How treating the entire family can promote recovery
Families can find it hard to adjust to the situation when someone is struggling with addiction or a mental health issue. Family therapy can help the family as a whole recover and heal.
The goal of family therapy is to promote positive changes, help the family adjust to the new changes and ultimately help them stabilize and settle into a new, healthier way of living. Research suggests that treatment that includes family therapy works better.
Together with individual treatment, family therapy can help:
- Increase medication adherence
- Reduce rates of relapse
- Reduce symptoms
- Relieve stress
Family therapy is more than education. A family therapist helps the members support and trust each other, communicate better and treat each other with respect. Specific objectives are unique to each family.
Individuals can have their own definition of family and they can include just about anyone who they feel is important in their lives. The family therapist can be a licensed family therapist, social worker, psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor or clergy member and should be sensitive to the family’s culture, race, ethnic group or any other factors.
Aurora Pavilion Behavioral Health Services is here for you. If you know someone who is struggling and may benefit from treatment that can include family therapy, contact us today at 803-641-5900 or 800-273-7911.
- Source: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration