Family Therapy in Baltimore
Evidence-Based Treatment to Strengthen Family Relationships and Improve Communication
When conflicts, misunderstandings, or behavioral problems are affecting your family's well-being, it can feel like everyone is speaking different languages. Communication breaks down, tensions rise, and the relationships that should be sources of support become sources of stress. Maybe your teenager has shut down and won't talk to you, your partner and you can't seem to get on the same page about parenting, or family members keep falling into the same destructive patterns during conflicts.
Family therapy offers a path forward. Unlike individual therapy, which focuses on one person, family therapy treats the family system as a whole—examining how family members interact with one another, how communication patterns develop, and how family dynamics either support or hinder well-being. Through family therapy, you'll learn to improve communication, resolve conflicts more effectively, and create healthier relationships within the family.
At the Baltimore Therapy Group, our licensed marriage and family therapists and other mental health professionals provide evidence-based family counseling to families throughout the Baltimore area. Whether you're dealing with behavioral issues in children, mental health conditions affecting the family, substance use concerns, or simply want to strengthen family relationships during life transitions, family therapy can help your family function better and increase overall well-being.
What is Family Therapy?
Family therapy is a form of group psychotherapy that focuses on improving interfamilial relationships and behaviors. Rather than treating family members as isolated individuals, family therapy examines the family unit as an interconnected system where each person's actions and emotions affect everyone else.
Family therapy can involve many different combinations of loved ones—parents and their children, siblings, grandparents, extended family members, and sometimes close friends who function as family. The specific configuration depends on the family's particular needs and circumstances and the specific issues being addressed.
What makes family therapy different:
Systems perspective: Family therapists view the family as an interconnected family system rather than focusing only on one "identified patient." Problems affecting one family member are understood within the context of family dynamics and relationships.
Focus on interactions: Family therapy focuses on observable patterns of communication and behavior within the family. How do family members interact during conflicts? What unspoken dynamics shape family functioning?
Whole family involvement: Family therapy typically involves multiple family members participating in therapy sessions together. Everyone has a chance to feel heard, and everyone contributes to creating solutions.
Practical skill-building: Family therapy teaches concrete communication skills, conflict resolution strategies, and behavioral techniques that family members can practice both in sessions and at home.
Short-term and goal-focused: Family therapy is often solution-focused, with families typically attending 5 to 20 sessions depending on the specific needs and treatment goals.
How Does Family Therapy Work?
“Family therapy can improve participants’ emotional and mental health, with some studies reporting a success rate of almost 90%. Research published in sources like the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy demonstrates family therapy’s effectiveness for various mental health issues, behavioral problems, and relationship concerns.
What we’ve observed in our practice mirrors the research: families who engage with the process typically see meaningful improvements. Communication opens up as family members learn to truly listen to each other. Conflicts that seemed intractable become manageable when families learn structured approaches to resolve conflicts. Perhaps most importantly, family members begin to understand each other’s perspectives—reducing blame and increasing empathy.”
Family therapy work follows a structured process designed to help family members understand their patterns, improve communication, and create lasting change.
Creating a Safe Environment
One of the first tasks in family therapy is establishing a safe environment where all family members feel comfortable expressing their feelings and concerns. The therapist ensures everyone has a chance to speak and feel heard, ground rules protect against blaming or disrespectful communication, and vulnerable sharing is encouraged.
Teaching Communication Skills
Much of family therapy focuses on helping family members learn how to better share their thoughts and needs. Therapists teach specific communication techniques including:
Active listening and communication training: Family members learn to listen without interrupting, reducing misunderstandings.
Responsibility: Instead of blaming language, family members learn to express their own feelings and needs.
Role-playing exercises: These allow family members to build empathy and practice healthier communication skills in a safe environment.
Identifying and Changing Patterns
Family therapy helps families recognize the patterns that keep them stuck—the same argument that happens repeatedly, a child acting out to distract from parental conflict, or emotional cutoffs where family members withdraw rather than address problems. Once these patterns become visible, families can work together to create healthier alternatives.
The 5 Stages of Family Therapy
Many family therapists conceptualize family therapy as progressing through five stages:
Stage 1: Engagement and alliance-building - The therapist works to create a safe environment and establish trust with all family members.
Stage 2: Assessment and problem identification - The family and therapist identify specific issues, explore underlying causes, and understand family dynamics.
Stage 3: Goal setting and treatment planning - Together, the family and therapist define clear treatment goals and develop concrete action steps.
Stage 4: Intervention and change - This is the heart of family therapy work where families learn new skills, practice different interaction patterns, and actively work toward their goals.
Stage 5: Termination and maintenance - As families master new skills and reach their goals, therapy winds down with focus on consolidating gains and planning for future challenges.
What Are the 4 Types of Family Therapy?
There are several different types of family therapy that vary widely in terms of therapy length, therapeutic techniques, and treatment goals. Mental health professionals often combine elements from different approaches to best meet the specific needs of each family.
Structural Family Therapy
Structural family therapy focuses on adjusting family organization to create healthier dynamics. This approach examines the "structure" of the family—who holds power, how boundaries operate, and whether the family hierarchy supports healthy functioning. Family therapists may use family mapping—a visual technique to identify structural issues within family relationships. Treatment focuses on strengthening parental hierarchies, setting healthy boundaries, and reorganizing the family structure to better support all family members.
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic family therapy is a short-term, problem-focused approach that targets specific issues with direct interventions. Rather than exploring the root cause or past experiences in depth, strategic family therapy aims to interrupt dysfunctional patterns quickly through behavioral techniques and specific tasks between sessions.
Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral family therapy identifies and changes negative, dysfunctional thinking and behavior patterns that affect the entire family unit. This approach combines cognitive behavioral strategies with a family systems perspective. Families learn to recognize automatic negative thoughts that fuel conflicts, challenge cognitive distortions, and replace unhealthy habits with positive actions.
Narrative Therapy and Systems Family Therapy
Narrative therapy encourages families to reframe their personal stories and shared experiences in a more empowering way. Systems family therapy examines the family as an interconnected system, aiming to alter dysfunctional, unspoken dynamics. Functional family therapy integrates systems theory with cognitive-behavioral strategies, recognizing that all behavior serves some function within the family system.
What Can Family Therapy Help With?
Family therapy can be beneficial for families facing a wide range of challenges. Research shows that family therapy can help treat certain mental health or behavioral conditions for one person within the family unit, while also improving how the whole family functions together.
Mental Health Conditions
Family therapy can be beneficial if a family member has mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or other mental health issues. Family therapy provides psychoeducation to help family members understand the condition and learn how to provide support. This understanding helps the entire family support their loved ones more effectively while also addressing how the mental health condition affects family functioning.
When a family member struggles with anxiety or depression, family therapy can address how family dynamics may inadvertently reinforce symptoms while teaching everyone how to create a supportive environment for recovery. The focus is on improving mental well-being for the individual while strengthening the family unit.
Behavioral Problems and Behavioral Issues
Family therapy can help with childhood behavioral conditions and behavioral issues including ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, autism spectrum disorder, school refusal, and aggression. Family therapy is effective for addressing behavioral problems by examining how family dynamics may contribute and how family members can work together to support positive behavioral change.
Family therapy has been particularly beneficial for families with neurodivergent members, helping families adapt to specific needs while reducing conflict and improving understanding.
Substance Use and Mental Illness
Family therapy can help families navigate the challenges when a family member struggles with substance use or mental illness. Family members learn how to support recovery, set healthy boundaries, and address the ways substance use or mental health conditions have affected family relationships and trust. Research indicates that family therapy approaches are particularly effective for adolescent substance use.
Communication and Relationship Issues
Family therapy helps families who are struggling with frequent conflicts, communication breakdowns, parenting disagreements, and relationship difficulties. When the same arguments happen repeatedly without resolution, family therapy helps families break these cycles and develop healthier ways to resolve conflicts. Family therapy can help improve communication among family members and foster healthier relationships.
Life Transitions
Family therapy can help families navigate life's challenges including divorce and separation, blended families, loss and grief, major illness affecting physical health, and relocation. These transitions can disrupt family functioning, and family therapy provides support while helping families adjust to new roles and relationships.
When Should Families Consider Therapy?
Many families wonder when it's the right time to seek family therapy. Here are signs that family therapy can help your family:
Communication has broken down or conflicts are escalating
Behavioral problems are affecting daily life
Mental health conditions or substance use are impacting the family
Major life transitions feel overwhelming
Everyone feels unheard or invalidated
Family members are experiencing mental or physical health issues related to family stress
When Family Therapy Should Not Be Attempted
While family therapy can be helpful in many situations, there are three red flags or reasons why family therapy should not be attempted or should be delayed:
Active domestic violence: If there is current physical violence in the family, individual safety must be addressed first. Family therapy can inadvertently put victims at risk.
Severe untreated mental illness affecting participation: If a family member has severe, untreated mental health conditions that prevent them from engaging meaningfully in therapy, individual treatment should stabilize their condition first.
One family member unwilling to participate respectfully: If someone is determined to sabotage the process or refuses to follow basic ground rules, family therapy may not be productive until that resistance is addressed.
Baltimore Therapy Group Accepting New Patients
Meet the Baltimore Therapy Group's
Family Therapy Specialists
rachel greenberg Larson, LCPC
Family therapist
Licensed counselor in Baltimore
Rachel works with children, adolescents, adults, and families navigating anxiety, depression, behavioral difficulties, and relationship challenges. She brings a strengths-based, calm approach to family therapy, understanding that behavioral problems and mental health conditions don't exist in isolation—they affect and are affected by the entire family system.
Rachel helps families improve communication, understand each family member's perspective, and develop concrete strategies for supporting one another through family therapy work. Rachel creates a nonjudgmental space where family members can be honest about their struggles while building the skills and understanding necessary for healthier family functioning.
Jessica Inge
Family therapist
Licensed counselor in Baltimore
Jessica works with individuals and families navigating anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and relationship difficulties. She creates a safe, supportive environment where family members can be vulnerable about their struggles while learning practical tools for improving communication and resolving conflicts through family therapy.
Jessica understands that family therapy requires balancing multiple perspectives—ensuring everyone feels heard while moving the family toward healthier patterns. She uses evidence-based approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Trauma-Focused CBT, adapting her approach to meet each family's unique needs and circumstances. Jessica is particularly attuned to how past experiences and trauma affect current family dynamics, helping families understand these connections while building skills for moving forward and creating stronger relationships.
What Happens in Family Therapy Sessions?
Understanding what to expect in family therapy sessions can help reduce anxiety about starting the process.
Session Structure and Length
The average number of sessions for family therapy is typically between 5 to 20 sessions, depending on the situation, specific needs, and treatment goals. Family therapy sessions usually last 50-60 minutes, though some therapists offer longer sessions for family therapy work because multiple people need time to participate.
Who Attends Sessions?
Session attendance can vary based on treatment goals: all family members together for most sessions, rotating participants for different configurations, or subsystem sessions working with just parents or just siblings for specific issues. Your family therapist will discuss the most helpful configuration for your family's specific situation.
What Actually Happens?
In family therapy sessions, families check in about what's happened since the last session, focus on specific issues or concerns, practice new communication skills in real time, receive homework to practice between sessions, and reflect on what was learned. The therapist guides the family to address particular concerns while creating opportunities to practice healthier interaction patterns.
Therapists may use various therapeutic techniques including cognitive behavioral strategies, structural family therapy approaches, or narrative therapy methods depending on the family's needs. Behavioral techniques in therapy aim to replace unhealthy habits with positive actions that support family functioning and well-being.
Finding a Family Therapist in Baltimore
Finding the right family therapist is often a time-consuming task, but it's worth investing the time to find someone who fits your family's needs.
What to Look for in a Family Therapist
A family therapist can be a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) or other licensed mental health professionals including licensed professional counselors, psychologists, and social workers who have specialized training in family systems.
Be sure that any family therapist you're interested in seeing is a state-certified and licensed mental health professional. In Maryland, look for credentials like Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), or Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C).
Questions to Ask
It may be helpful to ask a potential therapist questions about their experience and approach before choosing them:
What training and experience do you have in family therapy?
What types of family therapy approaches do you use?
How do you handle situations when family members disagree about goals?
What can we expect in terms of treatment length?
Do you assign homework or practice between sessions?
Finding Family Therapists
You can search for family therapists through online directories at the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy website, local and state psychological associations, referrals from your primary healthcare provider, or recommendations from trusted friends or family members.
Families in Baltimore often seek therapy to navigate urban stressors, major life changes, or specific mental health challenges. Understanding the unique issues they face, family therapists in Baltimore provide counseling services tailored to help families address their specific concerns.
Getting Started with Family Therapy at the Baltimore Therapy Group
At the Baltimore Therapy Group, our licensed marriage and family therapists and other mental health professionals understand that every family faces unique challenges. Whether you're dealing with communication breakdowns, behavioral issues, mental health conditions affecting the family, or major life transitions, we provide evidence-based family counseling services tailored to your family's specific needs.
Located in Towson, Maryland, we serve families throughout the Baltimore area. We offer both in-person family therapy sessions at our office and teletherapy options for families who prefer online counseling services.
What to Expect When You Reach Out
When you contact the Baltimore Therapy Group for family therapy, we'll schedule an initial consultation to understand your family's concerns and goals. During this first meeting, your therapist will learn about the specific issues bringing your family to therapy, understand each family member's perspective, assess family dynamics and communication patterns, and discuss what approach to family therapy might be most helpful.
Family therapy can help families navigate challenges, resolve conflicts, strengthen relationships, and rediscover hope. Family therapy provides support, education, and guidance to help families function better and increase their well-being. With evidence-based therapeutic techniques and compassionate support from licensed mental health professionals, families can create lasting positive change in how they relate to one another.
If you're ready to improve communication within your family, address family issues, and build stronger relationships, contact the Baltimore Therapy Group today. Our family therapy specialists are here to help your family create the healthier, more connected relationships you deserve. Family therapy can help your family develop healthier communication patterns, address mental health conditions or behavioral problems affecting the family unit, and navigate life transitions with greater understanding and support.
Take the first step toward healing and connection—reach out to us for an example of how family therapy can help address your specific concerns and create positive change within the family.