Family work sessions

About Family Work Sessions

What is Family Work?

When one person in a family is experiencing psychological difficulties, it’s very common for there to be ripple effects that can impact the whole family – or sometimes a child struggles because their family has been through a lot or is finding it hard to resolve something.

It is also common during periods of distress for family communication and patterns of coping to become strained, confused and to affect the family more widely than one individual.

Sessions with the whole family or multiple family members may be offered where helpful to support with this. 

What happens in a Family Work session?

In Family Work sessions, gentle questions are used to explore the experiences, perspectives and hopes different family members have relating to family life. Sometimes, a special type of family tree (called a genogram) is drawn up to help learn about who is in the family, what matters to them, and how people tend to interact, and timelines might be used to make sense of family experiences and their impacts.

Often, ideas (“hypotheses”) about what might be going on are shared and checked out - with everyone in the session being invited to respond. Many families find this process helpful in clearing up misunderstandings or finding new ways to approach challenges.