Imagine this: Addams meets Brady Bunch. This Thanksgiving, there’s chaos. There is laughter. And there’s a lot of mixed feelings. Family members are by nature wild creatures, not easy to control or understand https://connectionscs.com/marriage-and-family/. Here, a marriage and families therapist can help by acting like an emotional zookeeper.
Liz worries about the finger paint Picasso life of her child, Tim questions if they can ever have a “date night” again. Alex, the teenager, storms through with headphones on, a moody attitude. It is the typical scenario of a circus tent pitched in a contested area.
One therapist could be the one to bring order to this emotionally chaotic circus. They would balance out all the acts. First they give everyone microphones and let them express their feelings without having to worry about tomatoes. Your fears, your dreams or your annoyances are revealed in the spotlight.
We’ll talk about honesty, real thoughts and openness. This is therapy’s mainstay. Sarah, who accidentally expelled her anger about socks that were left on the floor in the hallway realizes this is actually about exhaustion from trying to balance work and home. Eureka! Eureka!
The therapy process is not full of heavy clouds. Imagine it’s more like building IKEA furniture. A bit confusing, exasperating at times, but rewarding. The humor creeps in because it is absurd to fight over the position of a tooth brush holder at a cosmic-scale. We all need a laugh.
Therapy is a multi-faceted profession. Therapists are listeners, counselors and peacemakers. As archaeologists would, they go through many layers in order to discover the true essence of a person. It’s not necessary to speak in jargon. Real therapy requires patience, understanding and the willingness to try new things.
Therapy can help when relationships turn into a frenzy of missed signs and self-consciousness. Remember those “lightbulb” moments, when a person finally understands the artistic motivation behind a loved-one’s chaotic kitchen?
The room is filled with the memories of everyone who enters. The puzzle pieces can bring about unexpected silence or Cartwright family gatherings gone wrong. It is through therapy that families can uncover their hidden needs and misunderstandings, as well as switch from old to new communication methods.
James and Ella for example, have a roadblock with how their Saturdays became a series of unspoken demands. Few sessions later they have carved out date nights for painting and rekindled their shared interests by engaging in shared activities.
This is all about balancing compromise with individuality, building bridges between people, and demolishing walls. In the end, it’s about finding harmony and recognizing that there is a mess. The dialogue progresses when you change “you’re never listening” to “how can we better listen?”
Marriage and family counselors are able to bring new life into relationships clouded in old misunderstandings by using the colorful collages that make up each family. It’s time to clear out the cobwebs. Shine the roof and create a pathway for more meaningful connections. These therapists guide us through the human interconnection with grace, humor and good doses of laughter.