Even the most loving families can sometimes need professional help. Depression and anxiety are on the rise and the life of a modern teenager is often stressful and challenging.

When a child or adolescent is struggling most of us think of individual therapy first but research indicates that family therapy in many cases is a much more powerful intervention.

Why is this? I see families as medicine. Families should be a soft place to land and a teenager’s go-to place for love, support, comfort, and advice. If families get off track and there is tension or arguments in the home, other stressors in a child or teen’s life will become greatly magnified and potentially can turn into more serious issues. Families are the antidote to this and well-functioning, loving families can act as a powerful buffer to the stressors in the life of a modern teenager.

I am a highly experienced family therapist and I draw from many different family therapy models, including Attachment-Based Family Therapy, Multidimensional Family Therapy, and Functional Family Therapy.

Often times my clients benefit from In-Home Family Treatment (IFT), a unique, highly effective model of family treatment for more serious cases (depression, anxiety, self-harm, substance use, school problems, oppositional behavior, and so on) in which weekly therapy alone hasn’t been effective.

IFT is soundly grounded in science-based treatment approaches and clinical interventions.  At its theoretical core lies attachment-based family therapies. IFT is designed to reduce conflict, enhance communication, improve problem behavior, and build closer, more loving family connections.