Couple
& Family Therapy
Couple Psychotherapy
It is based on the assumption that two people who are united in a relationship carry a separate and unique psychological inheritance.
Each carries a personal story and a set of hidden internalized objects in all subsequent transactions with the other person.
Therefore, the way each person has experienced relationships within their paternal family greatly influences the way they relate to their love partners today.
Couple Psychotherapy
The different characters, the needs and desires of each partner, the ever-increasing demands of everyday life, as well as the changes resulting from the different phases of the couple’s life cycle (e.g., the birth of a child, the loss of a parent) cause various difficulties for the couple. Difficulties can be reflected through the lack of mutual understanding and emotional closeness, the absence of satisfaction from each other, conflicts, frustration and feelings of insecurity.
The therapist or therapists (it is possible that two therapists are present at the meetings with the couple) make sure to help the couple in order to define the issues that are difficult for them, to express repressed thoughts and feelings, to understand each other’s position, to discover new codes of communication, so that they can experience the relationship in a different way. By creating a framework of trust and considering the relationships in the paternal family, the expectations, capabilities and intentions of each member separately gives an opportunity to improve communication between them and to feel that a third party really understands what is happening in their relationship.
After the therapeutic condition is over, partners may choose to continue their life together, or they may realize that it would be better to go their separate ways. Regardless of the partners’ final choices about whether they want to continue their relationship or not, this experience is an invaluable mental asset for their next choices.
The goal of couples therapy is on the one hand the emergence of unresolved interpsychic problems of the partners that prevent them from enjoying a productive and satisfying marital experience and on the other hand to think about why they are together, to explore the dynamics of their relationship, as it evolves over time, to recognize their needs and to look for ways to enjoy their life together.
Family Therapy
In the context of family therapy, the focus is on the family as a system of relationships which function in ways that support or hinder the progress of the family or any of its individual members as the family moves into the developmental stages of its life cycle (birth of children, separation from the parental home, etc.).
The unresolved intra-psychic conflicts that originate from the couple’s family of origin continue to be expressed and repeated with the familiar persons present, such as with the spouse or with the children. A mother who has not been cared for enough by her mother or a father who has not been cared for enough by his father is likely to behave inappropriately when called upon to become a parent himself.
Family therapy also performs a restorative function, reconnecting its members, allowing participants to see each other as an autonomous subject and not simply through their family-assigned role.
The goal of psychotherapy is for the individual to be able to understand themselves and the emotions generated by the relationship with the other, thus bringing about a change in dysfunctional ways of thinking and dysfunctional emotional reactions and behaviours, resulting in the improvement of relationships and the resolution of internal conflicts.
Reasons for initiating treatment
The reasons why a family decides to start treatment, with the constant presence of all its members, may involve changes and transitions in the family life cycle and periods of crisis, such as:
- Children’s coming of age & separation from the parental home
- Economic crisis
- Occurrence of chronic disease
- Moving / job transfer
- Immigration, etc.
- Birth of children
- Children in adolescence
- Divorce or death of parents
The family therapist, by entering a therapeutic alliance with the family, creates an encouraging climate so that its members can give meaning to aspects of family life that have been lost, as well as to discover themselves.
How can we help?
Call us at +30 2410 258040 or follow the link next to contact us!
How can we help?
Call us at +30 2410 258040 or follow the link next to contact us!