Family Relations

Family communication is interpersonal communication at its most complex and most consequential. The depth of shared history, the entanglement of roles and identities, the strength of emotional investment, and the fact that these relationships are often permanent regardless of how they feel at any given moment all create a communication environment unlike any other. The patterns established in family communication tend to be among the most deeply ingrained and the hardest to change — and the most worth changing when they are not serving the relationship.

This subtopic explores interpersonal communication within family relationships across their full range: how childhood communication patterns shape adult communication defaults, how to have honest and difficult conversations with family members without activating the full emotional history behind the presenting issue, how to set and maintain limits with family members in ways that are respectful and clear, how to repair communication that has been damaged by conflict, distance, or a pattern of avoidance, and how the communication dynamics between partners, parents and children, and siblings each carry their own distinctive challenges and developmental possibilities. You will find guidance on distinguishing the presenting issue in a family conflict from the underlying relational pattern it reflects, and on how to initiate a shift toward more honest and caring family communication.

Family communication is the most personal application of interpersonal skill. These articles engage with its full complexity.