How Marriage and Family therapy can help!

Marriage and Family therapy is based on the research and theory that mental illness and family problems are best treated within a family context. Trained in psychotherapy and family systems, Marriage and Family Therapists focus on understanding their clients’ symptoms and interaction patterns within their existing environment. Marriage and Family Therapists treat individuals, couples, and families. Whomever the client, Family Therapists treat from a relationship perspective that incorporates the family system. Research has shown that family based interventions are as effective as—and in many cases more effective—than alternative interventions, often at a lower cost.

Family therapy for severe mental illness is one of the most well-studied and effective interventions in the mental health literature. Family Involvement – including family psychoeducation, multifamily groups therapy, and family therapy—have been consistently linked to better individual and family functioning. Research on couples therapy for depression indicates that couples therapy is the treatment of choice for couples in which there is both depression and couple distress. Family therapy outcomes for severe mental illness include improved well being, fewer mental illnesses, decreased medical care utilization, and increased self-efficacy. Family- based interventions are also effective for persons with medical problems. Treatment outcomes show improvement in the identified patient, as well as in other family members. Family Therapy is particularly effective with families who are providing care to elders or to a child with a chronic illness (e.g. asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, or cancer).

 

There is also some evidence that family involvement facilitates disease prevention, demonstrating improved outcomes in weight reduction for children and cardiovascular risk.

What is Marriage and 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.

Marriage and 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.

Who are Marriage and Family Therapists?
Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) are mental health professionals trained in psychotherapy and family systems, and licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage, couples and family systems.

Marriage and family therapists are a highly experienced group of practitioners, with an average of 13 years of clinical practice in the field of marriage and family therapy. They evaluate and treat mental and emotional disorders, other health and behavioral problems, and address a wide array of relationship issues within the context of the family system.

Marriage and Family Therapists broaden the traditional emphasis on the individual to attend to the nature and role of individuals in primary relationship networks such as marriage and the family. MFTs take a holistic perspective to health care; they are concerned with the overall, long-term well-being of individuals and their families.

MFTs have graduate training (a Master's or Doctoral degree) in marriage and family therapy and at least two years of clinical experience. Marriage and family therapists are recognized as a "core" mental health profession, along with psychiatry, psychology, social work and psychiatric nursing.