Family Counseling Resources and Links
The website of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy is a wonderful source of information. In their Frequently Asked Questions page under "What is Marriage and Family Therapy?" you will find the following statement:
"A family's patterns of behavior influences the individual
and therefore may need to be a part of the treatment plan. In marriage and
family therapy, the unit of treatment isn't just the person - even if only a
single person is interviewed - it is the set of relationships in which the
person is imbedded.
"Marriage and family therapy is:
brief
solution-focused
specific, with attainable
therapeutic goals
designed with the "end in mind."
"Marriage and family therapists treat a wide range of serious
clinical problems including: depression, marital problems, anxiety, individual
psychological problems, and child-parent problems.
"Research indicates that marriage and family therapy is as
effective, and in some cases more effective than standard and/or individual
treatments for many mental health problems such as: adult schizophrenia,
affective (mood) disorders, adult alcoholism and drug abuse, children's conduct
disorders, adolescent drug abuse, anorexia in young adult women, childhood
autism, chronic physical illness in adults and children, and marital distress
and conflict.
"Marriage and family therapists regularly practice short-term
therapy; 12 sessions on average. Nearly 65.6% of the cases are completed within
20 sessions, 87.9% within 50 sessions. Marital/couples therapy (11.5 sessions)
and family therapy (9 sessions) both require less time than the average
individuated treatment (13 sessions). About half of the treatment provided by
marriage and family therapists is one-on-one with the other half divided between
marital/couple and family therapy, or a combination of treatments."
(From http://www.aamft.org/faqs/index_nm.asp#what .)