Family Therapy

Last reviewed Saturday, October 24, 2026

Family therapy is a type of talking therapy that works with the relationships in a family, not just one person. A trained therapist helps family members talk and listen to each other, change patterns that keep problems going, and support one another better. “Family” means whoever counts as family to you.

Also called: family counselling; family and systemic therapy; systemic psychotherapy. Couples therapy is a close relative.

Our guide to the types of counselling compares family counselling with individual, couples and group work.

How it works

A session usually lasts 50 to 90 minutes, and a course is often 6 to 8 sessions over several months, in person, online or by phone. Who attends can change. Some families meet together from the start. Others begin with time alone with the therapist.

The aim isn’t to find someone to blame. The therapist looks at patterns: who speaks for whom, how arguments start and end, the roles people have learned, what has been passed down the generations, and what already works. You might practise new ways of talking and listening.

Systemic therapy can also be done one to one. If relatives won’t come, you can still work with a therapist on family conflict, estrangement or patterns that repeat across generations.

Types

Structural family therapy (Salvador Minuchin): looks at how the family is organised and the boundaries between people.
Strategic family therapy (Jay Haley, Cloé Madanes): uses planned steps to break cycles that keep a problem going.
Bowen family systems therapy (Murray Bowen): traces patterns across generations and helps each person keep their own identity within the family.
Solution-focused therapy: grew out of a family therapy centre in Milwaukee (see solution-focused therapy).

Uses

Family therapists work with conflict between relatives, separation and divorce, parenting worries, caring for an ill relative, grief, and big changes such as a move abroad. It also has a place in treating specific conditions:

Psychosis and schizophrenia: NICE recommends family intervention alongside medication and individual CBT, lasting 3 months to a year with at least 10 planned sessions. WHO also lists family interventions among the effective treatments.
Alcohol and drugs: CRAFT trains families to encourage a relative into treatment. In trials it engaged about two in three people who had refused help (see intervention).
Other conditions: across 37 trials in adults, systemic therapy worked about as well as other established therapies, with benefits for mood disorders, eating disorders, OCD and schizophrenia, though trials are still limited.

In Nigeria

Nigerian psychiatry has involved families for decades. In 1954, Dr T. A. Lambo started the Aro Village System, which drew on the community’s own traditions; relatives and villagers took part in people’s treatment. Today, the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, lists family therapy among the services of its psychiatric social work team.

In one Ibadan study of depression around childbirth, women described dwelling on hurt from family conflict, with a husband or an in-law. Western models need adapting: a paper on applying Bowen’s ideas to Igbo families stressed understanding the family’s own values first. And as early as 1977, a report from Aro noted that rapid urbanisation was loosening traditional family ties.

Family therapy vs couples therapy and individual therapy

Couples therapy works with two partners. Family therapy can include parents, adult children, siblings or in-laws. Individual therapy focuses on one person, though a systemic therapist will still explore your family patterns. A family intervention for addiction has a narrower job: getting someone into treatment.

When to get help

Consider family therapy if the same fights keep coming back, if a death, divorce or diagnosis has shaken the family, or if you’re caring for a relative with a mental illness. On Mytherapist.ng, you can book a licensed therapist for family and parenting therapy by video, voice or chat, or a couples session through relationship and marriage counselling. For a relative with psychosis, ask the hospital caring for them about family sessions.

If the concern is a child or teenager, start with a family doctor or paediatrician, or the school counsellor. If a child is distressed or unsafe, Cece Yara Foundation’s free 24-hour child helpline is 0800 800 8001. Parents can book a therapist for themselves through family and parenting therapy.

If anyone in the family is being hurt or threatened, safety comes first. In an emergency, call 112 (or 767 in Lagos). Our guide to recognising domestic abuse explains where to get help, and the full list of crisis lines is on our helplines page.

Back to the glossary