Family and Couples Therapy

Do you feel like your family is living in chaos? Has your family experienced grief/loss, a divorce, new blended family, significant transitions? Have you lost the vision you once had for your family?

These are just a few of the reasons parents seek out family therapy. It can feel awful as a parent to be completely overwhelmed and exhausted and have run out of ideas to help get your family back on track. And it seems the longer you try to make changes that do not work how you hope, the more hopeless it seems that you will have the family relationships you desire.

We would be honored to help your family find peace, structure, and a sense of togetherness.

Working from a strength-based, collaborative approach allows family members to create a vision and set goals. Your therapist does not have an agenda for how your family should live. They will offer insight into patterns of communication and behavior that prevent families from reaching their goals, while also providing tools to make and maintain desired changes.

Please do not hesitate to call to see if I am a good fit for you and your family.

Is Family Therapy Right for my Family?

What do you imagine when you think of your family doing family therapy? Do you worry that it will be loud and feel out of control? Do you worry that one family member will take over while others remain silent? Maybe you worry that your therapist will think you are a terrible parent.

Family Therapy can look many different ways. This is not only based on our individual families, but on the therapist you will be working with as well. All families are different. Some families are louder than others. The issues that affect one family may not affect another.

What you can expect is that your therapist will notice the patterns and dynamics of your family without judgement. They will ask that family members remain respectful in the room, all while understanding that emotions can be strong and sometimes respect and trust might be broken between family members. Your therapist will direct the session back to a place of working in collaboration when this occurs. We really focus on hearing every family members’ perspectives so that we obtain a full understanding of how everyone is currently affected and how our interventions may affect them as well.

At times, your therapist may decide to break up the family into different subgroups to do specific work. For example, we may ask to work with just the parents for one or two sessions or a parent-child dyad. These decisions will be made in collaboration and the rationale will be explained.

If you have any other questions or would like to schedule your initial consultation, please use the contact form or give us a call at 303-551-9072.

Couples Therapy -- Will it Work for Us?

I wish that I could answer this question for every couple that we see. Many couples experience the frustration of not knowing how to stop the patterns that lead to hurting the ones they love and being hurt themselves.

Participating in couples therapy is a commitment where the outcome is unknown and where each partner's vulnerabilities are discovered. Thus the decision to do couples therapy is not one to take lightly. Although this may sound scary, many couples benefit significantly from this process and experience closeness and love again in their relationships.

Working from a strength-based and collaborative approach allows each couple to move at their own pace and set their own goals.

If you are feeling alone in your relationship, are having the same argument over an over, or have experienced the trauma of an affair or other significant life experiences, then couples therapy may be the step you need to get where you want to be. Please call to see if one of our clinicians will be a good fit to work with you and your partner.

Will our Couples Therapist Meet with Each of Us Individually?

If you are working with a couples therapist at Arvada Therapy Solutions, you and your partner will likely be asked to do one or two sessions individually with your therapist. We do these sessions to ensure that we get to know each partner and understand their goals for working together in couple’s therapy. We also assess for safety within the relationship.

And even though we do the occasional individual session, your couple’s therapist is specifically working with the couple as the client and is unable to be your individual therapist. Maintaining this boundary prevents one member of the couple from feeling left out or being teamed up against.

If your therapist feels like it would be beneficial for one or both of you to participate in individual therapy, an appropriate referral will be provided.

What if we decide NOT to stay together?

While many couples attend therapy to work towards the goal of healing the conflict within the relationship, other times we help couples when they have decided to separate. Your therapist’s role is to help you clarify your goals and help you reach them no matter if they are to stay together or not. If you find yourself needing support as you separate, your couple’s therapist can support you in communication and co-parenting and separating amicably. We do not provide co-parenting support if there has been domestic violence or coercive control within the relationship as this is contraindicated and can cause harm to the target partner.

Is there ever a time when couples therapy is not appropriate?

Couples therapy requires both partners to be able to be open, vulnerable, and willing to take accountability for their behaviors within the relationship. If there has been domestic violence or coercive control within the relationship, couples therapy will not be provided by a couples therapist at Arvada Therapy Solutions. When there is an extreme power and control dynamic where one person uses coercion or abusive behaviors within the relationship, couples therapy can cause harm to the target parent. If these behaviors or dynamics are identified by your couples therapist, appropriate, individual therapy referrals will be provided.

Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC, is a verified expert on Marriage.com.