Does Your Family Lack Effective Communication Skills? Family Counseling Can Help

Does your family lack effective communication skills? Family counseling can help.Especially when living in close proximity to each other, our personal problems don’t remain personal for long, as they can very quickly escalate into something that negatively impacts everyone. This seems to be especially true with some of our closest relationships, like the ones between family members. Without effective communication skills, any shared emotional frustrations or strains within the family are only worsened. In order to avoid this intensification, you may consider seeking professional guidance through family therapy.

When properly administered, family therapy can provide effective communication amongst family members that, in turn, lessens the blow of tense situations. Wake Forest University sites that poor communication is one of the main culprits behind children’s individual stresses escalating into shared family issues. For example, when a child has a disability they require special attention from their parents, possibly causing other siblings to develop feelings of envy,  jealousy, or guilt toward this special attention that can manifest as behavioral trouble at school, angry outbursts at home, depression or withdrawal. Either way, without communication, the child’s emotional challenges can grow into a variety of behavioral problems that affect more than just them. That’s why Individual therapy, which helps increase self-awareness and teaches valuable communication skills, is a crucial part of treatment to the whole family. In helping each person learn to express their feelings, as well as encouraging others to listen and look past the behaviors, you can really begin to understand contributing factors.

The importance of communication, however, is not limited to determining the cause of family tensions. Adults in particular may already be aware of the sources of stress in their life but remain unaware of how their own behavior affects their family members, or, worse, are not even able to acknowledge that they are behaving inappropriately in the first place.  Not being able or willing to communicate stress to family members can often lead to unnecessarily harsh confrontations, angry outbursts, and punishment that, as far as the kids are concerned, comes out of nowhere. Family counseling can create a good starting point for each member of the family to describe what they see, how they feel, and what unconscious messages are being shared through behavior. This can also help patients to understand nonverbal communication and develop an awareness of how their actions may send a different signal than their words at home.

Similarly, families that have experienced a shared trauma may have no trouble recognizing the source of their mutual distress but fail to see the need for therapy. Luckily surviving a natural disaster, mourning the death of a friend or relation, and other obvious traumas can be effectively managed through family counseling. It can help guide communication throughout the rehabilitative process, as the family learns to develop skills that enable them to support one another and unlearn any harmful coping methods they may have used. Better communication can create a healthier environment for everyone to develop different habits and intervene more quickly and effectively when there is an issue.

Overall, it’s clear that a family that is able to open up to one another, describe their emotions and explain how they are affected, and generally support one another through listening and sharing, are better equipped to deal with any challenges they may face. Because family therapy is such a specialized skillset, one should seek a therapist who has received both training and credentials qualifying them to perform this type of counseling. Life Balance Therapy provides professional online therapy solutions and in-person therapy in San Antonio that can offer your family guidance in trying times, with a compassionate experience for your therapy services that will help you achieve your family therapy goals. See for yourself how our treatment paves the way to a better and happier life, building healthier connections and improved perspectives – schedule a consultation today!