Ahh, Summer vacation. Long weekends spent at the beach followed by evening barbeques and watching the fireworks on Parliament Hill in the company of your loving family. While this may describe the occasional blissful weekend in your home, chances are your summer looks more like this: summer camps, sunburns, overbooked work schedules. No matter how hectic your schedule is, it is important that you schedule time for “family fun” into your summer! And it’s not too late! With summer in Ottawa in full swing, now is the time to get your family making top notch summer memories.
Create Memories as a Family
Re-establishing that “all in this together” feeling is an important goal of family counselling, and creating memories as a family is one way to achieve this goal. During a family therapy session with Capital Choice Counseling, our experienced therapists will help guide your family in productive, meaningful conversations.
A recurring grievance that can cause fractures in a family, is the feeling that you aren’t being heard. The feeling that your thoughts, feelings, and opinions are either ignored or invalidated. So, this summer when you are planning a family outing, take this into consideration. Instead of imposing your own interests on your entire family, take into account what your children would actually enjoy doing!
Perhaps you have a film buff in the family? Make summer Drive-In movies a tradition. Does anyone in your family love watching the cooking channel? Hold your own at- home Chopped showdown! Are there any sports fans in your family? Take your family out to the ballgame, and see the Ottawa Champions in action. See their schedule here.
Why Family Therapy?
Family therapy can be helpful when addressing a long list of circumstances. For example, a chronic illness of a family member, periods of individual or shared transition such as divorce or moving, behavioural differences, eating disorders, sibling rivalry, substance abuse, mental illnesses and more. During your family therapy appoints at Capital Choice Counselling, your therapist will guide you through conversations designed to help you function as a family unit. Engaging in fun family activities outside of your sessions is going to solidify the work you do during them!
Just like education, therapy requires both formal and informal applications. Engaging in fun as a family is the informal portion of your therapy. Using the skills and tools suggested by your therapist you will strengthen your relationship as a family.
Learning how to speak to each other, while respecting the opinions, emotions, and privacy of your fellow family members has to be practiced outside of the therapists office. Engaging in interactive summer activities as a family is one way to practice these new skills.
To learn more about the benefits of family counselling, see this article. To schedule an appointment for your family, or to discuss the process with one of our qualified, experienced therapists, call us at 613-425-4012, or contact us through our website.
