Marital therapy focuses on issues such as mental health, communication issues, divorce, affairs, and death of a member of the family. A therapist will help you identify the feelings associated with the emotional problems or harmful behavior and help you formulate ways of dealing with them to improve your relationships.
There are various effective approaches like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) used by therapists in Westport to treat mental issues that might ruin your marriage and family. This article highlights some of these therapeutic approaches.
Structural Family Therapy
This therapeutic approach focuses on the issues of functioning as a family unit. The approach guides the therapist in his practice by making them understand that every family is governed by its own set of unwritten rules. The therapist is focused on penetrating the family structure for him to understand and dismantle the dysfunctional patterns, which eventually leads to healthier habits. As a result, there will be stronger relationships among the members of the family.
Strategic Therapy
This category is focused solely on the quick and effective treatment of any psychological or mental issues. The therapist will work closely with a couple or a family to find quick solutions without first determining the cause of the issues or behavior. This category is oriented toward setting tasks and achieving goals.
Contextual Family Therapy
This method integrates interpersonal, psychological, systemic, intergenerational, and existential dimensions into family therapy. Here, the therapist identifies family dysfunctions that may be the cause of imbalance in fulfillment and entitlement, taking and giving, and also caring and responsibility. By establishing a common balance for the responsibilities, a family dysfunction will disintegrate and return to a healthy state.
Bowen Family Therapy
This category is based on balancing two important forces in a family unit, which are togetherness and individuality. The balance brings about proper functioning within the family, and without it, issues will keep cropping up. Common multigenerational issues that are likely to arise with a lack of balance include projection, differentiation of self, and triangulation.
Experiential Therapy
This type utilizes props, guided imagery, and role-play to expand the therapy treatment to include other therapies such as music therapy, wilderness therapy, and equine therapy. Through the various activities, a couple will not be solely focused on the particular therapy but rather share obstacles, experience success, solve problems, improve self-confidence, and take responsibility for their actions together.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This can be described as a short-term result-oriented therapy to solve problems. CBT encourages couples to identify how and what they think about certain issues and how they behave toward what they feel about their thoughts. By identifying and changing the thoughts, the behavior also changes, and so do their emotional responses.
When problems occur in any relationship, it is always advisable to consider family and marriage counseling before considering separation or divorce. The trained and licensed family therapists understand various relationship dynamics, and they know what to do to fix which problem. Besides couple counseling, they also help mend child-parent problems that can shake a family.