Family counseling according to Jesper Juul

Bringing families back into the flow is the goal of family counseling. The surface of rivers can be calm and peaceful or troubled and swirling. Families and their stories are just as diverse as the rivers themselves. Being a family is a challenging adventure; beautiful and exhausting at the same time.

Children demand constant presence and challenge us with their reactions. When I met the family therapist Jesper Juul, he proposed a respectful approach to children, treating them with equal dignity but leaving the responsibility for decisions and boundaries with the parents. He talked about well-being and happiness within families and how to get families back into flow.

When the couple becomes a family, the relationship changes. Often the relationship has to be renegotiated in order to continue. Sometimes stress, worries or external pressure lead to conflicts that push us to our limits. Counseling helps to gain clarity about our own and others’ needs and to open up new perspectives.