Summit Counselling Services — Specialty
Family TherapyEvery family hits hard patches. You don't have to work through them alone.
Whether you're navigating conflict, a major transition, a breakdown in communication, or the dynamics of a blended or changing family — therapy gives you a skilled third party and a space where everyone can be heard.
About Family Therapy
Families are complicated. That's not a flaw.
Every family is a system — a web of relationships, histories, roles, and patterns that have developed over time. When something shifts — a crisis, a transition, a conflict that keeps cycling — the whole system feels it. Family therapy works at that systemic level, addressing not just individual struggles but the dynamics between people that make those struggles persist.
Families come in every configuration: nuclear, blended, adoptive, foster, multigenerational, single-parent, same-sex parent, chosen family. The specific challenges vary by family structure, culture, and history. What's consistent is that most families reach points where the patterns feel stuck, the communication has broken down, and no one inside the system can get enough distance to see clearly what's happening.
That's what a therapist offers — not judgment, not the assignment of blame, but a skilled outside perspective and a structured space where different experiences can be heard and the underlying dynamics can be understood. Change in family systems is possible. It often just needs a place to start.
"In family therapy, the relationship is the client. The goal is not to fix any individual — it's to change the patterns that are making things hard for everyone."
When families seek support
- Persistent conflict that goes in circles without resolution
- A child or teen whose behaviour or mental health is affecting the whole family
- Navigating separation, divorce, or blended family dynamics
- A major loss — death, illness, job loss — that has destabilized the family
- Estrangement or significant rupture in a family relationship
- Parenting disagreements between partners or co-parents
- Communication that has broken down — withdrawal, avoidance, explosive conflict
- A family member's addiction, mental illness, or trauma affecting the whole system
- Difficulties with a life transition — a move, a new baby, a child leaving home
- Cultural, generational, or values differences creating division
- Parent-teen conflict that has escalated beyond what the family can resolve
- Rebuilding after a period of significant family dysfunction or harm
Family Configurations
We work with families of every kind
There is no typical family. Our therapists work across a wide range of family structures, cultures, and presenting concerns.
Nuclear & Extended Families
Families navigating internal conflict, communication breakdown, the pressures of daily life, or a crisis that has disrupted the system. Therapy gives everyone a chance to be heard and helps the family develop new ways of being together.
Blended & Stepfamilies
Blending two families is one of the most complex relational challenges there is — different histories, loyalties, parenting styles, and children who didn't choose the arrangement. Therapy helps navigate the specific dynamics that blended families face and build something that actually works for everyone in it.
Single-Parent Families
The particular pressures of parenting alone — managing everything, co-parenting with a difficult ex, carrying the relational load for your children without a partner to share it. Therapy supports both the parent and the family system, and can include the children where appropriate.
Adoptive & Foster Families
Adoption and foster care bring particular challenges around attachment, identity, trauma history, and belonging. Therapy that understands these dynamics — rather than treating adoptive families as equivalent to biological ones — makes a meaningful difference.
2SLGBTQIA+ Families
Families headed by same-sex or gender-diverse parents, families with 2SLGBTQIA+ children or teens, and families navigating a family member's coming out — all deserve affirming, knowledgeable support that doesn't require them to educate their therapist.
Multigenerational & Cultural Families
Families where generational differences in values, expectations, and communication styles are sources of tension, or where cultural context shapes the family dynamics in ways a therapist needs to genuinely understand. Our therapists approach this work with humility and curiosity.
How It Works
The problem isn't any one person. It's the pattern.
One of the most important shifts in family therapy is moving away from the idea that someone is the problem. Family systems develop patterns — ways of communicating, avoiding, reacting, and relating — that can take on a life of their own. Even when everyone is trying their best, those patterns can make things worse rather than better.
Family therapy creates enough distance from the pattern to see it clearly. A therapist can notice what the family can't notice from inside — who gets silenced, whose emotions drive the room, what everyone is avoiding saying, what the real conflict under the surface conflict actually is.
Sessions may involve the full family, subgroups, or individual members depending on what's most useful at each stage. Your therapist will be transparent about the structure and will work with you to determine what makes sense for your family's specific situation.
What to Expect
How family therapy typically unfolds
Structure varies by therapist and presenting concern — but here's a general sense of how the process works.
Initial Consultation
A free 15-minute phone call — usually with the adult(s) initiating the process — to discuss what's bringing you in, answer questions about fit, and identify the right therapist for your family's specific situation.
Assessment Sessions
Early sessions establish the full picture — the therapist meets with different family members (sometimes together, sometimes separately) to understand each person's experience, the history of the concern, and what everyone is hoping for.
Active Therapy
The bulk of the work — sessions that address the specific dynamics identified in assessment. Session structure (who attends, how long) adapts as the therapy progresses and the presenting concerns shift.
Consolidation & Close
As the family develops new patterns and the presenting concerns improve, sessions typically reduce in frequency before ending. The goal is to give the family the skills and insight to continue the work independently.
Therapeutic Approaches
How our therapists work with families
Our therapists draw on a range of evidence-based approaches, matched to the family and what's driving their difficulties.
Attachment-Based Family Therapy
Grounded in attachment theory, this approach focuses on repairing the emotional bonds between family members — particularly between parents and children or adolescents. It addresses the ruptures in attachment that underlie much of what families present with, including teen withdrawal, behavioral concerns, and parent-child conflict.
Emotion Focused Family Therapy
EFT adapted for families addresses the emotional cycles that drive conflict and disconnection — helping family members access and share the deeper feelings beneath reactive behaviour, and building more secure bonds across generations.
Structural Family Therapy
Focuses on the organization of the family system — boundaries, hierarchies, subsystems, and coalitions. When families are structured in ways that create dysfunction (enmeshment, disengagement, parentified children, triangulation), structural approaches address the system itself rather than individual symptoms.
Narrative Family Therapy
Helps families identify the dominant stories they tell about themselves and each other — "the problem child," "the difficult parent," "the family that never communicates" — and develop alternative narratives that create more room for growth and change.
CBT for Families
Addresses the thought patterns and behavioural cycles that escalate family conflict — helping members identify triggers, de-escalate, and develop more constructive communication patterns. Particularly useful when specific behavioural concerns are central to the presenting issue.
Solution Focused Approaches
For families who want to focus on practical forward movement rather than extensive exploration of history — identifying what's working, building on existing strengths, and developing concrete strategies. Efficient and collaborative without being superficial.
Book a Session
Find us in Edmonton, St. Albert & Windermere
Family therapy is available in person at all three Summit locations, and virtually across Alberta — including for families where members are in different locations.
Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver)
Grandin Plaza, 2nd Floor
Edmonton, AB
Common Questions
Family therapy — your questions answered
Our Therapists
Therapists who specialize in family therapy
The clinicians below work with families. Therapist fit matters enormously in family therapy — start with a free 15-minute consultation to find the right match before booking your first session.
Related Support
Other areas we work with
Your family built something worth working for. Let's work on it together.
Your first consultation is free — no commitment, no pressure. Just a conversation about where your family is and whether we're the right fit.
We acknowledge that our practice is located in Treaty 6 territory, on the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux Peoples, including our Brewery District office in Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver). We recognize that healing and reconciliation is a responsibility shared by all.