Based in La Verne, California, Timothy Kovacs is the assistant director of Early Childhood Education at the Baldwin Park Unified School District. Alongside this position, Timothy Kovacs is a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT). Marriage and family therapy has many applications and benefits. Family therapy can occur between a therapist and one member of the family, or the entire family unit. This unit is not necessarily related by blood, as long as they have deep effects on each other’s lives. Family therapy is sometimes confused with family counseling. Essentially, family therapy is focused on identifying and resolving a specific set of issues, whereas family counseling involves prolonged discussion of chronic patterns of behavior in the family. Family therapists locate and treat many problems within families. Some are chronic, like dysfunctional relationships, or a family member struggling with a mental illness. Others are more acute, like a sudden death in the family, or the unexpected loss of a job. Each method an MFT can use entails a different level of involvement with the family, and a different relationship between the therapist and the family. In strategic therapy, the therapist directly tells the family how to adjust their behavior or improve their dynamics. The therapist is in a clear position of authority. In contrast, structural therapy is more personal, because the therapist lives with the family in order to observe problematic behaviors or relationships for themselves.