Family Counselling

STUDY FAMILY COUNSELLING AT HOME -by Distance education -online course option also available    

Develop a better understanding of family Dynamics, and a capacity to analyze and facilitate solutions to problems that emerge in modern families.

I have done several counselling courses in the past and the coaching course fitted in well with the learning experiences I had encountered previously. The reading material was detailed and interesting and the feedback was detailed and constructive.
- Sarah, Life Coaching

What is a family? It is usually a group people who live together forming a social group. It usually consists of the parent(s) and their children, living together. The members of the group are usually related by marriage, blood or adoption. However, in modern society, there are many different variations of family, to represent the different ways that families and society have changed. The family is still the basic unit within society.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Nature & Scope of Families
   • Different types of families
   • Traditional Family Structures
   • Family Systems
   • Cultural variations
   • Family Lifecycles
2. Family Dynamics
   • Crises - Changing cultures (immigrant families)
   • Evolving Structures (Religion, new siblings, departing siblings, changing parents, incoming grandparents)
   • Breakdowns, Merging 2 families, Abuse, Violence, Death, Illness, Changing location (losing friends etc);
   • Changing income (loss of job etc)
   • Disintegration & Reintegration
3. History
   • How are dynamics different & similar today to in the past.
   • How did we cope with family problems in the past in different places, cultures etc.
   • What can we learn from this? How can we draw strength from knowing all this is not new ?
4. Identifying Problems
   • Patterns, Critical incidents
   • Long standing incidents, common problems for families; common problems for couples
5. Support Structures
   • What support services might be accessed
   • extended family, community services, social networks, religion
   • Types of counselling, -individual, Group Work etc (incl. problems with Group work) etc.
6. Approaches to Family Therapy I
7. Approaches to Family Therapy II
8. Conducting Initial Interviews/Sessions
9. Considering Solutions
   • Determining Roles, Establishing Rules
10. PBL or Case Study(studies)
    • Consider a situation establish & consider alternative strategies & select a strategy.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Describe family diversity in terms of a variety of factors including structure and function.
• Explain the interactions and motivations at work in different families.
• Describe how we have dealt with family problems in the past; then evaluate the results of these past strategies, and learn from those results.
• Determine precisely what problems exist in a family; and evaluate the relative significance of those different problems.
• Identify and compare support options that may be available to a family with problems
• Understand what is meant by a family systems approach to counselling and describe different theoretical perspectives.
• Describe further theoretical approaches to family therapy and understand the usefulness of an integrated approach.
• Plan the initial interview for a couple or for a family, in need of counselling.
• Identify optional approaches for counselling a family or couple with problems.
• Plan a program of counselling and if relevant, other strategies, to address a family or couple in crisis.

Why Do Families Need Counselling?

The breakdown of families now occurs more regularly, leaving children to cope with the consequences of these changes in their family life. Sometimes parents remain friendly after breakdowns, but they can be acrimonious, leading to children feeling depressed, guilty, withdraw and alienated. Children will therefore require support to help them cope with the relationship breakdown.  The child may feel upset and left out.  Parents may wish to help children cope with the breakdown.  However, sometimes parents may not recognise that their children are grieving, focussing too much on their own needs. 

Various factors affect how children cope with the breakdown of families, these include –

• How the child is treated.
• How adaptable the child is.
• Divorce makes children feel insecure.
• The reasons for the divorce.
• The parents’ relationship before the divorce.