Psychotherapy Services Include: Family Systems-Oriented Therapy Individual Therapy Marital / Couple Therapy Divorce Therapy Conjoint Family Therapy Group Therapy Family Systems - Oriented Psychotherapy Dr. Healy utilizes a family systems perspective in psychotherapy with adults, adolescents and children. Depending upon the particular patient and his or her specific area of concern, individual sessions, couple/marital sessions, or conjoint family sessions are used to help individuals gain insight into the dysfunctional nature of their family of origin and the negative manner in which these unhealthy behavior patterns or unresolved issues are currently influencing their relationships with spouses, children, in-laws, friends, co-workers, supervisors, employers and other significant individuals in the patient's life. Individual Therapy Individuals often decide to begin psychotherapy because they are experiencing distressing symptoms such as depression and anxiety or problematic patterns of behavior such as trouble with anger control or non-assertive tendencies. In addition to addressing the specific symptoms or behavior patterns, Dr. Healy helps the patient thoroughly understand the connections between the individual's symptoms/behavior problems and unhealthy relationships within the patient's family of origin. Moreover, options are identified for working toward resolving these issues and changing the maladaptive patterns of behavior. Marital/Couple Psychotherapy Marital therapy sessions are utilized to help individuals understand how each spouse is contributing to the the problems in their marital relationship. Again, a family systems perspective is employed to demonstrate how unresolved issues and unhealthy behavior patterns stemming from the family of origin of each spouse are negatively impacting upon the marital relationship. "Couple therapy" is similar to marital therapy. Oftentimes, partners will begin couple therapy when they are experiencing problems in their relationship prior to marriage. Divorce Psychotherapy Sometimes, in spite of diligent efforts to save a marriage, one or both spouses conclude that the relationship is beyond repair. "Divorce therapy" employs a family systems perspective in helping each spouse gain insight into the dysfunctional nature of their marital relationship and the connections between their troubled relationship and unresolved issues in their respective families of origin. Divorce therapy is especially helpful with respect to working to ensure that the stressors of divorce are minimized on children in the family. Additionally, divorce therapy can help each spouse become more aware of their respective contributions to the problems in the marriage, thereby decreasing the chances that they will make similar mistakes in future relationships. Conjoint Family Psychotherapy Oftentimes, a child or adolescent will exhibit symptoms such as anxiety and depression or problematic behavior patterns such as oppositional behavior or shyness in the form of social withdrawal. Within the family systems conceptual framework, the child's behavior is viewed as being symptomatic of underlying family/marital problems. An important component of the child's treatment often involves addressing the underlying issues (e.g., the problems of the child's parents) within the context of family and/or marital sessions. On occasion, adult patients will elect to bring members of their family of origin into family therapy in order to work on unresolved issues in an effort to more clearly define their own identities. With such an intervention, the quality of the patient's relationships both inside and outside the family can be enhanced. Group Psychotherapy Oftentimes, individual psychotherapy is supplemented by group therapy sessions which help the patient gain increased awareness regarding the manner in which he or she exhibits maladaptive behavior within an interpersonal context. Moreover, the group sessions allow the patient to work on changing these behavior patterns in an environment which approximates "real-life" conditions, yet is protective and supportive.