatment, and prognosis (outlook).
How Does Therapy Help Families?
- Family psychotherapy helps create a space for each member to express themselves, develop empathy, and find new ways of relating to one another.
- It’s a collaborative process where we work together to build healthier communication, resolve conflicts, and develop the skills necessary to thrive as a unit.
- Family therapy can cultivate better communication.
- Family therapy can assist strained relationships between family members.
- It can help the family system manage stress and express anger in adaptive ways.
- Family therapy can improve relationships. Strained connections can be addressed, and family therapy can create a more supportive and understanding environment.
- Family therapy can assist with generational trauma or acute trauma in the family system (physical or emotional).
- Family can assist families in coping with acute or chronic illnesses of a family member, such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, stroke, chronic pain, or other conditions.
- Family therapy can assist in managing grief after the loss of a loved one.
- Family therapy can assist with managing reactions to divorce or romantic relationship issues.
- Family therapy can assist families in coping with sudden changes, such as unemployment, moving, or incarceration.
- Families who have neurodivergent members, such as someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), can also benefit from participating in therapy, as there are nuances to social engagement and reaction when there are family members with these conditions.