Marriage and Couples Therapy
We are deeply committed to helping couples make it through the difficult times. With this in mind we work to help you:
- Transform your relationship.
- Resolve long standing conflicts in your relationship.
- Assure the success of the relationship you are just beginning.
- Help you articulate relationship goals and enrich your already solid relationship.
Premarital Counseling
True Balance offers premarital counseling using both Christian based counseling and through the use of the PREPARE/ENRICH inventory. Premarital counseling can be used to satisfy the state requirement for counseling hours.
Family Therapy
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.
Our approach to 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.
Parenting Education and Therapy
At times during the course of a child's development, a parent or teacher may notice behavioral or emotional displays that cause concern. One option is to seek assistance from a mental health professional. This may involve individual child treatment as well as family therapy. At your request, we will also work in close conjunction with your child's educational institution.
The services of a professional can be especially helpful when parenting an "Unruly Child." That is, in cases where your son or daughter refuses all parental restraint we will help lead you down the difficult road required to bring back in line. -more info-
We also offer equestrian facilitated learning and/or therapy. This service is particularly useful in working with children and adolescents. It tends to break up the monotony of face-to-face counseling and quickly break down barriers that must be overcome to ensure effective counseling. -more info-
The parenting guidance provided is grounded in a number of principles and assumptions about family structure and the role of parents. These are as follows:
- Parents are responsible for providing guidance and discipline for all children in the family.
- Parents will lead the family in formulating family goals that express the values, beliefs, attitudes, character traits, and behaviors the family will work toward adopting and maintaining.
- Parents will lead the family in planning and implementing activities designed to achieve family goals.
- Before family activities are implemented, parents will seek input from all family members.
- Parents will lead the family in setting rules that are designed to:
- 1) help the family achieve specific goals by mandating behaviors that contribute to these goals and by prohibiting behaviors that may prevent the goals from being achieved, and
- 2) support family activities by prescribing who will engage in each activity, and how and when the activities are to be performed.
- Among other things, parents will make final decisions about:
- 1) the nature and scope of family activities, and
- 2) setting, modifying, and enforcing family rules.
- All rules must serve the purpose of supporting at least one family goal and/or activity.
- Before family rules and consequences are set, parents will seek input from all family members.
- Before family rules are implemented and enforced, all rules and consequences will be explained to all family members.
- When family rules are violated, parents will decide what consequences to administer. Consequences will be decided upon and administered within 48 hours of a rule infraction.
- All discipline will be administered in a manner that recognizes the shared right of every individual in the family to be treated kindly and respectfully. To this end, parents will use both natural and logical consequences when enforcing rules.
- Willingly participating in family activities and abiding by family rules will help our family achieve family goals.