Our familial relationships are amongst the most important ones we will ever have and yet they can often be the most trying. A lot of families have problems which can be difficult to overcome and so family therapy can be a powerful way for troubled families to come together.
The logistics and costs of providing therapy for 3, 4 or more people can prove challenging but thankfully, online family therapy is now available and offers families an affordable option that fits around everyone’s schedule.
Our list of the best family therapy sites will help you review and compare, so you can find the best choice for you and your family. I’m going to examine how exactly family therapy works and at the different ways in which our chosen providers operate.
For families that share a faith or a belief system, secular therapy may not be the most suitable option. Faithful Counseling are able to provide fully trained and modern therapists who can also offer a a faith based perspective on matters.
Christian based online therapy follows largely the same format as regular therapy except that the therapist may invite the participants to pray together and may sometimes refer to the scriptures.
Faithful Counseling offers a modern and easy to use platform and conducts its therapy sessions by chat, phone or video conference. While the platform does allow patients to message their therapist anytime via the app, this is not always available for family counseling patients and depends on how the therapy is being conducted.
Please note that even though all of Faithful’s therapists identify as Christian, they primarily practice secular forms of therapy. They also take a more modern, liberal view on a number of issues (mostly around sexuality) than other Christian counselling providers. You can read our Faithful Counseling review for more information on that.
Despite being one of the biggest online therapy site in the world today, BetterHelp does not actually offer family therapy at this time. However, BetterHelp can offer individual therapy and counseling to anybody who has family issues.
As such, BetterHelp is a great option if you are ready to start therapy but your family is not. They are also a good choice if you are already in family therapy but also feel you need some personal support.
BetterHelp offers therapy sessions by video or phone as well as chat support. They have experienced therapists and counselors who can deal with a wide range of issues like anxiety, depression, or of course family issues.
If you are looking to begin individual therapy then check our in-depth BetterHelp review or simply sign up for their free 7 day trial and decide for yourself.
Pride Counseling is a niche online therapy platform who specialize in LGBTQ+ issues. For this reason, they may be the ideal provider for non-conventional families with same sex parents. This also makes them very suitable for issues where the family is struggling with the sexuality or gender identity of a child – this is becoming an increasingly common phenomena and more and more families are seeking counseling and therapy for it.
Pride Counseling is owned by online therapy giant BetterHelp and accordingly, the overall standard is very high. The site allows users to choose a therapist who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community themselves or, a hetero-sexual, cis-gendered therapist who simply has a lot of prior experience in dealing with the community and with gay issues.
If you need more information about Pride and the services they offer, then check out our thorough Pride Counselling review or else just click the button below to be taken to the site.
ReGain is the specialized couples and relationship counseling division of BetterHelp. The platform has a very impressive roster of highly qualified and experienced marriage counselors and relationship therapists who can provide fast, efficient and effective marriage counseling and couples therapy. ReGain is currently our top rated marriage counseling sites, as well as our top pick for couples therapy online.
Very often, family problems originate in the relationship dynamic between the two parents and that by improving this, the entire family unit can benefit. A ReGain subscription package costs between $60 and $80 a week including live sessions (either by phone or by video) in addition to unlimited text and chat messaging which both partners can access.
One disadvantage of ReGain is that the platform doesn’t permit 3-way live sessions. This means that the participants need to be in the same location for video calls which could be a problem if you are separated or simply have conflicting schedules.
For more information about ReGain and the services they can offer, read our detailed ReGain review.
Online family counseling seeks to reduce inter-familial stresses by strengthening interaction and communication between family members.
There are a few different methods for conducting a family therapy session. The most widely recognized is family group therapy (Structural or Systemic Family Therapy) where the family will sit together with a therapist or a counselor, who will invite them to discuss and explore the issues they are having.
In many ways, the therapist will act as a referee and a mediator but never as a judge – it can often prove invaluable simply having a therapist observe the dynamic within a family and the way in which they interact with one another.
Other forms such as the Bowenian Method entail a therapist seeing the family members on a one on one basis and listening to their different perspectives on shared issues – this is very useful when members don’t feel comfortable sharing in a group setting or where there is perhaps an overtly dominant family member.
Family therapy often entails looking over events from many years ago. Problems between parents and children or siblings often stem from childhood experience and as such, delving into them can prove very hard for some participants – this is why family therapy should only ever be attempted by a properly qualified and experienced therapist.
In family therapy, typical therapeutic techniques such as psychoanalysis and CBT may not be suitable and often, the therapist’s role is largely to facilitate constructive communication.
For this reason, family therapy is sometimes considered to be one of the few forms of therapy that can be almost as effectively handled by an experienced counselor or even a ‘life coach’ as well as by a fully qualified psychotherapist.
Because of the special requirements and logistical realities of families nowadays, it is not the easiest form of therapy to conduct, even online. For example, whilst video and telephone conferencing can act as a proxy for family group counseling, it can be difficult for a therapist to maintain structure and order in the sessions remotely.
Also, online therapy typically utilizes text and chat functions quite extensively. In fact, many patients find that one of the major benefits of virtual therapy is that patients can access chat 24/7. However, chat does not work as effectively in the context of family therapy.
For these reasons, relatively few online counseling and therapy providers are offering family therapy, not even the major ones such as Talkspace and Amwell. However, all online therapy sites are able to offer counseling to individual patients who want help with family issues such as destructive sibling rivalries or abusive parents.
The evidence for the effectiveness of online family therapy is strong. The dynamics and inter-behavioral patterns between families are usually so deeply entrenched, dating back decades, that members genuinely struggle to see them. Therapy therefore forces families to stand back, and really listen to one another often for the first time in years. A trained therapist or counselor, is also able to act as a mediator and help families to communicate more effectively that they perhaps otherwise would be able to.
Although family therapy may well be at its most effective when conducted face to face, this is simply not always possible. Some families live in different geographical locations or they may simply not be able to attend the sessions at the appointed time. Thereofere, virtual family therapy sessions conducted by video or telephone conference call help to get the family together.
Family therapy is also generally quite expensive, especially if the therapist is billing on a per person basis. Therefore, using an online provider can help to drastically reduce the cost; this is especially pertinent considering that family therapy is rarely ever covered by health insurance even if a therapist is willing to accept it.
By this point you will hopefully know whether online family therapy may be helpful for you and your loved ones. Families are important and it is vital that we all do whatever we can to maintain and improve those relationships.
In terms of online family therapy, whilst the volume of providers are not yet as extensive as they are for other forms of therapy, there are still some great options out there.
The ReThink My Therapy Family package ensures highly cost effective family therapy whereas Faithful Counseling and Pride Counseling are excellent ‘niche’ options to help deal with specific family issues. If your family is not yet ready to attend therapy, or you want some extra individual therapy, then the online therapy market leader BetterHelp is a sound option. Finally, for couples family therapy, Regain provides affordable, expert relationship counseling.