Couples and Families

Human beings, like all social animals, conglomerate together, pair with mates and reproduce to create families. However, we are also very much more complex in how relationships and families are structured, managed, needed and protected on a day-to-day basis. So, while a wolf pack might not need help to make it’s hierarchy run smoothly, if it does not, it does not survive.

We have other options. It is frequently lost in the modern world that relationships and families remain at the root of our social organization and the meaning of our existence. But when we get caught up in the stresses of daily life we can lose sight of what matters most, the people we love.

Treatment of couples involves, first and foremost, establishing or re-establishing effective and caring communication. It usually involves a return to the things that we found attractive and valuable about a person, and then a re-aquaintence with those things. It involves a search for hidden or lost love by wading through the build up of perceived slights, wrongdoing and resentments that accumulate over time. Successful relationships require continuous hard work and well-intentioned effort on the part of the participants. Saving a relationship is no different.

Families are even more complicated because they involve a system of multiple relationships. Fundamentally, the same concepts apply wherein communication tends be the first thing the breakdown and the most important thing to address. A family’s dynamics are based on the characteristics of each of its component members and the effects they have on one another and on the group as a whole. A family is an integrated system, like a pond, where a rock thrown in one place sends ripples throughout the rest. Effective treatment involves analysis of the system, understanding of the dynamics, and adjustments to the behaviors of component members in order to restore balance and harmony.