- Symptoms
- Challenges
- Reasons
Symptoms in the family and reasons for family therapy
When one member of the family has a problem, the whole family has a problem.
Children are often the first in the family to show signs that something is wrong.
The adults in the know have often noticed it, but may be too busy to do anything about it.
With few exceptions, it is therefore always recommended that the children participate in family therapy.
Children as well as adults can show symptoms such as:
- Absence from school/leisure interests/education/work etc
- Withdrawal, loss of friends and isolation
- Working overtime or otherwise removing oneself from the family
- Difficulty getting or keeping a conversation going
- Change in mood/mood (e.g. sadness/aggressiveness/hopelessness)
- Changes in appetite and weight loss or gain
- Stomach/intestinal problems (constipation/small stomach) or impurity
- Changes in relation to sexuality, habits and desire
- Sleep problems, nightmares or bedwetting
- Frustration, bitterness and resentment
- That the children/adults just do what suits them
- Enmity, arguing, bullying, violence/fights, assault
- Theft and vandalism
- Abuse and self-harm
- Gambling and indebtedness
Challenges in the family
There are many challenges in a family and most of them cluster around each other
- Balance between individual and group/family
- Balance between family and work/study
- Balance between child rearing and child skills
Reasons for seeking family therapy
There can be many reasons for seeking family therapy.
However, most families who seek family therapy primarily have three backgrounds and motives:
1) The family life cycle
The family changes throughout its life cycle. Some family members drop out, others leave, new ones join, different branches of the family sprout and (nuclear) families merge. It can cause challenges with release or fusion. At the same time, the individual’s life cycle changes – child, teenager, adult and pensioner. This gives rise to restructuring, changes in values and norms, friction in interaction, communication difficulties and conflicts. It can also be existential influences, such as illness and death or practical and external influences such as accidents, unemployment or relocation.
2) The family as a safe, secure and loving base
The family is also a gathering unit, center and base through which many consciously develop. Some families seek support and inspiration here for these forward-looking growth processes, where they both get to know themselves and their origins better and try to create a balance between their individuality/identity/development and cohesion with the family. Increased knowledge as well as optimized reactions and behavior is also a learning they take with them throughout their lives. Also outside the family and in other close relationships such as in relationships, friendships and on the job market.
3) Problems in the family
Finally, problems arise in many families, which manifest themselves through symptoms such as above. At first, they only appear as superficial challenges. Later, they may turn out to be more serious problems. Some families seek assistance immediately and others wait until the problems have reached the extent of relationship problems, alcohol/abuse, infidelity, violence, running away, overtime, secondments, travel activity, problems at school, gambling, crime, sleep/nutrition problems, impurity, self-harm, suicide attempts , illness, isolation, arguments… It can be difficult for the family to see for themselves, as it is often only one or a few people who are symptom carriers and who change their behavior or become scapegoats.
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