Healthy family relationships are filled with humour, empathy, affection and a sense of commitment and responsibility which can provide a mutually beneficial protective factor for individual family members.
However, conflict can arise in even the closest of family units over the course of a lifetime. Having children is one of the most stressful of life experiences, and many couples report arguing more. It is well documented that relationship quality between parents, including any unhelp conflict, can have a negative effect on the development of children.
Other life events can apply stress to our family relationships including;
- Bringing a new child or person into the family
- Children moving to further education
- Children leaving home
- Unexpected redundancy
- Retirement
- Bereavement
- Illness which has life-changing effects.
In families, there are always differences, but what is most important when unhelpful conflict arises is repair. Relate NI family counselling is a professional intervention that can provide an impartial view of a particular problem, providing a different perspective and new info to a family. This can help families and individuals within them to acknowledge each other’s perspectives and resolve a third way forward.