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Family Therapy

family therapy

Is there someone in your family you wish you could get along with better?

Maybe it’s your kids, who hardly speak to you, or to each other, and you don’t really know why. Maybe it’s a sibling whose life seems to have gone off track. Maybe it’s a parent who constantly intrudes on your life, offering helpful “advice” that is unsolicited and unwanted.

Family relationships are difficult. The people who are closest to us are often also the ones who cause us the most pain and frustration. And it can feel awful having to struggle with the ones we want most to connect with, to love and be loved by.

Are you experiencing any of these challenges in your close relationships?

  • Your attempts at communication with them repeatedly end in arguments?
  • They make demands of you, explicitly or implicitly, that you feel are unreasonable, and you can’t seem to get them to stop?
  • They try to control your life choices, your other relationships, or your parenting?
  • They shut you out of their lives and nothing you try has helped you to get back in?

Most likely you’re not trying to get them out of your life; you just want this relationship to work “like it’s supposed to” but can’t figure out how. Or maybe you’ve made that decision that you need to cut this person off for your own well-being and the well-being of the rest of your family, but can’t cut the cord.

Stress in families is normal.

Some people have more, some have less. But all families, like all human beings, are imperfect. We mess up sometimes. We hurt each other and don’t know how to fix it, or how to change. Maybe your family has more than its share of hurts and messes. But that doesn’t mean it always has to be that way.

Family therapy can help.

Would you like to:

  • Feel close again to your loved ones?
  • Resolve conflict and disagreements with respect and levelheadedness?
  • Learn how to be assertive about your needs, without hurting others or giving up your own self in the process?
  • Manage perpetually difficult relationships in your life?
help with mother-in-law

Get help for your family now.

It’s possible for things to be different – even if they’ve been this way for a long time. Sometimes people feel hopeless about the future because it’s been this way for so long, or because the family dynamics seem so broken. But the truth is, sometimes you just need the right tools, and the right words. If you need a screwdriver and all you have is a hammer, it can get pretty frustrating try to set things straight.

With the right help, you can get your family back.  We’ll help you break old patterns and create new, healthier ones. You can experience the connection that maybe you once had, or that you always hoped for. Families aren’t perfect – there will always be disagreements, discomfort, missed opportunities – but those can all exist within a context of love, connection, and acceptance.

But I still have questions…

Can you really fix my crazy mother/brother/cousin?

Family therapy is not about fixing any one person. It’s about changing the way you’ve been doing things to make room for relationships to flourish. You may in fact have a troubled relative who is unable to participate in a relationship with you right now, whether that’s due to mental illness, addiction, or personal choice. We can’t make anyone do anything. We can just help you to create the environment where close relationships can be possible. And they are indeed possible, even when obstacles such as these exist.

How can I get my family member to come to family therapy?

The most powerful tool you have in this situation is humility. If you accuse them of being the problem and insist they need to come to therapy, you may not have a willing participant. Instead, you can acknowledge that this relationship has not been as you wish and that you’d like to take responsibility for your part in that problem, whatever it might be. Invite them to help you see what you can do differently. That’s a much more alluring offer.

What if they still don’t want to come?

Often coming in by yourself to hash out the situation with a family therapist can make a big difference. Maybe you can strategize a way to get buy-in from the others involved. Maybe you can get some insight into what you might be doing that is contributing to the problem (even if you’re not the root cause of it). Or maybe you can come to discover that the situation is not currently fixable (as in the case with a relative who is an active alcoholic, for example), and learn how to cope with that reality.

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You deserve to have a family.

Every human being does. You don’t have to live with continual conflict, heartache, and estrangement. It’s time to put things back the way they should be. It’s time for connection, for sharing, for love. It’s time for family.

Check out these critical posts on family therapy:

Contact us today for help with your family situation:

Family Therapy Needed!

family conflict

Madison is sick of dealing with the same fights week after week, month after month.  Her mother is a control freak, and the way she interacts with the Madison and her sisters ends up pitting them all against each other.  Family visits are always a nightmare, and the last time anyone spoke to her brother John (who has been diagnosed with a mental illness) is years ago.  It seems like there is always something to fight about in their family.  After one particularly draining Thanksgiving, Madison and her sisters agree to go for family therapy.  The Baltimore Therapy Center was the clear first choice for them.

sibling relationships

Jeremy and Joseph are concerned about their sister, who has been increasingly isolating herself from the family. They aren’t sure what’s going on, but they desperately want to help her. They contact the Baltimore Therapy Center and meet with a counselor who helps guide them towards possible solutions for their family.

Mindy and Mark are being driven crazy by Mindy’s overbearing mother. Mark feels like he’s living in every mother-in-law joke that’s ever been told. They have tried to set boundaries but haven’t been successful. They reach out to a family therapist at the Baltimore Therapy Center who helps them create and maintain limits they can live with.

African American family therapy

Yolanda’s grown children barely speak to her, and she has no idea why. She’s lucky if she gets a brief call once a week. For holidays they’re all with their spouses’ families instead of with her. She has minimal contact with her grandchildren. She’s not sure what if anything she’s doing wrong. After coming to the Baltimore Therapy Center with her husband, she learns a lot about her family dynamics and what she can do to fix them.

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Our Testimonials

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Raffi led an informal group which I attended along with a few classmates from Israel in the summer of 2010. We had just returned to New Jersey from studying in a one- to two-year fellowship abroad. Ra

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Highly professional but down to earth. Both my husband and I felt completely understood and valued; something couple’s often fear simply cannot

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Raffi made me enjoy going to therapy. I have learned to talk through issues that seemed impossible and I feel so much better about the communication in my relation

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My boyfriend and I see Raffi and it was the best decision we ever made. It is hard to gather the right words to describe him and how much he has helped us and our

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Caitlin is so special. She is an excellent listener and offers valuable and practical advice for improving life circumstances. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to grow and improve their

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