What
we provide
How we work | Who uses our services | PFI in the workplace | Therapeutic Family Reunion
… for families of all ages:
We support the notion that families can sit down and talk directly with one another to resolve their differences or to help one member face and work out difficult problems. Having a guided conversation as a family can avoid the fragmentation that often occurs when family members are in separate individual therapies, but do not have the opportunity to bring together their perspectives and resources as a total family unit. Families often need a professionally assisted conversation in a psychologically safe environment where they can be confident that they can express their feelings and be heard and respected. We have encountered many adults who regret having missed the opportunity, when they were younger or when their parents were alive, to speak with them honestly, from the heart, to attempt to resolve life-long issues and feelings.
When the issues center on a child or an adolescent, we start with the assumption that parents love their children. With the support and guidance of a neutral, trained family therapist, parents are usually their children’s best therapists. Problems in the family relationships or developmental stresses can frustrate everybody in a family and bring out behaviors in parents and children that are both painful and ineffective. With the collaboration and consultation of an experienced family therapist, mothers and fathers can guide their children more effectively and can resolve behavioral, academic, or emotional problems. Though the work can be challenging, especially with adolescents, we believe that nothing is more effective than family members sorting out difficulties and solving problems directly with each other. For children, adolescents, and parents the therapy process is often emotionally powerful and meaningful on many levels.
Family therapy draws on the combined emotional resources of the whole family. Its objective is to strengthen families, to build communication skills, and to reveal and enhance hidden family emotional assets. There is no form of therapy that can take the place of working out problems directly with the people you love.
… for couples at all stages of their relationship:
In our complex and diverse society with its multiple stresses, many couples need help to build and maintain a successful relationship. Some may need assistance about making a life-long commitment, others about raising a family, still others about issues related to middle or old age. Regardless of how long they have been together, it is not unusual for couples to experience stress, frustration, disappointment, and pain as a consequence of the difficulties in their relationship.
Differences may have to do with depression in one person, or with multiple stresses from work, childrearing, extended family relationships, substance abuse, relocation or other external pressures. Often couples do not know how to deal with stresses together and can get into a cycle of misunderstandings that can become increasingly frustrating and hurtful.
Couples' difficulties can escalate to frequent intense arguing (in some situations, physical abuse), and/or emotional distance. We have heard many stories about how lonely a marriage can become. Partners may see separation and divorce or a covert affair as the only way out of an intolerable situation.
We help define the problems, set goals, understand the patterns that couples repeatedly find themselves in and assist in finding solutions. As with family and individual therapy, our work is problem focused, solution-oriented and resource-based. That means we help couples solve their problems drawing on their resources as individuals and as a couple, i.e. on strengths that may have gotten off track because of stress, hurt and disappointment.
If the couple decides to separate, we can help to make this process less destructive, especially for the children, and less costly by mediating differences and by preparing with the couple a mutually respectful and satisfactory resolution of the conflict, sometimes together with attorneys and other professionals.
… for individuals:
The work with individuals at Princeton Family Institute can assist individuals who are suffering from various forms of depression, anxiety, panic disorders, schizophrenia or other symptoms of what are sometimes called “mental illnesses”. Treatment may also focus on major life decisions, on personal dilemmas or on how to maximize one's happiness and effectiveness in one or several areas of one's life. While we help examine feelings, experiences, and behaviors that may be interfering with pleasure or a sense of competence in life, we use a problem-solving approach, so that the treatment is directed toward the goals of the individual.
With
our orientation as family therapists, we are able to draw on family
history or family relationships to help resolve individual issues.
Sometimes, adults will meet with one or all members of their family,
to have an assisted conversation that can clarify misunderstandings
and help relationships heal. These meetings can also resolve longstanding
conflicts and generational difficulties that have interfered with the
individual's successful development.
How we work
Our form of psychotherapy is active and interactive. The therapist will balance listening to your concerns and engaging with you in conversation. Treatment is problem oriented and solution focused. We tailor psychotherapy to the specific needs of the family, couple, or individual. Whether you are suffering from depression, family conflict, couples discord, panic disorder, substance abuse, or other psychological problems, we are interested in how you see the problem for which you are seeking help.
Your therapist is involved. We schedule all initial appointments ourselves. We do not delegate the initial personal contact to administrative staff. We want to be as accessible as treatment requires.
When necessary and with written consent from everyone involved in therapy, we collaborate with other professionals to provide coordinated care. Whether the situation requires a neurological evaluation, a school report, or a confidential conversation with another psychotherapist, we are interested in contacting resources that can help the family’s or the individual’s situation.
Who uses our services
Clients
served at Princeton Family Institute come not only from diverse cultures
and
with a wide range of psychological issues, they are also at different
stages of the life cycle. The problems treated vary in intensity and
represent the full spectrum of psychiatric classifications from temporary
depression in reaction to stress to psychosomatic illness and psychosis.
We often receive referrals from psychiatrists, social workers, and psychologists
of people who have particularly challenging or long-standing problems.
It is also not unusual for us to help clients through emergency or crisis
situations.
Princeton Family Institute in the workplace
The staff at Princeton Family Institute provides training for professionals in health and mental health institutions, human services, and addictions settings. We also consult to organizations and at work sites. As a service to the community, we periodically offer free workshops or seminars that focus on specific areas of interest, such as intercultural marriages or family life with adolescents.
The professionals of Princeton Family Institute are experienced workshop leaders and trainers. We offer training, staff development, and communication workshops in a variety of settings. As teachers of family and couples therapy, we provide onsite clinical staff training to private and public mental health and human service agencies.
For organizations and businesses that want to improve communications skills, efficiency and teamwork, we tailor an event or program specifically designed to meet the needs of each setting.
For information about a free on-site consultation, please contact
workplaceconsultation@princetonfamily.com
Therapeutic Family Reunions
Many families, at different stages of their development, feel a need for a professionally guided meeting in a supportive environment. In some situations, families have become estranged and require professional assistance to reconnect in a way that is meaningful and constructive. Other families may have issues that have dominated their interactions over time and seem to invariably result in disappointment and hurt feelings. Grieving together, dealing with age-old family issues or wanting to enrich relationships can be among the many reasons that families may request a Therapeutic Family Reunion.
A Therapeutic Family Reunion can be conducted in a variety of formats. It can consist of one meeting for several hours, for a full day or weekend, depending on travel distances involved, or it can be a series of meetings over time scheduled at periodic intervals to meet the needs of the family and to accommodate to geographic limitations. The number of participants can range from two-person sibling or parent-child reunions or to an entire extended family. The meetings are generally held on our premises, but can be convened at other locations, as well. If you need assistance with accommodations in the Princeton area, our staff can help organize that aspect of your Therapeutic Family Reunion plans.
If, at the time of the meeting, members of the family are engaged in individual, family or couples therapy, we seek contact with the relevant mental health professionals (with the participants’ legal consent) before and after the meeting. If, as a result of the meeting, we recommend that individuals seek psychotherapy where they reside, we will make direct referrals or offer guidance about locating resources and choosing a therapist.
To discuss your interest in convening a Therapeutic Family Reunions event, call 609-921-2551 for a confidential complimentary telephone consultation or contact