Therapy Guide: Conflict Management

Family conflict is normal, and when it goes unmanaged for too long, conflict can get out of control. It’s important for family members to learn how to effectively manage their family conflict in healthy ways.

A therapist can help you learn how to manage family conflict effectively. You may want to work through family conflict with a family member in therapy or on your own in individual therapy.

If you would like to bring up family conflict with your therapist, here are some examples of how to do that:

• “My family conflict has gotten out of control and I want to find new ways to manage it.”
• “My Dad and I have a lot of conflict. I would love to find a better way to communicate with him.”
• “I really want my family to come to therapy with me so we can work on our conflict, but I have no idea how to get them here. Can we talk about that?”
• “I want to learn how I am participating in my family conflict and possibly making it worse.”
• “My parents don’t want to learn how to communicate better. How can I manage our conflict without them trying anything new?”