Where is Your Family?

The holiday season is a time when most people look around and evaluate who is a member of their family.  For most of us, this means scheduling holiday events, bickering over who will be included in that list and whether distant relatives are worth a holiday card.   For some, it represents a time of reflecting back over the year of family life where, perhaps, a mother, father or a child has had a milestone in their life or, sadly, a family member has died.  For all of us, changes have occurred in the past year in our families; they are never quite the same from year to year.  Our relationships are evaluated, the losses are mourned and we take stock of who really cares about us.  

Some of us are fortunate enough to have friends beyond our families.  For most healthy individuals, this is so.  In a very real sense, our friends become our families and, at this time of year, we evaluate our network of friendships.  Some do this family inventory with great pain, noting losses, disagreements and changes in their family system with sadness...every loss is a tragedy. Every change is a mistake. Every argument is a closed door.  Other people have a positive attitude toward the changing tide of life and see loss as inevitable.  They remember with fondness the many years of happiness now gone and vow not to let differences separate them from people they still care about.

The season may be a cheerful time or may leave us devastated and drained depending on circumstances and how they are approached.  These differences of approach make the holiday season a time of deep emotion and inner turmoil. Good and bad feelings are combined in the same person, the same family and the same community.

The holiday season is a good time to consider evaluating our lives and network of friendships with a professional counselor, a therapist.  The Holiday Season is an ideal time to begin the therapeutic process since our feelings are opened up and we reach for new ideas, interpretations and views about the direction our lives are going.

The Queens Counseling Center/ Foundation for Religion and Mental Health is open throughout the year and we are particularly ready to offer our counseling services during the Holiday Season.  In fact, we find that many individuals often begin therapy as this time and those that are in therapy usually experience a tremendous amount of growth and fulfillment of potential.  Feel free to call for a consultation at (718) 461-6393.