FOY Wellness and Recovery is a licensed PHP and IOP program in Agoura Hills, California. Our clinical program is developed and overseen by Clinical Program Director Dr. Shannon Dobbs, a licensed clinical psychologist. Family Systems Therapy is a core clinical modality, recognizing that mental health and substance use exist within a broader family context.
What Is Family Systems Therapy?
Family Systems Therapy, informed by the work of Murray Bowen and others, views an individual’s symptoms not in isolation but as part of broader patterns within their family unit. This approach examines roles, communication patterns, and dynamics within the family system, working with the understanding that changes in family interaction patterns can support an individual client’s recovery and long-term stability.
How Family Systems Therapy Works
Sessions may involve the individual client alone, exploring family patterns and their influence on current symptoms, or may involve family members directly, depending on clinical appropriateness and family availability and willingness to participate.
Family Systems Therapy at FOY
At FOY, Family Systems concepts are integrated into individual therapy, and family sessions may be incorporated when clinically appropriate and when family members are willing and available to participate in the client’s treatment.
Conditions Family Systems Therapy Addresses
- Substance use disorders with family enabling or conflict patterns
- Family communication breakdowns
- Codependency
- Adolescent and young adult mental health concerns tied to family dynamics
- Intergenerational patterns of mental health or substance use
What to Expect
Individual sessions may explore family history and dynamics; family sessions, when appropriate, involve direct family member participation guided by a licensed clinician.
FAQs
Will my family be required to participate in therapy?
Family involvement is offered when clinically appropriate and when family members are willing, but is not required for individual treatment to proceed.
Is Family Systems Therapy only relevant if my family has an addiction history?
No, family dynamics are relevant across many presenting concerns, not only cases involving family substance use.
What if my family is unwilling to participate?
Family Systems concepts can still be explored and applied within individual therapy even without direct family participation.
Is Family Systems Therapy the same as couples therapy?
No, though there is overlap; Family Systems Therapy specifically addresses the broader family unit and its patterns, which may include but is not limited to a couple relationship.
Is Family Systems Therapy evidence-based?
Family systems approaches have a substantial clinical and research history, particularly for substance use disorders and adolescent mental health concerns.
Is Family Systems Therapy covered by insurance?
It is delivered as part of FOY’s PHP and IOP clinical programming, billed as a level of care. Contact our admissions team about your specific plan.
Take the First Step
Call (805) 659-8429 or visit foywellnessandrecovery.com/contact for a free confidential assessment. We are in-network with Blue Shield, Cigna, and TRICARE through TriWest, and accept most other major PPO plans, including Anthem, Aetna, Multiplan, HMC HealthWorks, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, on an out-of-network basis.