We provide therapy as part of addiction recovery treatment because it gives clients the tools to maintain a sober lifestyle. Our family therapists work with both clients and their families so that loved ones can support the recovery process. The households' support has meaningful effects on many areas connected to addiction treatment outcomes. This ranges from self-esteem and self-image, to commitment and motivation to trigger reduction, to the practical logistics of treatment services.
Family therapy is an opportunity for families to improve their communication skills and learn new ways to resolve conflict. When loved ones have known each other for a long time, they may get stuck in patterns of behavior. A therapist can help family members to reflect on these issues and find new ways forward.
Examining family dynamics in a safe and secure environment can help everybody to learn about relationships and mental health. Growing together with assistance from a licensed clinical psychologist also helps to strengthen the family support network.
Family cohesion in an individual’s treatment is important, but it can amount to extreme pressure for any household, especially those suffering from the fraught roles and relationships that addiction creates on repeat. Sometimes, therapy needs to start with the family constellation.
Family therapy is a psychotherapeutic intervention based on the theoretical framework of Family Systems Theory. It uses different technical tools to dive into the ways we find and impose meaning on our roles as family members, explore and identify deficits in our models of relating, and eventually learn to heal and grow as a unit.
Family therapy is all about relationships and the core concepts that drive many relationship issues, including roles, behaviors, and identity.
Family therapists recognize that our identities and behaviors as people are profoundly informed by our network of family relationships, both as children and as adults. Our psychological well-being is tied to how we relate to our family members and how they relate to us in turn.
At Vita Recovery, we specialize in addiction and substance use disorder recovery - and we regularly witness the incredible growth families achieve when they commit to therapy together. Family therapists help you work on:
Mood and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression
Disruptive family dynamics, including enmeshment, manipulation, and enabling
Past traumas
Adverse childhood experiences
We tend to take our family systems for granted, not realizing that our flaws and blindspots are equal spaces for growth. The truth is that even family member conflicts as small as sibling rivalry can inform family relationships in negative ways that breed resentment and fester with time. These are some watchpoints:
Communication problems
Mood or emotional dysregulation among family members
Struggling children, adolescent behavioral problems
Abusive behavior in either of the parents
Substance abuse issues
While the above issues are warning signs, family counselors will work to get below the surface. Starting in your first session, your family counselor will work to identify the concerns affecting interrelated family members' lives.
From the first appointment, family therapy aims to instill the skills necessary for participants to achieve lasting relational growth. We learn to reflect on our roles in others’ lives, defend healthy boundaries, and communicate effectively and non-violently without manipulation. Family counselors challenge our vision of others as people who play roles in our lives, showing them instead as people who play roles in their own.
Family therapy provides:
A platform for collaboration between the person with addiction and the entire family unit
A threat- and judgment-free safe space to verbalize issues
Improvements to personal relationships to non-relatives
Lasting communication changes
Individual family member self-knowledge
Third-party guidance, facilitation, and conflict negotiation
Family health and resilience can make or break a loved one’s journey in addiction recovery, but at the end of the day, our allegiance is to the growth and health of everyone in our family counseling sessions. At Vita Recovery, we are committed to delivering the best evidence-based therapy to every household that puts its trust in our team.
Our highly qualified clinical staff providing therapy and family counseling has years of experience working with:
Marital therapy
Substance abuse treatment
Dual diagnosis
Mood disorders
LGBTQ-sensitive issues
Trauma-informed therapy
Youth and adolescent engagement
Individual therapy may or may not involve family relationships as a topic, but family therapy puts it at the forefront - and invites family members to the table. Family counseling also places a unique focus on roles and relationships, while individual therapy may focus more on cognition, emotion, and behavior.
It depends - a typically scheduled family counseling session will last about one hour, but a family may be booked for many sessions throughout treatment. Many factors, including family size, progress, and commitment, can influence this.
The techniques used in family therapy and counseling work for household constellations of all shapes and sizes.
Children absolutely stand to benefit from sessions, but the tools can be adapted to single parents, adult children, blended families, and even chosen families - family relationships don’t need to follow any preset tropes.
We at Vita Recovery are proud to work with most major health insurance providers - we're happy to help translate the jargon if you have questions about what is covered in your specific plan. Call us at (786) 551-4944 to discuss your options.
There is a professional truism that addiction is a “family disease.” Households’ relationships of support are very important in a person's recovery journey. Healing family bonds supports everyone and promotes long-lasting recovery.
Organizing family members can be difficult, and our typical family clients involve more than one busy professional. Our scheduling is flexible, but we aim to keep sessions with a family therapist regular and sustainable - ideally targeting at least one private meeting per week for best outcomes.
We maintain that the whole household stands to benefit from counseling, but this doesn’t mean everyone needs to be in attendance. A family member rejecting treatment is a common challenge, and family therapeutic tools are designed to bring about positive changes in dynamics with or without full participation.
Children and adolescents are extremely sensitive to challenges facing the family dynamic, even when parents work to contain them. Feelings of familial insecurity can create extreme states of disruptive stress in children, but when we identify and work through the underlying challenges, behavioral issues have space to resolve.
First, check credentials and history. Note their behavior with your family and see if their communication style works for you. Consider your specific challenges - our team works with private, personalized, addiction and trauma-informed approaches to family health, but each family is different, and a family therapist should specialize to match that.
If one family member is visibly struggling with addiction or related mental health concerns, patterns of enabling, manipulation, or lack of boundaries do not help. Family therapists may not provide legal or financial support and advice, but counseling is a cornerstone of radical personal transformation.
Poor communication, trauma, addiction, and mental health issues - are concerns found within, inherited by, and recreated through families, but a single generation can decide it's time to change.
At Vita Recovery, we understand the importance of that choice. Our exemplary team will provide the best family therapy in Miami, FL, and make it their responsibility to help you and your family.
