Four Ways Family Counseling Can Help Blended Families

Family CounselingFebruary 25, 2020

It is hard to connect with people you do not know. It is the same as connecting someone from a different family when someone’s parent (mother or father) decides to remarry another person. With this, everyone will be one family all of a sudden. Regardless of the biological stands, you have a new family, and everyone has a tough time adjusting to the changes. But there are ways to cope with reality and usually live with the help of family therapy.

Just as seen in TV series and movies, blending families is challenging and mostly a problematic phase. It is not as same as other things which you can fix overnight. One must accept the consequences along with it and successfully pass all the challenges in line. This takes time, effort, and something therapy. But how does family therapy assist blended families in connecting and function as one family?

Here noted are some of the essential things to therapy or counseling that can help the dilemmas of people in a blended family.

Opens Communication between Family Members

Most of the time, blended family members do not talk with each other. This is specifically true in the case of the kids from two separate original families. Since both belong to different families, there are a lot of differences, disputes, and disagreements. Each would be wary of starting a conversation, anticipating a conflict even no communication has begun yet.

But family therapy will help initiate communication between family members. It allows them to share what is on their mind in a safe space. The more you open up about your thoughts, the more you will be understood. It will also help you connect better with other members of the family. This opportunity will let everyone connect.

Fixes the Gap between Stepmother/Stepfather and Children

Once you initiate communication between family members, it is evident for them to express feelings of anger and disappointment. Everything from their concerns on the remarriage to the new family issues will come up. Imagine waking up the next day and learning that your parents will be living with another person instead of your biological parents being together.

Some kids may be on the denial stage and would not accept the changes yet. But by going through therapy, it would help the parent understand the children’s feelings and reactions. So one would know how you can change or fix it.

Reveal and Explain the Roles of Each Member

Going through family therapy will help you connect and live as one big happy family. The therapist or counselor could advise you on the right approach to parenting. You can also get tips on how to behave with your stepchildren. Meaning you can learn if you should be friendly or authoritative to win their trust and love. All these things are taken into consideration for achieving one goal, i.e., to turn the blended family into one happy unit.

Allows Family Members To Understand and Control Their Emotions

One must know how to be patient and control their emotions. It will make sure nobody’s feelings are hurt. You may not know if the child is under depression because of his parent’s divorce and suddenly going through this next phase. As a step-parent, knowing how to deal with this is essential.

You can be the person who is remarrying and has a child, or even the child in question. Either way, remember that blended families might be challenging at first. To face the issues, head-on family therapy is one of the most effective ways to work things out.

Only professionals should initiate family counseling, and a licensed therapist should take up the job of helping the family achieve peace and harmony. It is not easy to become a part of a blended family. But one thing for sure, family therapy could help lessen the worries and negative impact. Understanding and adapting to all these are easy to achieve if you do it without any doubts or fears.

Accepting that you are now part of a blended family will be the first phase. The next phase would be to work through the challenges and differences. This way, in the end, you won’t just be a blended family, but one happy family!