Family Counseling Nearby -- Learn How Families Can Benefit From Therapy Online

Updated February 7, 2023by MyTherapist Editorial Team

Introduction

If you and your family have been at odds lately, you may feel like it's time to seek family counseling. You may find yourself searching for family counseling services or family counseling services near me in your search. The good news is - you're not alone. Many families have breakdowns in communication that can lead to festering family issues.

Are You Looking For An Affordable Family Therapy Option?

This article helps you find resources for family counseling services, including marriage and family counseling services, child and family counseling services, and free family counseling services for families in crisis. Let's start with a definition of family counseling.

Family Counseling - The Basics

Family counseling (or psychotherapy) is designed to help families in crisis reduce family conflicts and create better outcomes. As we learned in the study of attachment styles, caregiver and family relationships are critical to developing healthy coping styles. It's also one of the premarital counseling topics you'll hear about since relationships with different people of the family are as important as the relationship between a married couple.

Family therapists help families deal with everyday challenges and help families in times of distress related to mental illness within the family, death or incarceration of an immediate family, marriage, and other family life issues that contribute to stress and family arguments. Family counseling is an extension of individual counseling that provides families professional advice and coping strategies.

Where To Find Free Family Counseling

Most people start with a Google search for "family counseling nearby" to find free family counseling resources nearby. Local churches, schools, and community organizations like local community action agencies often offer free family counseling services. Finding free family counseling services isn't always easy, but it's worth it.

There are also options for getting free family counseling services online. Online counseling sessions work like offline sessions. Online counseling also connects you with licensed specialists. The only real difference is that you and your counselor or therapists aren't in the same room. Options for taking part in online therapy are becoming more popular as individuals and families realize the value of improved communication skills leads to a better quality of mental health.

Free online family counseling options can help families get to the bottom of their families' issues. In many cases, free counseling sessions uncover deeper issues that are related to undiagnosed mental health disorders.

With over 43 million Americans annually reporting mental health issues, the fact that free counseling sessions may reveal underlying mental health issues - is no surprise. The most common mental health disorders for people in the United States are Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Family Counseling Services Online

Today's therapy providers note the importance of maintaining good mental health and have responded with affordable and subscription-based therapy options online.

Your therapist will meet with you and your family using one of the methods above at your designated appointment time. Using therapy platforms like  BetterHelp doesn't require that family are in the same location. Family can join or be invited to a therapy session from wherever they are - as long as they have a solid internet connection. However, you'll have to ask if they offer child counseling at this time.

Families find value in having a professional third-party opinion that can help them identify and resolve family dramas that they haven't been able to resolve independently. Many families learn in therapy that they have never learned how to communicate properly with them. Miscommunication is the cause of many family communication breakdowns. When you take part in online therapy, your therapist helps you learn how to communicate and respond to real-life family issues that may be keeping your family apart.

Marriage and Family Counseling

This relationship-based form of counseling normally focuses on the primary heads of a household - husband, wife, etc.  Marriage and family counseling can be conducted by licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFTs) or other mental health professionals who specialize in counseling and support services for families.

When people participate in marriage counseling sessions, they often speak to their therapists about issues plaguing the marriage that lead to marital discord and, in some cases, even divorce. Marriage and family counseling helps couples and families hear what the other person is saying from an unbiased perspective. The counselor has no stake in the family outcome, making it easier to make a clear assessment of the situation. You may also be able to find free relationship counseling online.

This relationship-based form of counseling normally focuses on the primary heads of a household. Marriage and family counseling can be conducted by a licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFTs) or other mental health professionals who specialize in counseling and support services for families. This is the best time to ask aloud, "Is there marriage counseling near me?" 

Child And Family Counseling

When children experience emotional issues and turmoil in their young lives, it can affect them and their families. In cases where children and families cannot resolve their emotional issues independently, counseling is often recommended. Child counselors specialize in providing therapeutic solutions for children suffering from issues with chronic mental health.

Children can also suffer from symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These issues can develop in children due to genetics or circumstances in their environment that have caused lasting trauma. Children process trauma differently than adults, and the effects can last a lifetime if left untreated. If you’ve seen symptoms of trauma or mental health problems from them, send them to a child psychotherapy training. A psychotherapist can treat their mental disorders and help them recover from anxiety or depression. The earlier a child who has been traumatized can get family counseling or other treatment - the less likely it is that chronic-mental illness can have long-term effects.

Are You Looking For An Affordable Family Therapy Option?

A child therapist facilitates therapy sessions with the child and caregivers to help families resolve issues and develop behavior plans that help the child and family to create a harmonious environment while dealing with family issues.

How Mental Health Affects Families

When one or more family are affected by chronic mental illness symptoms, this can cause issues within the family dynamic without professional intervention. Families may not understand or recognize mental health symptoms in their relatives and mistake symptomatic behavior for apathy or disinterest in the family dynamic. This is especially true in families with undiagnosed mental health issues like depression and anxiety.

When a family has mental health challenges, it is important to make sure they get proper treatment and have family support. The person suffering from mental health issues has to commit to follow all prescribed therapy plans and take prescribed medications to help mitigate mental illness symptoms.

Benefits Of Family Counseling

When families participate in counseling, family learn how to recognize mental illness symptoms in themselves and other family relatives. Family therapists teach families how to communicate better to resolve family issues when they're small. Learning how to communicate better prevents issues that would escalate in the past from turning into long, drawn-out family dramas that can often result.

When families come together, they can help keep one another on track towards achieving individual and family goals. One of the best takeaways from family counseling and therapy is that families learn to work together as a team - instead of working against each other. Online counselors can provide group therapy sessions for distributed families regardless of their location. Platforms like BetterHelp make it easy for families to sync schedules and meet online virtually to attend their family counseling sessions.

Audio options include logging in to therapy platforms for audio-only sessions or joining virtual conference calls to connect by phone.

Final Thoughts

There is help for families who are in crisis or struggling with chronic symptoms of mental illness. When you search for family counseling nearby, you can take part in traditional in-office therapy sessions (where available.)

These trained providers can help broken families pick up their pieces and begin anew with better communication and coping skills. Today's online therapists are highly trained experts that provide an affordable means for improving the quality of life. If you're ready to improve the quality of your family's life - start by reaching out to a  BetterHelp.com family therapist today.

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