Family Systems Issues

At Alchemy Collective, we provide comprehensive therapy for family systems issues that recognizes how individual wellbeing is inextricably connected to family dynamics, both past and present. Our approach helps individuals and families understand multigenerational patterns, heal from family wounds, improve current family functioning, and create healthier relational systems for the future.

Family systems issues encompass a wide range of challenges including dysfunctional communication patterns, unclear or rigid boundaries, problematic roles and expectations, unresolved conflicts, power imbalances, emotional cutoffs, coalitions and triangulation, addiction or mental health issues affecting the family, and intergenerational transmission of trauma and coping styles. These dynamics can significantly impact individual mental health, identity formation, and relationship patterns even outside the family of origin.

Our therapeutic approach draws from established family systems theories including Bowen Family Systems, Structural Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Emotionally Focused Family Therapy. We help individuals and families identify unhelpful patterns, understand how these patterns developed (often as adaptations to stress or trauma), process emotional wounds related to family experiences, improve communication and boundaries, and create new, more functional ways of relating.

We work with various configurations including individuals exploring their family-of-origin issues, parent-child relationships, couples addressing family-of-origin influences on their relationship, and whole family sessions addressing current dynamics. When working with individuals, we often use genograms (family maps) to identify patterns across generations and internal family systems approaches to address how family dynamics have been internalized.

Many clients experience significant relief and transformation through family systems work, developing greater understanding of themselves in context, freedom from limiting family patterns, improved relationships with family members where possible, and ability to create healthier family dynamics in their current and future relationships. Even when reconciliation with family members isn't possible or appropriate, internal healing of family-related wounds can create profound positive changes in overall wellbeing and relationship capacity.