Family Therapy

Dr. Pat Mullen has extensive experience working with families through difficulty. His approach is direct, warm, and grounded in respect for each member of the family as their own person with their own experience.

He draws from evidence-based family therapy approaches, Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and integrates work on communication, role clarification, and, where relevant, co-occurring mental health or substance use concerns.

What family therapy looks like

Our work with families is practical and honest. Depending on what is going on, sessions may focus on:

• Communication patterns that keep conflict cycling
• Roles and expectations that no longer fit the family's current life
• Substance use, mental health concerns, or medical challenges that affect the whole system
• Parenting through adolescence, young adulthood, or major transitions
• Grief, loss, or the impact of a difficult event on the family
• Repair after conflict, rupture, or a period of disconnection

Why it works

Systems change when the patterns that maintain them change. Family therapy gives every member of the family a place to be heard, and helps the family develop new patterns that support what everyone actually wants: to be closer, to be understood, and to move through hard things together.