Family Therapy in Raleigh, NC

FILIAL THERAPY

At some point, the family therapist may bring parents, siblings, or other family members into play therapy. This is known as filial therapy. It can help teach conflict resolution, promote healing, and improve family dynamics. Filial therapy provides caregivers (typically parents) with training in basic play therapy techniques so they can use these techniques with their own children. This modality originated as a group family program and was one of the first systemic family therapy interventions.

Founded on the belief parents can learn the necessary skills to become therapeutic agents in their children’s lives, filial therapy incorporates family members as the main agents of change, offering a unique outlook on the therapy process. Our trained filial therapist, Laurel Tobias, LCSW, educates primary caregivers in the method and then provide supervision and guidance as families begin to navigate and resolve challenges.

Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

CPP is an intervention for children aged 0-6 who have experienced at least one traumatic event and/or are experiencing mental health, attachment, and/or behavior problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder. The primary goal of CPP is to strengthen the parent-child relationship which leads to improvement in the child’s emotional and behavioral functioning. Treatment begins with an extended assessment phase (mostly with the parent or caregiver) and then involves conjoint, play-based   sessions with the child, caregiver, and therapist. Completion of CPP is based on mastery and improved functioning but typically takes 8-12 months of weekly therapy. Kate Bridgers, LPA, offers CPP in our Raleigh location. 

Theraplay®

Theraplay is a dyadic child and family therapy that has been recognized by the Association of Play Therapy as one of the best psychotherapies for children. Developed over 50 years ago, and practiced around the world, Theraplay was developed for any professional working to support healthy child/caregiver attachment. Strong attachment between the child and the important adults in their life has long been believed to be the basis of lifelong good mental health as well as the mainstay of resilience in the face of adversity. Modern brain research and the field of neuroscience have shown that attachment is the way in which children come to understand, trust and thrive in their world (theraplay.org). Katheryn Burnett, LCMHCA, is trained in Theraplay, Level One, and offers Theraplay in our Raleigh location. 

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

PCIT is an evidence-based treatment for young children with behavioral problems. PCIT is conducted through "coaching" sessions during which you and your child are in a playroom while the family therapist is in an observation room watching you interact with your child through a one-way mirror and/or live video feed. You wear a "bug-in-the-ear" device through which the therapist provides in-the-moment coaching on skills you are learning to manage your child's behavior (pcit.org). Laurel Tobias, LCSW, is currently fulfilling PCIT training and will be offering it in our Durham and Raleigh locations.

Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)

Emotionally Focused Family Therapy ― follows the principles and practices of Emotionally Focused Therapy to restore connection and promote resilience in family relationships. The principle goal of EFFT is to re-establish more secure family patterns where attachment and caregiving responses are effective and emotional bonds are repaired. These resources inform a network of security that provides the flexibility and closeness necessary for families to promote individual growth and meaningful relationships across generations.

EFFT Process

The EFFT process of change in EFFT focuses on stabilizing a family’s negative interaction pattern, restructuring parent and child interactions, and consolidating the felt security gained through these new patterns of connection. Following principles of attachment science, the EFT therapist guides the family to new patterns of parental availability, responsiveness and coherent attachment communications as they face developmental change and life challenges. In EFFT, the focus is on addressing blocks in parental caregiving responses and understanding the child or adolescent’s behavior

Attachment in EFFT

in terms of attachment needs or fears. These blocks result from constrained, stuck responses to mis-attunement and injuries in family relationships. The EFFT therapist tracks the generational influences impacting these blocks and works through rigid patterns that disrupt attachment communication between parents, and siblings and between parent and child. Work with parents focuses on the building of a coherent parenting team.

The process of EFFT often moves quickly as family members become more responsive, accessible, and engaged with previously unacknowledged attachment-related emotions and needs. Goals include:

• Accessing and expanding awareness of unacknowledged feelings associated with the family’s negative pattern.

• Reframing family distress and child problems within relation blocks reinforces this distress.

• Promoting awareness and access to underlying caregiving intentions and disowned attachment-related needs.

• Facilitating the sharing of unmet attachment needs and effective caregiving responses.

Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)

SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems. SPACE was developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center and has been tested and found to be efficacious in randomized controlled clinical trials. SPACE aims to treat children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although children do not have to attend SPACE sessions - they are the patients! When SPACE treatment is successful children feel less anxious and function better following treatment. Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:

• Separation anxiety

• Social anxiety

• Generalized anxiety

• Fears and phobias

• Panic disorder and Agoraphobia

• Selective mutism

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Parents Involvement in SPACE

Parents (and other caregivers) participate in SPACE treatment sessions. In most cases the child or adolescent does not need to attend the treatment sessions. Parents who participate in SPACE will learn skills and tools to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD or related problems. The treatment focuses on changes that parents can make to their own behavior, they do not need to make their child change. The two main changes that parents learn to make in SPACE treatment are to respond more supportively to their anxious child and to reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child symptoms. Laurel Tobias, LCSW, is currently offering it in our Durham and Raleigh locations.

Child- Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT)

Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) is designed for parents of children ages 2–10 who are experiencing social, emotional, and relational disorders. CPRT aims to strengthen the parent-child relationship. CPRT helps parents learn to respond more effectively to their children’s emotional and behavioral needs and to understand and accept their child. CPRT teaches parents CCPT skills to help them connect with their children through play and child-centered principles, including unconditional acceptance, recognizing and reflecting the child’s feelings, respect for the child’s ability to solve problems, and establishing a feeling of permissiveness in the relationship. Briana Joseph, LCSW,  offers this at the North Raleigh location.