Even if the mental health difficulties don’t seem connected to our family relationships, a lot of times they are. We all participate in systems, like our families, that affect us whether we acknowledge it or not.
As Travis Ramsey, LPC, puts it, “If one part of our family isn’t working well, it doesn’t make all the other parts behave better, it makes them behave worse.” And at the same time, “When one person changes, it can change the whole family system.” As an emotionally focused couples and families therapist, Travis helps clients see the difficulties they are experiencing in conjunction with the systems they are part of and helps clients to work to heal those systems.
“A lot of times people think that it’s just personal problems that bring them into counseling, and they don’t often see how it is related to their relationships.”
By looking at the relationships, and taking this systems-oriented approach, Travis helps his client’s understand their own confusing emotions and behavior. “Whatever you’re feeling, whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re doing, that doesn’t make sense to you–my goal is to help you make sense of it.”
And doing that involves experiencing the feelings along with his clients: “We are feeling it together. And I am going into that experience that you’re having. And what that requires of me is that I can’t be afraid to go there.”
To learn more about Travis’s practice visit:
https://www.travisramseytherapy.com/about
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/travis-ramsey-smyrna-ga/198473
