4 Reasons to Do Family Therapy You Haven’t Thought About Before

Think of all the families you know. The happy ones. The perfect ones. The ones you’d love your kids to hang out with. At least 4 of them are in therapy right now.

If your family has been in a trouble spot lately, and you’re thinking about therapy, I want you to give it a shot, even if it’s not with me. You’d be amazed at how simple some problems are to fix, and how much joy family therapy can add back into your home life.

4 Reasons to Come to Family Therapy

There are a gazillion reasons to come to family therapy, but I’m going to list some that I’ve worked with personally that you don’t hear about a lot. If you see your family in one of these scenarios, give me a call. It’s never too late to help your family be happier, healthier, and closer.

1. You’ve recently created a blended family.

Blended families, where parents who have kids from previous relationships get together, can be such a blessing to everyone involved. More family = more love. But it can be hard to put all the new pieces together in a way that works for everyone.

If you and your partner have just started a blended family, both you and your kids may need help knowing everyone’s place in the new family structure. Step parents rarely know their roles right off the bat. A new bunch of siblings to have “rivalry” with can derail still-developing emotional resilience in kids.

A family therapist can help everyone express their concerns and desires in a safe, healthy way that leads to progress, not resentment. Your therapist can help you understand the struggles your kids are facing, and help you form as plan as a cohesive parental unit that gives a united front to build your new family around.

2. Someone in the family has recently returned from war

I’ve worked extensively with veterans who have returned from military conflicts with PTSD. When I work with PTSD patients, it’s critical that I work with their families, too. It can be difficult to see the person you love return home (and you’re overjoyed!) only to realize that they seem so different. That difference can inject space between you that doesn’t need to exist.

I help PTSD sufferers and their families understand the disorder, what causes it, how to help the family member who is suffering from it, and help the patient work through their traumatic experiences to re-enter civilian life.

3. Someone in your family has a chronic illness

When someone you love is diagnosed with a chronic illness, it can seem like the end of the world. Their whole life is about to change. And so is yours.

In family therapy, I help families deal with the emotional shock of one of their own getting the shocking news that they have a chronic illness. I work with a lot of people whose children or partners have been diagnosed with autism, type 1 diabetes or become disabled, but there are a host of other illnesses that can throw a family’s world into a tailspin.

Together, we’ll deal with grieving the things it seems like you’ve lost (lifestyle, future plans, etc.) and focus on processing feelings and looking forward to the good times still ahead … because they’re not over!

4. Your family is grieving the loss of a loved one

Death is a part of life. That’s the worn-out saying you’ve heard a thousand times. It’s true, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t help you fill that jagged hole in your heart when someone you loves leaves this planet.

It’s not typical for kids to lose people, and other kids (their friends) don’t know how to deal with that. When I do family grief counseling, I offer support to parents and teach them how to talk to their kids about death. I also work with the kids to explore their loss. Kids are so in tune to their parents, especially when they’ve lost one – they don’t want to talk about it because it makes their mom/dad cry. But they NEED to talk about it. That’s where I come in.

Schedule your FREE 45-minute session now!

Let’s chat about your family, what challenges you’re facing, and see if family therapy is right for you. Give me a call today at 706-864-7790 or visit me online at www.IntoTheWoodsTherapies.com.

Integrative therapy is perfectly tailored for you

No two people are alike, which means no two therapies should be just alike, either. Integrative therapy is a custom approach that tailors itself to the needs of a particular patient.

With integrative therapy, I use a variety of different theories and approaches to mental and emotional healing because no one formula fits every person. Depending on the patient, I employ “a little bit of this” and “a little bit of that” of all the different branches of psychological work and meld them together in a way that will help my clients the most.

Mind-body healing with integrative therapy

I truly believe that to heal a person’s problems, you have to address the whole person. People are made up of so many wonderful and complex things: physical body, mind, emotions, childhood, family structure, spirituality, experiences … this list could go one for pages. All those pieces come together to form a whole person, so it doesn’t make sense to focus on only the “problem” when there are so many other factors that influence it.

What our journeys teach us

I think every experience is part of our journey. I’ve worked with people who are very judgmental about their past, but I believe we come to who we are through experience. Sometimes we don’t get to choose the experiences we’re put into, especially when we’re very young, but our journeys teach us things. Part of what I do as an integrative therapist is tease out the greater meaning of these experiences.

The spiritual component of integrative therapy

It’s always part of my initial interview: “Tell me about your spirituality.” Religion and spirituality have a tremendous guiding force in people’s lives, and many times, healing that spiritual portion makes a world of difference to the whole.

If spirituality is something my patients’ feel comfortable talking about, we do. I always try to understand my patients’ religion/spirituality, even if I’ve never heard of it before. I’ll ask a lot of questions and then do research on my own if I’m working with a person whose faith I’m not familiar with. My patients seems to really appreciate it when I’m upfront about not knowing a lot about their religion, and they always seem excited to talk about it, to teach me.

Wilderness therapy

One tactic I use a lot in my integrative approach is nature therapy or wilderness therapy. There’s something about being out in nature that just heals people. They slow down. They stop thinking about all the things on their to-do lists. Connecting with nature helps people reconnect with themselves.

Who says therapy means lying on a couch?!? I like to take my patients outside to chat, whether on a hike, sitting m a duck pond or tinkering in a garden.

Support groups

I’ve led a ton of support groups in my years as an integrative counselor, and I’m a big believer that coming together with others who are struggling with the same thing you’re struggling with can be incredibly empowering.

Over my years as a counselor I’ve worked with all kinds of support groups, from postpartum groups to grief and loss, families with disabled children, and PTSD. If I think group therapy would be helpful for my patients in addition to or instead of individual therapy, I’ll suggest it. That’s a perk of being an integrative therapist: I’m not bound by theory to stay within certain parameters for treatment. If I think something will help my patient, I do it.

Schedule your FREE 45-minute session today!

Let’s get to know each other. I’d love to help you grow. To schedule your free session, give me a call at 706-864-7790 or visit me online at www.IntoTheWoodsTherapies.com.

Play Therapy: Speaking a child’s language

Many children don’t have the language skills and emotional intelligence to express what they’re feeling through words (many adults also struggle here, so imagine how hard it can be for a child).

Instead, children act out their thoughts and feelings in play. In a therapeutic setting, play therapy works to help the child express their emotions, uncover hidden thoughts, and work through problems in the way that comes most naturally to them — play.

What is play therapy?

Play therapy is very simply letting children play. As a licensed professional counselor, I’ll watch as well as play along with them, and sometimes the family even joins in. There are a lot of options for play therapy, from role-playing with dolls and doll houses to gardening and arts and crafts.

But play therapy isn’t as simple as it appears. (Making it seem like “just fun” is part of how it works.)

Play therapy is a structured, theoretically based approach that works with the way children naturally express themselves. As my littlest patients play, I watch for certain patterns and actions that tell me more about what’s going on in their heads.

Plato spoke of the importance of play, saying “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

And he’s right.

Why it works

One of the biggest benefits of play therapy is its non-threatening nature. So many children’s first thought about going to a doctor is “Oh no! I’m getting a shot!” So going to any kind of specialist/therapist can have elicit the same negative reaction.

But when kids show up at my office and see toys everywhere, and then we sit on the floor and just play, they relax. They open up. It’s too bad there isn’t more play therapy for adults.

Outcomes of Play Therapy

Research shows that play therapy helps children with all sorts of life stressors and issues, including learning issues, autism, ADHD, divorce, physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, chronic illness, and more.

While in the process of play therapy, I help my patients work on:

• Developing better coping strategies
• Creating new solutions to problems
• Cultivating empathy and respect for others
• Learning better social skills for better relationships
• Learning to express and experience emotions in healthy ways

Are families involved in play therapy?

I truly believe that healing a child means healing the whole family. It really does take a village. To that end, when I do play therapy with my young patients, there is a blend of family involvement and counselor-only play. Of course, when parents and family are not involved in the play therapy directly, they will still be very much involved in the process and kept abreast of the progress their child is making.

What’s the purpose of play therapy?

Play therapy can be used to both diagnose and treat mental health issues in children. For example, how a child plays with a dollhouse family can reveal problems at home or school. As we play, we work on ways to deal with problems and feelings in healthy ways.

Lots of kids think “I can’t make a mistake or adults will get mad at me.” In play therapy, we talk about and make mistakes, and I tell them adults make mistakes all the time. I remind them, “The kids that fail the most are the kids that learn the most.”

We work on developing a “growth mindset,” meaning “I haven’t gotten it yet.” Instead of a “fixed mindset” that means “I’m not good at something” or “I can’t do something.”

I tell my kids basketball players miss more shots than they make.

Schedule your FREE 45-minute session today!

I’d love to get to know you and help you work through whatever’s holding you back. To schedule your FREE 45-minute session, give me a call at 706-864-7790 or visit me online at www.IntoTheWoodsTherpaies.com today.

Solution Based Therapy: How I work myself out of a job

Therapy shouldn’t go on forever. That’s why I focus on setting and achieving goals as part of solution based therapy. Basically, I want to work myself out of a job.

Solution based therapy is therapy that focuses on fixing problems, not just talking about them. It involves defining a problem, getting to the root of it, setting goals to overcome it, and tracking progress.

How solution based therapy works

When a patient comes to me for solution based therapy, first we talk and get to know each other. We’ll talk about the person’s life and history, and any problems they want to tackle.

We talk about the past, but more about the future. Of course we want to get to the root of what’s causing the patient’s issue, and sometimes we’ve got to go all the way back to childhood to figure that out. But mostly, we talk about the future. We visualize how life would be different with certain changes. I like to think the solution based therapy I provide for my patients is about building a joyful future, not dwelling on problems.

Once we nail down the changes they want to make, whether that’s solving an issue in their marriage, controlling anger, building confidence, or something else, we go about finding ways to “fix” that problem.

I don’t solve problems, patients do

I know my patients have already solved a million other problems in their lives. So one question I always ask is, “How do you think we can solve this?” Not because I want them to do my job, but because their input is important. They have to be a very active participant in their own healing process. I can give guidance, but ultimately, it’s up to them to do the work.

We’ll often talk about ways they have solved other problems in that past to see if any of those tactics could be used today.

Most of the time, problems have their good days and bad days. What I do is try to focus on what happens on the good days, so we can figure out the difference and find a way to work long-term solutions out of those short-term strategies.

Solution based marriage counseling

Are you and your spouse at each other’s throats more than you’re at each other’s sides? If you’re ready to quit fighting and start healing, solution based marriage counseling could be just what you need.

Couples therapy is one place where people come to me wanting results, not just talk. I oblige them with solution based marriage counseling. We work hard to get to the root of problems, then figure out behaviors that can heal old wounds and build the beautiful future you always imagined.

People are more resilient than they think

With solution based therapy, we focus on resiliency and determination, which most therapy-goers have plenty of. Making the decision to come to therapy to improve their lives shows that. But sometimes I have to remind people just how strong they really are.

Some people think therapy is going to somehow change the person they are. It doesn’t. And it shouldn’t have to. What I try to accomplish with my patients is more like uncovering what’s already there, and finding solutions for whatever issue is holding them back from being the person they want to be.

Schedule your FREE 45-minute session now!

Let’s chat — for free! To schedule your FREE session, just give me a call at 706-864-7790 or visit me online at www.IntoTheWoodsTherapies.com.

Wilderness Therapy: Nature based counseling and why it works

I feel really whole in nature. I feel like people can walk away from all the business of life – phones, schedules, academics – when they’re outside, and that’s what wilderness therapy is all about. People get more connected to themselves when they’re connecting with nature – connecting with the business of life is what causes us a lot of problems.

How my “Walk it Out” wilderness therapy hikes started

My “Walk it Out” wilderness therapy hikes all started when I would take patients on a walk when they were really stuck on something. Going for a walk is a well-documented, scientifically proven practice to inspire creativity and de-fog thinking. You read about it in business journals all the time.

Those walks worked wonders for my patients, and I love to hike, so starting a wilderness therapy program just made sense. Voila.

It can be scary for the uninitiated

Going out into nature takes a little getting used to when you don’t do it often. If you’re the type of person that spends most of your time inside or in your car, taking a hike can seem like a scary thing at first — because it’s the unknown. But once you get into it, you start to realize that the distractions out in the woods calm you — the sounds and sights of nature.

Natural perspective

A lot of my job is trying to help people get perspective on their problems, and being in nature helps that. There are so many ways to perceive nature. It’s so different from the way we live our lives – where there are so many rules, and people think there is only one way you’re supposed to be.

Nature doesn’t worry. We learn from that. We walk through nature and don’t judge it – that’s very powerful. We have a tendency to judge people, not nature.

A tree grows, and if something bad happens to it, it still grows. Nature functions in a slower pace, and I think that helps give us perspective. We get caught up in rules and deadlines and expectations – which are all human created. In reality, you have to do things, but if you generally do good, you’re human and not perfect, that’s ok. Not every mistake you make is a huge life changer.

Wilderness therapy gives you permission to settle down

Being out in the woods connects people to the world they are in instead of thinking about what they have to do next. They have the time and space and permission to notice things – something so many people are lacking in their lives. I tell them, “Let’s just sit down and watch this world.” It helps settle people, get them out of their own head.

Want to join me for a hike?

I’d love to take you into the peaceful mountains of Dahlonega and have a chat. Give me a call today to schedule your “Walk it Out” therapy hike at 706-864-7790 or visit me online at www.IntoTheWoodsTherapies.com.