Family sessions at IC-OCD

We have now launched an option for family sessions at the centre. These sessions are with our systemic family practitioner Cindy Banjoko. Over the years we have noticed that sometimes families need a little extra time to come together in a mutual space to work through blocks and challenges in communication.

With family sessions, the family is the client not just with the person with OCD. As a result, family sessions can happen as stand alone sessions, or occur while an individual family member is in therapy for OCD. Our systemic family practitioner, Cindy, offers 4 sessions with a review to assess if more sessions need to be added.

Our systemic family sessions are not directly targeting OCD as is the case in one on one therapy using exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), it is also not supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotions (SPACE) therapy that directly works with parents to reduce accommodations and increase support. Instead, our family sessions with Cindy, offers something different. Cindy’s training is in working directly with the family system, working on any blocks within the family to treatment, improving communication patterns, behaviours and boundaries between family members to create more balance in the home, improve understanding of each other, and navigating the individual personalities that make up a family and how the family unit can best work together.   

At the centre we appreciate how much OCD can affect the family system and add stress to it. Many times working with the OCD is enough, but in some cases family work can be useful to repair some of the ruptures, and also work through any blocks in communication. In systemic family therapy, problems are not seen as residing within a single person; instead, they are viewed as a product of the recurring patterns and interactions between family members.  

Please note, our therapists where appropriate will bring in family members into treatment if it is useful or something needs to be discussed. However, what I am writing about here is different to this. It is working with the whole family as the client, compared to one of our other therapists that may work with a parent or family member to support the client. Cindy is specifically trained to work therapeutically with the whole family unit (individuals, couples, families and significant others).  

If interested in family sessions for the whole family, please contact Nat in our office through the contact us form.