Family Therapy
Family therapy treats the pattern rather than the person. It is for when the difficulty lives between people rather than inside one of them.
Families often arrive having identified one member as the problem — usually the one whose distress is loudest. Family work starts from a different premise: that the behaviour makes sense in context, and that changing the context changes the behaviour more reliably than working on the individual alone.
That is not about assigning blame elsewhere. It is that patterns are circular. Everyone is responding to everyone, and the entry point matters less than the fact that several people are in the room willing to look at it.
We see clients at our Northbrook office on Academy Drive and our Libertyville office on Hollister Drive, and by telehealth anywhere in Illinois.
What brings families in
- Conflict that has settled into fixed roles nobody chose
- Divorce or separation, and co-parenting through it
- Blended families working out structure, loyalty and discipline
- A child or teen whose difficulty is affecting the whole household
- Illness, caregiving, or an ageing parent changing the shape of the family
- Communication that has broken down to logistics and nothing else
How family work runs
Our clinicians work with Family Systems approaches, which look at roles, alliances and the rules a family runs on — most of which were never agreed out loud. Naming them is usually the first useful thing that happens.
Who attends varies by session and is part of the plan rather than an administrative detail. Sometimes it is everyone, sometimes it is the parents, sometimes a sibling pair. Your clinician will be explicit about why.
Where an individual family member also needs their own therapy, that is usually a different clinician — so nobody has to wonder whose side the person in the room is on.
Clinicians who work in this area
Matched from each clinician's own stated specialisms. Our Intake Team will pair you with the right person for your situation rather than the next available slot.
- Marina Shakhman, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist · Clinical Director
- Christine Petersen, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist
- Frances Pacheco, Psy.D.Licensed Clinical Psychologist · BCFE
- Rebecca Rice, LCSW, R-DMTLicensed Clinical Social Worker · Registered Dance/Movement Therapist
- Gabby Clow, LPCLicensed Professional Counselor
- Olivia Romano, MA, LPCLicensed Professional Counselor
Insurance, including Medicare
Grand Oaks Behavioral Health is in-network with most major plans — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Aetna, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Evernorth (Cigna), UnitedHealthcare, BCBS Community Medicaid, Oscar — and with Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, which a good number of behavioral health practices in the area do not accept. We also take BCBS Community Medicaid. Our Intake Team verifies your specific benefits and tells you your cost before your first appointment.
Where we see clients
604 Academy Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062 and 1800 Hollister Drive, Suite 201, Libertyville, IL 60048, plus telehealth anywhere in Illinois. We regularly see clients from Northbrook, Glenview, Deerfield, Highland Park, Northfield, Wilmette and across Lake County and the North Shore.
Common questions
No, and it varies by session. Your clinician will say who would be most useful in the room for the work at hand — sometimes that is everyone, sometimes the parents alone, sometimes a particular pair. Useful work gets done even when one family member declines to attend.
They overlap but differ. Parent guidance works with the adults on strategy and approach, and runs alongside a child’s individual therapy. Family therapy puts the family system itself in the room. Which fits depends on where the difficulty actually sits, which is part of what an initial consultation establishes.
Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons families come. The work focuses on the co-parenting relationship and on what the children are carrying, rather than on relitigating the marriage. Several of our clinicians work specifically with divorce and parenting.
Usually yes, when provided as part of mental health treatment, though plans vary on family sessions specifically. Grand Oaks is in-network with most major plans including Medicare. Our Intake Team verifies your benefits and gives you the cost before your first appointment.
Related
Not sure which of these fits? That is what the first call is for. Phone (847) 549-1189 and our Intake Team will talk it through with you before anything is booked.
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