I will provide a list of eight effective communication exercises for family therapy often incorporate when conducting sessions with families.
In every family, there should be openness and the ability to share ideas. Lack of communication leads to people developing strained relations and the presence of issues. Family therapy is intended to enhance the interaction among family members and enable them to address their problems. It is to ensure the provision of an appropriate environment for their children.
Benefits of Effective Communication Exercise
Here are 5 benefits of effective communication exercises for family therapy. These benefits strongly encurages the use of communication in family.
- Family communication exercises enable the family to listen and understand one another and allow sharing of emotions and feelings. This has the positive effect of fostering trust within the family.
- Individuals take on multiple tasks as the family grows, leading to misunderstandings. However, proper communication helps families handle these issues.
- When family members can disagree or speak their minds civilly and politely, they can feel closer to each other and be supportive. Communication exercises facilitate this.
- With good communication open, families are in a position to address issues. They lay down objectives, and plan on how to change for the better. This is precious in therapy.
- The things that are taught to the families such as listening, I-statements, and controlling emotions are exercises that can be used by the families for any future communication. This empowers healthy relating.
Communication Exercises for Family Therapy
Below are some of the most effective exercises to use in family therapy:
Active Listening
Listening is more than half the discussion and is one of the key components of effective communication. There is a concept of speaking with full permission to speak for five minutes while the rest of the family listens actively with acceptance and appreciation.
The listener responds with what he understands and empathizes with the speaker’s emotions. They have the benefit of helping the family members to develop empathy towards each other.
“I” Statements
During conflicts, family members are known to disrupt and criticize each other which in turn makes them defensive. Affirmative assertions mean that all people in the family can convey their emotions and requirements in a manner that does not make others feel threatened. Every individual presents things based on their unique context and makes use of the word “I” rather than “you”.
For example, saying;” I get worried when I am not sure of your estimated time of arrival home” instead of saying; “You do not care to inform me when you will be coming home. ”
Non-verbal Communication Reading
It has been widely acknowledged that there is more to verbal communication than what one says in words. An example is that tone of voice, eye contact, and body language all convey the same amount of information.
Family members come into pairs and both members take turns expressing one of the feelings or saying some neutral words only through gestures. Their partner repeats the same thing they read from the non-verbal signs. This makes the family unit enhance their understanding of each other’s nonverbal signals and indications.
Speaker/Listener Technique
The main cause of confusion is when people start speaking without actually listening to another person. It also maintains order as the speaker and the listener are well-defined to avoid cases where individuals find themselves engaging in cross-talk.
People in a family take an object such as a talking stick and then transfer it from one person to another. Each person who has the object in his/her turn can speak while the rest of the participants listen. After the current family member completes turn-taking, they give the object to another family member.
Expressing Appreciation & Affection
Conflictual families tend to pay more attention to the negative part of the relationship which deteriorates intimacy. Members of a family engage in a rotation of saying ‘thank you’ and, or ‘I love you’ to the other members.
You should appreciate your daughter for her kind gesture of extending her time to teach you about computers. Say to your wife: The information and advice you gave me were superb. It can be used to search for small, positive gestures and actions the members of a family perform instead of just ignoring them.
Mirror Exercise
The distance between individuals need not be geographical to give rise to potential misunderstanding as people may hold different beliefs and feelings on issues as seen by members of close families.
Partners engage in a discussion where one partner holds a perspective towards an issue. The other must be an accurate reflection of the opposite side thereby displaying the understanding of the other side before expressing his or her view. This helps distinguish family members from misunderstanding one another.
Unfinished Sentences
Incomplete messages here are one of the ways that may be used by the family members to express emotions that they have not been able to express to each other or things that they had wished for but which were never to be.
Every family member speaks in turn finishing phrases like: ‘What I would like the other members of the family to understand is…’, ‘When my needs are met, I will feel…’, etc. Other family members should not speak during this step, and no one should interrupt or make comments on what another is saying.
Family Meetings
Scheduling family meetings helps to solve everyday problems that erode healthy communication besides offering a setting for solving pent-up frustrations that may arise in the day.
These are rules that prohibit one from interrupting, pointing fingers, or raising their voice during an argument. Solutions are collaborative. Meetings end on a positive note in terms of acknowledging the strengths that are present in a family.
Final Verdict
These processes sound straightforward but are not easy and require time and effort. A communication exercises for family therapy in the exercises, moderates conflict, and helps rebuild compromised relationships.
Parents and children choose a specific day and time each week to exchange appreciation, discuss problems, seek solutions, and enhance the family experience. Families learn to foster closeness through communication, patience, and time, and how to break the ice.
