A new way of thinking about family health and relational well-being
Family Systems & Relational Health
A Systems-Based Framework for Strengthening Relationships
Healing Relational and Emotional Distress
A systems-based framework is not just another form of psychotherapy. It is a self-reflective process geared to facilitate individual growth as the primary source of substantive, system-wide change. It is an inside-out method for resolving and healing relational and emotional distress.
Sustainable Change
Family systems thinking helps clients uncover the underlying issues that must be resolved to ensure long-term, sustainable change and growth. It is a deliberate, focused, and individualized process that offers real results on both an individual and system-wide level.
Strength-Based Growth
Family systems is unique in its focus on strengths rather than weaknesses and on the power of self-regulation to keep reactivity in check. As a healing modality, family systems work seeks to reduce those forces that inhibit growth and stimulate and encourage the emergence of one’s healthy self.
Learn How Individual Health Promotes Family Health
A key aspect of emotional and mental health is the ability to manage conflict. Because conflict is a normal part of human interaction, the ability to effectively manage and resolve conflict becomes an important if not essential aspect of developing and maintaining relational connection and harmony. When individual members of the family system are able to manage their reactive tendencies, the opportunities for healthy exchange are greatly increased.
In short, self-regulation and self-management in the individual members of the family support a more harmonious and interconnected marriage and family unit. Building a healthy ME…supports the development of a healthy WE.
Family systems education enables all members of the family unit to develop their capacity for healthy interaction by reducing each member’s tendencies for emotional reactivity, blaming, and fault-finding, and increasing their ability to balance their togetherness and individuality needs, separating their thinking and feeling, and differentiating between themselves and others.
Having Trouble Finding Relational Balance?
You’re Not Alone. Let me show you how I can help!
Human relationships can seem complex. Sometimes, the very people we love become the people who frustrate us the most. The human need to feel close and yet separate can wreak havoc on our most intimate relationships.
Learning how to balance our need for togetherness with our need for autonomy is an important aspect of developing and maintaining loving, intimate, and safe relationships. Family systems therapy can help you learn how to be more self-aware, self-defined, and self-regulated while maintaining a close and intimate relationship with the people you love. This both/and mindset helps you avoid the guilt and frustration that often accompany our typical black and white thinking that tells us we have to choose between a healthy sense of self and an intimate relational connection.
A family systems mindset helps you realize that you don’t have to choose between relational connection and self-preservation. You can have both when you learn how to develop and maintain healthy boundaries and positive regard for yourself and others.
Schedule your first appointment today and find out how family systems therapy can help you develop the healthy, harmonious relational connections you always thought were possible!
About Dr. Teresa M. Walters
Your Professional Family Systems Specialist
As a Bowenian Psychotherapist and Family Systems Specialist, I am skilled at helping individuals, couples, and families resolve anxious conflict and increase their ability to be at peace with themselves, others, and God.
Because relational and emotional harmony and well-being are the foundational building blocks of a satisfying relational life, my private practice is designed to help you maximize your strengths and minimize the conflicts that keep you from enjoying life at its fullest. Family systems education is a practical and clearly defined path to relational and emotional healing, wholeness, and well-being.
Dr. Teresa M. Walters,
Ed.D., MAMFT, LMFT, LAC, DTM
My Approach
Family systems thinking offers clients a way to re-imagine family health and relational well-being. This non-medicalized, non-pathologizing, and spiritually sensitive process is a strength-based orientation to personal growth designed to enhance both the relational connection of the individual and the collective family unit.
In a safe and supportive environment, clients are encouraged to maximize their strengths and minimize those factors that inhibit their growth.
My Process
Family systems approaches differ from traditional therapeutic approaches that emphasize short and often intense interventive measures.
Family systems support is designed to facilitate true systemic change that is sustainable. It is designed to get underneath the behavioral problems and shine a light on the underlying intergenerational patterns and beliefs that drive and maintain troublesome family dynamics.
Unique Framework
The unique framework of family systems begins with a full systemic assessment, which is then followed by regular individual or multi-client visits.
During these visits, clients are encouraged to explore the unique multigenerational patterns of their extended family system, explore their deeply held beliefs, and consider the perceptions that frame their relational mindsets.
“Teresa Walters is someone that is in it with you and for you from start to finish. You can trust her wholeheartedly and I know that I can come to each session feeling safe and accepted. It is a no-judgment zone which makes opening up to someone all that much easier and fulfilling. I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to consider this experience.”
“My husband and I have been lucky enough to work with Teresa for 4 years now and our relationships would not be as strong or as resilient without the hard work we have done with her. Every visit is worth the investment. Her office and her character are inviting and professional.”
The NRHI Journal
Thoughtful commentary on relational health, personal maturity, and spiritual formation.
The right word, at the right time, on the right topic.
The Desire to Learn and Grow
The Desire to Learn and Grow Almost without exception, people who show up in my therapy office are there because they want change. Change in themselves, change in another person, or change in a particular situation or circumstance. To some extent, they have reached...
Desperate Dependency: Weakness or Wisdom
All relational connections contain a degree of dependency. Too much dependency can cause relational dysfunction, and too little can lead to disconnection and isolation. This article explores how dependency relates to relational health and outlines how various levels...
The Wonder of Redemption: Jesus is for Everybody
Christian Redemption and Transformation: What the Jelly Roll Grammy Debate Reveals Public reaction to recent comments at the Grammys raised familiar questions about Christian identity, transformation, and grace. This article explores why redemption is an...
The Core Concepts of Family Systems Education
Family systems coaching utilizes a number of interlocking concepts that provide a unique framework for understanding how the familial system works. Learn more about these concepts by clicking on the links below.
The Process of Differentiation
Balancing Autonomy and Togetherness
Separating Thinking and Feeling
Chronic Anxiety
Intergenerational Patterns
Emotional Reactivity
Emotional Cutoff
When you are Ready for Personalized Support
Understanding family systems is often the first step toward meaningful relational change. For individuals or couples who would like structured guidance in applying these principles to their own relationships, therapy services are available through Dr. Teresa M. Walters’ private practice.
Explore current therapy options and availability here:
View Therapy Services
Email Address
Admin@DrTMWalters.com
Call Me
(317) 210-1776
Visit Me
960 Broadway North Dr.
Plainfield, IN 46168