Specialty services offered include Medical Family Therapy and Trauma Informed Therapy

Medical Family Therapy

Medical Family Therapy is therapy for individuals, couples, and families who are dealing with physical, emotional, relational or spiritual difficulties because of an illness.

When a member of the family becomes ill, or suffers from a disability, it becomes the focus of the family. These experiences may become a strain to some or all involved. Work, school, family, and social life are often interrupted.

Most times, conflicts and difficulties that existed before the illness or disability become worse afterward; causing additional distress to the individual and/or the family. While the individual struggles to heal, marital and family relationships also struggle due to the stressors created by the illness or disability. During these stressful times, it is highly beneficial for individuals and their families to get help as an increase in marital discord and a decrease in family cohesion may slow down the healing process.

Our compassionate team uses a biopsychosocial-spiritual approach that takes the biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects into consideration when working with individuals and their families to help maintain or restore health and balance into their lives.

How Do we know if Medical Family Therapy is right for us?

• Medical Family Therapy is therapy for anyone (children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families) who is dealing with a medical illness, diagnosis, or disability.
• Family members, caregivers, and anyone if the individual’s support system is encouraged to attend.  Individuals dealing with a medical illness, diagnosis, or disability need as much support as they can get.
• You are struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, family issues, grief and loss, treatment compliance, body image, and self-esteem that resulted from an illness, trauma, or disability.

The main goal of medical family therapy is to help the individual with the illness, trauma, or disability and their loved ones through the challenges that arise from the acute and traumatic, or chronic and potentially terminal health issues. The Individual and their families are taught to develop self-efficacy and to better cope with the symptoms of the illness and other life-stressors. The Individual and their families learn to acknowledge the communication and emotional bonds that have become strained because of the illness process.

Trauma Informed Therapy

Trauma changes how a person controls their thoughts and feelings, and their ability to care for themselves emotionally and psychologically. Therapists recognize that a person with a history of trauma may not think of themselves as a trauma survivor and may not even be aware of what it means to live with the consequences of what they experienced.

How do I know I need Trauma Informed Therapy?

Trauma-informed therapy can apply to anyone. It’s not just for people who have experienced trauma like physical or sexual abuse. Therapy is also for people with a history of depression or anxiety that has wreaked havoc on their life, people with emotional abuse or attachment wounds, or any kind of emotional or psychological trauma.

Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extremely stressful events that destroy your sense of security and make you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but some situations that leave you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. Emotional and psychological trauma may be caused by:

• Single event, such as an accident, injury, or violent attack, especially if it was unexpected or happened in childhood.
• Constant and persistent stress, such as living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, battling a life-threatening illness, traumatic events that occur repeatedly, such as bullying, domestic violence, or childhood abuse or neglect.