A great many things happen at a family therapy center, but most fall within three broad categories: individual and group counseling, workshops, and training exercises. Most family therapy centers are designed to be multipurpose facilities where people can come for a variety of different programs. Counseling often takes the lion’s share of the resources, but it is far from the sole focus of most centers.
Family therapy centers are often affiliated with certain medical practices or mental health cooperatives. They accept patients based on referrals from primary care physicians, schools, and independent therapists. A family therapy center can also be affiliated with certain churches, synagogues, or other spiritual groups, which offer services according to specific religious beliefs. University family therapist training programs may also host centers as a means of giving students a chance for hands-on observation and counseling practice. The sorts of services offered by each type of center vary, but share some core similarities.
In general, family counseling centers are dedicated to treating a range of emotional issues related to family life. This includes standard marriage and couple’s counseling alongside therapy programs designed to help people recover from traumatic childhoods, get along with estranged children, or understand how addictions and compulsions affect family life. Sometimes one-on-one meetings with licensed family therapists are the best way for a patient to see results, but not always. Group sessions, support groups, and reconciliation meetings between feuding family members may also be called for. Most of the time, a family therapy center provides the space and resources for many different family needs.
When patients arrive at a family therapy center, they usually check in with a centralized receptionist, much as they would at any other medical practice. There is usually a waiting room of sorts where patients can sit, read, or watch television while waiting for their appointment. Most of the time, the waiting area is designed to be calming. Patients are often in places of crisis or questioning when they arrive at the therapy center, and the waiting room is usually designed to be a place where they can prepare themselves for treatment in a non-confrontational, comfortable setting.
Just as there are many different types of family therapy, there are a variety of family therapists. Some are medially trained psychiatrists, while others, particularly psychologists, take a more academic approach to treatment. Most centers employ a range of different staff members in order to provide the expertise needed to serve a wide and diverse patient base.
Each therapist or counselor usually has his or her own office within the family therapy center, which is where sessions take place. Centers usually also have larger, more general-purpose rooms where support groups and other larger meetings can be hosted. Some also have lecture halls or large rooms that can be converted to conference-style seating to accommodate crowds for featured sessions, lectures, or community outreach presentations. Larger centers, particularly those affiliated with graduate programs, often host lectures on family therapy topics. This can be both a means of reaching out to patients and potential patients, as well as a way to provide educational opportunities to therapists and therapists-in-training.
