Who do Marriage and Family Therapists work with?

Who do Marriage and Family Therapists work with?

By, Wendy McLoon

When most people hear the title of “marriage and family therapist”, they automatically assume that we only work with couples and families dealing with problems related to marital conflicts, parenting, and parent-child conflict.

In the earlier years of Marriage and Family Therapy, the word “family” was defined in a more narrow and traditional sense. The term only included parents and children; now, the concept of family is more commonly defined in terms of strongly supportive, long-term roles and relationships between people who may or may not be related by blood or marriage.

As Marriage and Family Therapists, the core belief that we share is that we are all relational beings. We believe that our problems only exist within our relationship to others and how we see them. Research has shown that family therapy appears to be at least as effective and possibly more effective when working with individuals with a wide variety of problems. It could be more effective, because as systemic thinkers, we offer the treatments of choice. Besides working on the obvious issues with couples and families, we also provide services to individuals dealing with:

Depression

Anxiety

Stress

Work/Life Balance

Trauma

Abuse

Boundaries

Substance Abuse

What are some problems that we can help you with in your relationship?