Helping families communicate better, resolve conflicts, and feel more connected.
Session Details:
- Available online or in-person
- Locations in Dublin and Galway
What Is Family Therapy?
Family therapy considers the whole family, not just one person’s struggles. Rather than asking “who’s to blame,” we explore how relationships, communication patterns, and family dynamics shape everyone’s experience.
You might work with a therapist individually to better understand family relationships, or you might attend sessions together as a family. Either way, the focus remains on the family system and how each person affects and is affected by others.
Family therapy recognises that families are small communities, and sometimes those communities get stuck in patterns that no longer serve anyone well. When hurtful behaviours repeat themselves, and relationships seem to be suffering, therapy offers a way forward.
Practical Information
Fees
The cost per session varies depending on the therapist that you choose. Our therapists typically charge between 80 – 120 euro per session for family therapy.
Insurance Coverage
We recommend enquiring with your insurance provider about potential coverage for family therapy sessions. There may be requirements for your therapists accreditation, depending on your insurance provider or specific policy. If you are unsure if the therapist you have selected will be covered by your insurance we are happy to offer you guidance. For confirmation on coverage, always check with your insurance provider directly.
Benefits of Family Therapy
Families who engage with therapy often find:
- Improved communication: Family members learn to express themselves more clearly and listen more carefully
- Reduced tension: The atmosphere at home feels calmer, with fewer explosive arguments
- Clearer roles and boundaries: Everyone understands their place and responsibilities better
- Stronger emotional connections: Relationships deepen as understanding grows
- Shared strategies: The family develops tools for handling future challenges together
- Better support: Any family member struggling with mental health or behavioural issues feels more understood and supported
Family therapy doesn’t just support changes for individuals, it transforms the relationships that shape everyone’s daily life.
Who Is Family Therapy For?
Family therapy might help if you’re experiencing:
- Frequent conflict or tension that feels unresolvable
- Being “stuck” in negative patterns where the same arguments happen again and again
- Challenges in blended families as everyone adjusts to new roles and routines
- Major life changes such as divorce, relocation, serious illness, or bereavement
- A family member’s mental health difficulties, eating disorder, or addiction
- Co-parenting difficulties where you want to improve communication for your children’s well-being
- Differences in age, character, opinions, or outlook on life create strain
- A sense that you’re no longer sure what to do for the best of the family or individual family members
Sometimes the whole family feels the weight when one or more members experience difficulties. Reaching out for support can make a real difference.
Common Issues Family Counselling Can Help With
Families come to counselling for many reasons. You might recognise some of these situations:
Communication and Conflict
- Communication breakdown and constant arguments
- Feeling unheard or misunderstood
- Power struggles between parents and children
- Sibling rivalry and jealousy that disrupts family harmony
Parenting and Behaviour
- Behavioural difficulties at home or school
- Adolescent challenges, including attention and overactivity concerns
- Parenting issues where you’re unsure of the best approach
- Children or teens struggling with anxiety, depression, or grief following bereavement
Family Structure and Transitions
- Co-parenting difficulties after separation or divorce
- Adjusting to step-family life
- Navigating cultural or generational differences
- Boundaries and roles that have become unclear (for instance, when children feel responsible for adult concerns)
Difficult Circumstances
- Supporting family members post-trauma
- Illness and disability in the family
- Drug and alcohol misuse affecting relationships
- Eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia within the family
- Self-harm or suicidal thoughts in the family
- Domestic violence situations
- Fostering, adoption, kinship care, and the needs of looked-after children
- Difficulties related to ageing
Emotional Wellbeing
- Emotional disorders including anxiety and depression
- Adult mental health concerns affecting family dynamics
- Couples relationship difficulties that impact children
- Grief and loss that the whole family is navigating
The aim isn’t to fix one person but to help the entire family express and explore difficult thoughts and feelings safely, understand each other’s experiences and needs, and find constructive ways to support one another.
How Family Therapy Works With Us
We’ve structured our approach to feel safe and manageable. Here’s what you can expect:
Initial Session
With your therapist, you will start by understanding your family’s particular concerns and what you hope to achieve. Together, you will decide who should attend sessions (this might be the whole family, certain family members, or subsets at different times) and how often you’ll meet.
Assessment & Goal Setting
Your therapist will explore your family history and current dynamics. You’ll work together to agree on shared goals. Perhaps you want fewer arguments at home, better daily routines, or simply to feel heard by each other. Whatever matters to your family will be the focus.
Ongoing Sessions
These are guided conversations where everyone has a voice. Your family therapist will create a calm environment with ground rules for respect and safety. You’ll learn and practise new skills, things like listening actively, expressing needs clearly, setting boundaries, and solving problems together. You’ll also work through current conflicts in a supported space where difficult emotions can be aired without things escalating.
Your therapist will help your family to understand each other’s perspectives and appreciate each other’s needs. This isn’t about taking sides; it’s about building on family strengths so that meaningful changes can take place.
Review & Closure
As therapy progresses, you’ll review what has changed and how everyone is feeling. We’ll create a plan for maintaining improvements after sessions end, and you’ll always have the option of follow-up or booster sessions if needed later on.
Our Therapeutic Approach & Values
Our family therapists draw on evidence-based methods including Systemic Psychotherapy, Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and attachment-based approaches.
We work collaboratively and without judgment. Whether we’re working with young children (from 3 years old through Child Play Therapy) or supporting the whole family together, the focus remains on understanding rather than blame.
Our approach is:
- Strengths-focused: We look for what’s working, not just what’s broken
- Culturally sensitive and inclusive: We welcome families from all backgrounds
- Child-centred when appropriate: Children and adolescents deserve to be heard too
- Whole-family focused: Changes in one person affect their relationships within the family and beyond
What to Expect from a Session
Who Attends?
This varies. Sometimes the whole family comes, sometimes parents attend alone to work on parenting strategies, sometimes it’s just one parent and a child. Your therapist will help you decide what makes sense for your situation.
Session Structure
Sessions typically last 50 minutes and follow a structured format. There are clear ground rules about respect and safety. It’s normal to feel nervous at first, most families do. Your therapist understands this and will help everyone feel more at ease.
Confidentiality
When working with multiple family members, it is important that you have a clear understanding of how confidentiality will work. Your therapist will explain the levels of confidentiality that can be expected within family therapy sessions so everyone understands what will be kept private and what should be discussed within the family.
You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone
Support is available for your family. When relationships feel strained and patterns seem stuck, reaching out is a sign of strength, not weakness
Contact us:
- Phone: 01 677 1021
- Email: enquiries@mindandbodyworks.com
Our team of accredited professionals in Dublin, Galway and across Ireland are here to help your family find a way forward together.
