Marriage and Family Therapy

This article covers Marriage and Family Therapy. Everyone wants a life that's peaceful, with a partner and family who get along with each other. Unfortunately, couples and families are made up of people, and, as we know, people can be very complicated. Sometimes, when a family is under stress and things are not going well it can be very helpful to check into the use of Marriage and Family Therapy.

We can blame family problems on many things in our modern world; work, stress, money problems, etc., but the main reason that couples and families have problems is due to "failing to communicate" or, the fact that people don't spend enough time actually talking to one another and trying to understand each other.

These communication problems are where the use of a Marriage and Family therapist can be of the most help. A Marriage and Family therapist is a person who is trained in understanding how relationships work in a family situation, and is there to help family members learn how to understand and communicate better with one another.

Marriage and Family Therapy Helps With Complicated Relationships

Family relationships are always complicated. Each person in a family is an individual and individuals all have their own feelings, needs and wants It's also human nature to feel that our own needs are always more important and urgent than what others need. This completely normal and human self-centered attitude can lead to a lot of fights, arguments and misunderstandings.

If your family has gotten to the point of constant arguing and fighting, and seems ready to explode, this is the time to contact a Marriage and Family therapist to help your family learn better methods of communication, and to learn to understand each other better.

Most people know about individual counseling, which is usually about a person learning to understand themselves and learn better ways of getting along in the world. Marriage and Family therapy is different from individual counseling in that it is about exploring the actual reasons why couples and families are having problems with each other.

Marriage is a difficult, complicated and emotional relationship. It involves two individuals who are trying to build a relationship, home and family together. Each of them goes into the relationship with hopes, dreams and expectations that aren't always shared with their partner.

As time goes on, each one of these partners can become so busy with their own lives and problems that they stop communicating and lose touch with each other. This causes misunderstandings and loneliness and if it continues too long, it can cause a marriage to fail. When you add children, and sometimes problems with extended family, this can lead to explosive situations.

This is the time in which Marriage and Family therapy can be vital to save the family unit through allowing all family members to open up about their feelings, needs, wants, and frustrations and learn ways to heal the misunderstandings and pain.

Marriage and Family Therapy Takes Work

An important part of the counseling process is learning how to look inside yourself and understand why you feel and act the way you do. In Marriage and Family therapy, not only do family members learn to look inside themselves for some of the answers, they need to learn to look beyond the actions and words of other family members to see what is inside them and causing them to act the way they do.

All families have a structure, and each family member has a role in this structure. Some are leaders, some are followers, some try to control the entire situation while others may try to hide in the background and not make waves. These roles come about for many reasons; personality, age, talents, abilities, etc.

Sometimes Marriage and Family Therapist deal with family members who "act out" as a way of getting attention, or getting their own way. Some family members may develop attitudes and actions to call attention to themself. There is an expression that states that "any kind of attention is better than no attention". Sometimes family members have to resort to bad behavior to get the attention they need.

What was just described is part of what is called "family dynamics, and something often dealt with in marriage and family therapy. This is a way of describing how and why families do or don't work, or get along with each other. Another fact about families is that each family has its own rules. There are the normal rules about homework, bedtimes, chores, etc. that cause friction in all families.

But, families also have unspoken rules. These unspoken rules can be used to cover up or excuse substance abuse, domestic violence, mental health problems, and other difficulties, but they can also exist as ways that parents and children "manipulate" each other to get their own way.

Success with Marriage and Family Therapy

Seeing a therapist who specializes in Marriage and Family Therapy, and working with them can identify these "family dynamics" and "unspoken rules", as well as whatever problems that cause them to be the way they are. Once a family learns to understand these things that interfere with a family's relationships with one another, they will be able to find ways to better cope.

In short, this is the role and purpose of Marriage and Family therapy, to help preserve marriages and families by helping to rebuild relationships and make them stronger. By teaching self-understanding, and promoting communication, empathy and understanding between family members, each member of that family stands a better chance of going on to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

The family is one of the most important basic units in society, and whatever Marriage and Family therapy can do to help preserve this is worth the time and effort.

This was a very basic overview, but hopefully it provides some value. If you have interest in a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, don't forget to search for psychology schools in our graduate psychology school search. I hope it has been beneficial in helping you understand Marriage and Family Therapy more thoroughly.