Each family system is unique and has its style of communication and structure. Our family plays a significant role in our life, shaping us emotionally, physically, and behaviorally. At Mindful, we think of the family as a system of individual family members. All families are connected by the individual members in some form, which means each family member’s actions and emotions impact the other members.
Changes with one family member can cause changes in the lives of the other family members. When one member hurts, the whole family hurts. When these changes and wounds significantly impact the entire family, it can take the entire family to grow and heal.
Family Therapy
When beginning Family Therapy at Mindful, we’ll start by helping your family understand how the system functions and how individual family members relate to each other. We’ll support you in recognizing unhelpful communication patterns and how they disrupt the functioning of the family system. Through facilitating productive dialogues, the family can work together to make changes and choices that improve the quality of familial relationships.
Couples Therapy
Couple and family therapy can be necessary to help develop better communication skills, resolve conflict and create healthy, more flexible boundaries between loved ones. Most couples and families are driven to therapy because of a crisis such as a divorce, loss, or repetitive fighting. Couples and family therapy can help resolve old interaction patterns and create space for healthy, rewarding connections.
Teens
The teen years are a time of growth and transition. Teens undergo significant developmental, hormonal, and social changes during these years. Though these changes are natural, they can present in jarring ways. Emotions become heightened, external pressures increase and intensify, and behavioral changes occur. Strategies and tactics that once worked when they were younger no longer work and have been outgrown. With these changes come challenges for teens and their loved ones; the good news is that ‘growing pains’ do not need to be painful!
At Mindful, we help teens learn to deal with challenges related to anxiety, depression, relationships with friends and family, school-related pressures, dating, and identity issues. Using mindfulness-informed therapy practices, we help teens tune in to their emotional experiences by learning to recognize their thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. We teach teens how to mindfully navigate their internal and external experiences while compassionately creating a space between emotions and actions. Mindful therapists collaborate with teens and their parents through the therapeutic process. All teens under age 12 are seen in family therapy sessions, while teens ages 12-18 can be seen as individuals.
Parent Coaching
Parenting is a uniquely joyful and challenging experience. Raising a child in today’s world, in New York City, comes with additional challenges. Meanwhile, family transitions happen, such as the arrival of more children, separation, divorce, or changes to the family structure.
At Mindful, we support parents in managing the challenges of raising a child. We’ll collaborate with you to address relationship conflicts, manage challenging behaviors, and communicate roadblocks.
As children grow and change, the parents' role also changes. We help parents to navigate these changes and feel supported in their roles. New ways of communicating and relating to children need to be considered, and we collaborate with parents on forming a practical approach while strengthening the parent-child relationship.
In addition to child-centered troubleshooting, we help parents gain a more in-depth understanding of how to support themselves best. Parenting is always easier when you also prioritize taking care of yourself. At Mindful, we provide non-judgmental and compassionate support, allowing you to be the best parent you can be!
