Family Systems

Family Systems therapy looks at how each individual is connected to their family, community, culture and spirituality. People are wonderfully complicated and how you end up as you is a combination of many things, relationships and events that have happened throughout your life. True healing can begin when all these parts of you are looked at and healed through love, compassion, understanding and setting healthy boundaries.

In my work with families experiencing relational conflict, my clients find that employing an approach rooted in attachment theory allows me to help them learn about the communication patterns within the family unit. Through this work, members of the family typically report that they understand where their own communication patterns come from, how their family system operates as a whole, and their role in improving communication within that system.

My approach to therapy is warm, non-judgmental, collaborative, and conversational. The theoretical orientations I generally work from include family systems, structural and symbolic experiential. Furthermore, I often incorporate additional concepts and approaches to best meet the needs of my clients. I use multiple modalities of counseling, teaching, learning, and healing and incorporate various psycho-social-educational models within a culture and gender-sensitive framework.

I am a systemic therapist who explores relationships through the context of systems. I like to explore family of origin, while looking at the processes of what is happening between those who are present in the room/online or those that are not able to be physically present. I like to use this way of thinking in exploring all different types of relationships.

My work focuses on building impactful relationships. Family Systems theory is a lens through which I view treatment. I have taught university graduate-level courses centered on the application of family systems theory. I received specialized training as a marriage and family therapist, received additional training in postgraduate school, presented at national conferences on family systems dynamics, and have over a decade of experience working with families in clinical settings.

We explore the patterns and structures present within the family that impact relational patterns that can lead to individual behavioral and emotional struggles, as well as communication challenges. We work to build healthier patterns of interaction, and reinforce healthy structure within the family to improve the function of both the individuals and family as a whole.

I am adept with working with in family and the complicated patterns of behavior that can exist between members. I am particularly adept at help adult parent/adult child estrangement - helping the parent understand why a child would choose estrangement, and working towards healing that relationship.

As a marriage and family therapist my primary training and expertise is in family systems and working with relationship dynamics.

We all view the world through a certain lens. How we were raised in our family of origin affects how we view ourselves and others around us. It affects how we show up in the world and we interrupt our world. When we are aware of how the environment we grew up in affects us we can learn to grow from the ways we are living that are harmful to us or that are detrimental to our growth and fulfillment.

Individuals do not exist in isolation and are intricately connected within the complex web of family dynamics. I believe that understanding these intricate relationships and patterns is crucial for promoting healing and awareness of how your family of origin, family dynamics and upbringing, have influenced you today.

We are all embedded in various systems--from our family of origin, to our current relationships, to schools, society and more. Understanding the weblike nature of our existence is crucial to addressing individual suffering and aspirations. Cybernetics, systems theory, offers an invaluable way of helping to change/heal.

Everybody had or has some form of family, whether you born into it, choose it, or found yourself in a situation with others that essentially represented a family. I use the Systems approach to change the perception of who you are and why you do the things you do by looking at how you were shaped and influenced by the people in your lives as you developed. We were all set up to think and believe and act the ways that we do because of those around us as we developed.

Systems Theory doesn't have to mean bringing in your entire family. A look at your family system gives info into how and why you are the cog shaped the way you are, just like in a clock. We look at how all the cogs work together & by changing only one of the cogs (you), all the others are affected. Understanding your family system and how you function(ed) in it is key to lasting change for yourself, since we tend to find people (or cogs) that looks just the ones we already know.

Family Systems are a multigenerational/historical approach to understanding emotional and behavioral disorders. Rooted in the notion that the self needs to be differentiated from the family system with clarity, insight, and evaluation of the transmission processes one can have a reduction in anxiety, depression, and symptoms related to family processes and can become highly individualized engaging in the extended families system.

I work with families dealing with communication challenges, attachment difficulties, issues of self esteem, school and social difficulties, anxiety and depression, grief and loss, traumatic experiences, family dynamics and changes in family structures. My job is to learn about the dynamics and about the goals you have. From there, we will together find a way that gives you the best results.

I've worked with families for the past 11 years and have experience with foster/adoptive, racial minority and LGBTQ families, adult children and families experiencing major life transitions.

Taking a look at generational patterns that have been passed down. Understanding a client's family of origin is extremely helpful in understanding the client on a deeper level.

Even if you are coming for individual or couples therapy, I believe that it is important to understand how your upbringing and family environment affects you now. My belief is that we can understand and, therefore, change the present moment when we understand its connection to our past beliefs and habits.