Most individual therapy (or counseling) is all about helping someone overcome their personal struggles in order to achieve stability, improve overall mood, and grow toward healing. Family Therapy is a specialty form of treatment that incorporates the entire family system, rather than just one person.
Families will meet privately with a specially-trained Family Therapist to have safe and open conversations about the reasons they are seeking treatment. Family Therapists listen for underlying themes, notice patterns of communication, and identify the roles that different family members may take on. These insights are then used collaboratively and compassionately to help the family work on developing effective solutions for alleviating dysfunction as a team in a way that avoids shaming and blaming individual members.
Effective Family Therapy often takes time and investment from the group. Often, Family Therapists will also give some sort of at-home assignments for family members to do between sessions. These are designed to promote growth through practice in “real world” situations.