Therapy offers people the chance to explore their views regarding home, work and relationships, as well as their concerns about how they are leading their lives.

Life moves and alters at such a pace that individuals, couples and families can often benefit from the time and opportunity to take stock, increase their awareness of relationships and make informed decisions.

Being able to talk in confidence with a therapist who can listen constructively and challenge when necessary is a central part of therapy. It is the therapist’s responsibility to offer the time, expertise and circumstances for

clients to review their lives and relationships in order to move on. It is the clients’ responsibility to decide on how they wish to do that and what
changes they wish to make

We sometimes feel the need to review our lives in order to understand our motivations, behaviours and feelings better.

This can often be as a result of some crisis or event, which raises questions, dilemmas or fears; for example, starting or ending a relationship, redundancy, moving house or a death.

This sense of helplessness or confusion can be resolved by exploring present circumstances through our past history and relationships, as these create the bases of our beliefs and actions, which might benefit from a review and maybe altering.

When couples might most need to use their joint resources to tackle the issues facing them, they sometimes discover they cannot. That is when couple therapy is often sought.

The other is for one person to push for change in the relationship and the partner to wish to
hold on to the way it has always been. Either way can lead to the couple experiencing friction,tension and unhappiness.

Each person in a couple may have a different experience or model of being a couple.These differences can be exposed when facing marriage, job, house or money issues; having children and dealing with people from their own families of origin.

All the stresses identified for individuals and couples can also apply to families. We bring the experiences of our family of origin into any new family formation we make.

Family groupings that we can all be part of include: step, foster, adoptive, separated,

divorced, single parent, blended, divided, and mixed race. Their complexities in formation, organisation and relationships can produce considerable emotional and behavioural effects.

We all contribute consciously and unconsciously to the complexities of family relationships.

As family numbers change, so do the dynamics, and differences can appear as either exciting or scary. Family therapy offers an opportunity for everyone to have a voice and be heard by the rest of the family so that differences can be aired and even negotiated.