Who I Help · Families
Therapy for Families
As a marriage and family therapist, Athena works with the household as a system, not with one member framed as the problem. When a family calls describing “our son’s issue” or “our daughter’s attitude,” the first task is usually widening the lens to include everyone who is part of the pattern.
60-Minute Sessions · $250 · In Person or Telehealth in Utah
The Whole Household
Looking at the Pattern, Not the Person
A household develops habits the same way an individual does: who speaks first at dinner, who is allowed to be angry and who is expected to smooth things over, whose needs get postponed when things get busy. Those habits are usually invisible to the people living inside them, which is exactly why an outside vantage point is useful. What looks like one family member’s problem is very often the most visible symptom of a pattern the whole household maintains together.
That reframe is not about diffusing responsibility so no one has to change. It is about accuracy: a teenager who explodes at every request to help around the house is easier to understand once you see that requests only ever arrive as demands, or that the last time they tried to say no calmly, no one seemed to notice. The behavior makes more sense once the system around it is visible.
Who Is in the Room
Attendance Shifts as the Work Does
Family therapy here is rarely the same configuration every week. A first session might include everyone in the household, so Athena can watch how the family actually interacts rather than relying only on a secondhand description. Later sessions might narrow to a parent pair working on a consistent response to a specific behavior, or to two siblings addressing a rivalry directly, while a younger child is brought in only periodically.
Blended families bring a particular version of this complexity: a stepparent finding their footing without a clear role, biological parents coordinating across two households, and children navigating loyalty to more than one family structure at once. Sessions may need to include people who do not live under the same roof, and the unspoken rules about who gets a say in what decision are often a central piece of the work itself.
Roles matter as much as individuals. A family often has an unofficial peacekeeper, an unofficial scapegoat, and an unofficial rule about which topics are simply not discussed. Naming those roles out loud, without assigning blame for them, is often the turning point that lets a family renegotiate them.
Teens in the Room
Making Space Without Putting Anyone on Trial
Teenagers in family sessions frequently arrive braced for an ambush, expecting the hour to be a coordinated effort to fix them. Part of Athena’s role is making it clear, early and consistently, that everyone’s behavior is on the table, not just the teenager’s. That reframing tends to lower defensiveness enough for a teen to actually participate rather than simply enduring the session.
Pace matters here. Some material is better addressed with the full family present; other material needs a smaller group first. Sessions are structured to build enough trust for harder conversations rather than forcing them before anyone is ready.
Athena does not treat substance abuse, grief, or OCD, and she is not a prescriber: medication questions belong with a physician or psychiatrist. She is licensed in Utah only, seeing families in person in Salt Lake City or by telehealth anywhere in Utah.
Common Questions
Family Therapy Questions
- Does the whole family need to attend every session?
- No. Who attends often shifts across the work: some sessions include everyone, others involve a smaller subset, such as a parent pair or two siblings, depending on what the current focus requires.
- Can a blended family bring in stepparents and stepchildren together?
- Yes. Blended-family sessions often need to include stepparents, biological parents where appropriate, and children from more than one household, since the patterns being addressed usually involve all of them.
- Will a teenager be asked to speak in front of the whole family?
- Not immediately, and not without preparation. Teens are given room to participate at a pace that feels workable, and individual time can be built in alongside full-family sessions.
- How much does family therapy cost?
- Family sessions are 60 minutes at $250. Select Health, BCBS, UBH and University of Utah Health Plans are accepted, and sessions are available in person in Salt Lake City or by telehealth anywhere in Utah.
Start With the Contact Form
Describe who is in your household and what has been happening. Athena will help decide who should attend the first session.