How does
Family Therapy Work?
Bruised relationships can lead to feeling stuck, so therapy looks at what could create movement and change, empowering one another to make more helpful choices. Life altering events, whether in somebody’s physical health, relationships, or in child behaviour can make us focus on managing such challenges while our close relationships slip out of gear. Exploring these processes openly can help couples, individuals, and families to develop better relationships in the longer term. Therapy might consider past events as well as present to see how they might impact on the client’s preferred future.
Confidentiality is assured, with the exception of a safeguarding concern requiring an onward referral. Clients would always be informed if this were to arise.
Individual Therapy
Susie offers 1:1 sessions while also considering patterns and interactions within the wider family and relational systems. Working with individuals may also involve using family trees and ecomaps to understand past and current experience.
Family Therapy
Members of a family are seen together and/or separately, according to the specific issues brought to therapy. Children can be included, as can grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. when this helps to find ways of supporting and understanding one another. Susie adapts her sessions to reflect the age and cognitive ability of whoever is present.
Couples Therapy
For relationship, conflict, depression, parenting or separation issues, Susie draws on well-evidenced models of couple therapy (e.g. Gottman Institute and Exeter models) and normally offers six to twelve sessions of systemic couples therapy. At least one of these sessions will be 1:1 with each partner.
How many sessions do I need?
Therapy may be brief; between two and six sessions, or 12 sessions over a longer period with intervals in between. Relationships are complex, and so flexibility is important. Susie collaborates with her clients about whether she is a good fit for their requirements, what feels right for the situation presented, who will attend the sessions and when therapy may have reached a suitable ending point. Sessions are an hour long.