As a Clinical Psychologist I strongly believe that we are influenced by the systems around us – usually our families, places of work or education and that in turn we influence them. Whilst individual therapy can be very helpful, it is often more useful to work with families together so that they learn ways to understand each other, communicate in a more helpful way and have more positive interactions together.
Often when younger children are involved, it makes sense to work solely with parents to help provide behavioural management strategies and techniques to strengthen family attachments and promote pro-social behaviour.
With older teens, working with parents or siblings together can ensure that therapeutic progress continues past the sessions and is taken into the home. It is often helpful to have a mixture of individual sessions with some review sessions as a family, bearing in mind the need to preserve the confidentiality of the young person. 