A person with a mental illness may not think family therapy can help. On the contrary, this form of therapy can be effective in addressing specific issues affecting family members. It is an ideal counseling method for supporting family members as they adjust to their loved one’s condition. Additionally, it can also improve a person’s chance of getting better.

PACE Mental Health Houston has extensive evaluation and consultation services for diverse mental illness diagnoses. We provide therapy and counseling as part of individualized therapy programs.

What affects one person can also affect everyone around them. Our professionals consider the whole family when caring for the well-being and happiness of the person.

Why Does Mental Illness Cause Family Problems?

Family sitting on couch during family therapyEveryone starts life within a family unit. It doesn’t matter if the structure of that family is blood relatives or adopted parents. This unit influences every aspect of a person’s life.

Mental illness can disrupt the family by making a person difficult to deal with. Understandably, the person who suffers from an issue like depression gets most of the attention.

Resentments may arise when family members try to communicate with the person. However, these resentments often lead to the needs of other family members going unmet. Regardless if the person’s mental condition stems from a dysfunctional family, problems will persist.

Family Therapy Works Within a Unique Social System

Family units are unique social systems with structures and patterns of communication. Beliefs, values, personalities, and other factors all determine how these patterns show themselves. Additionally, these patterns may also control how a person deals with emotional or mental difficulties.

Regardless of the origin of the mental health challenge, involving other members of the family unit may yield a more positive result. Family therapy brings everyone in the unit into the therapy process.

At PACE Mental Health Houston, we use a person’s unique social system to devise a therapy plan that encourages healing. We focus on symptomatic behaviors of a mental illness while also looking at the underlying issues.

Sometimes, problems within the family have created those issues. Getting to the core of the problem gives the person and their family lasting change.

The Benefits of Family Therapy

Issues such as divorce, financial hardship, death, or a mental health concern impact everyone in the family. Therapy can benefit families when these stressful events put a strain on relationships within the unit. Our Houston behavioral health services promote using this effective form of therapy to make the family stronger.

Using family therapy with other types of mental health therapy can help the person in many ways, including:

  • Understanding how actions in the family may contribute to a person’s mental illness
  • Identifying what is good, and not so good, within the family system
  • Improving communication skills to improve relationships
  • Developing strategies for family members to help their loved one’s progress
  • Setting goals to resolve specific issues that could setback a person’s healing

PACE Mental Health Houston gives a person and their families a safe space. We encourage them to discuss how the mental illness affects the family unit.

How Family Therapy Helps an Individual with Mental Illness

Struggling with symptoms and behaviors of a mental illness can make a person feel trapped. For instance, individuals who need anxiety disorder therapy may feel like they’re being selfish. They believe that getting better is self-consuming and further isolates them from the people they love.

Connection with the family system while dealing with anxiety may help patients share more. They can receive support from the people who loved them before the mental illness diagnosis. Participating in therapy with family members helps the person work through challenges.

Let PACE Houston Help You Rebuild the Family Structure

Therapy can be instrumental in mending issues within the family that contribute to a person’s condition. Even if the mental illness occurs separate from the family, unconditional support can improve outcomes. PACE Mental Health Houston wants to provide life-changing care to rebuild their family structure.

Our therapeutic health and counseling services include help for a range of psychiatric disorders, including:

Don’t try to overcome mental illness alone. Call PACE Mental Health Houston today at 866.971.8423 to learn how our family therapy programs give you a new beginning.