Our family relationships are some of the most influential and important relationships we have, and sometimes the most complex and challenging. We learn a lot of what we know from our family of origin as far as how to navigate the world, how to interact with people, and how to engage in relationships. Our family lives are often the center of our universe, our focus, and our safe place to be. Our family lives can be some of the greatest joys of our lives, as well as some of the most difficult and even sometimes painful. Relationships are very rewarding and give us so much context in our lives, however, we all know that having relationships means that there will be conflict. Family relationships are no different. Just because we are family doesn’t mean that things are always smooth sailing, in fact, our family relationships can be some of the most conflicted relationships in our lives at times.

A family is a system and like any system, it is only as healthy as the individual parts that make the system healthy and run effectively. There are times when parts of the system are...