Family Therapy

Family therapy views a person’s symptoms as taking place in the larger context of the family. Just as a particular department in a business organization may suffer because of the problems in another department, a person with depression may be responding to larger family issues. For example, a depressed adolescent’s symptoms may be related to her parents’ marital problems.

Family therapy is a style where cognitive, behavior or interpersonal therapy may be employed. However, it is most often used with interpersonal therapy. Some special techniques of family therapy include:

Genogram — A genogram is a family tree constructed by the therapist. It looks at past relationships and events and what impact these have on the person’s current emotional technique.
Systemic Interpretation — Views depression as a symptom of a problem in the larger family.

Communication Training — Dysfunctional communication patterns within the family are identified and corrected. People are taught how to listen, ask questions and respond non-defensively.