HHC Centre Family Therapy: Forget The Blame Game And Solve Co | Page 9

Communication Therapy
This is one of the most important approaches to Family Therapy as many cases are down to a breakdown in communications between
family members. However despite lack of communication or communication skills being a root-cause for the escalation of family
issues and perhaps even a trigger for conflicts it is difficult to resolve. Therefore communication therapy may be held at an individual
level in order to trying to improve skills such as how to start a conversation or even how to listen to others. When communication
breakdown is between specific family members such as a parent and child then mediated communication sessions are typically used
to try and coax the participants to engage and actively listen to one another. Another technique that has some success is to promote
non-judgemental group discussions where members are encouraged to reflect on their feelings and especially the feelings of others in
the family group. By encouraging all family members to reflect and express their feelings in turn this technique may uncover faulty
communications patterns between individuals.