Plot Synopsis

Tara Fields, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a Ph.D in Counseling Psychology, helps families that come to her as a last ditch effort to stay together and overcome their seemingly insurmountable problems. Tara lives with the family in crisis for a week in order to discover what the true issues are, where they come from, and how to remedy the situation. During family therapy, Tara confronts parents and family members about the way they communicate, behave and cooperate with one another. The family is also given a series of tasks with the hope of sending them on a path to stronger, happier days emboldened with formidable skills and tools to last a lifetime. Each 60-minute episode features a different family, including: the Coleman Family, which is split in half over the emerging musical and acting career of 12-year-old Triston, causing the two factions to fight constantly, usually over the fact that any extra money they have is spent on Triston's career; the Contreras Family, a family of six children whose parents have separated and reunited at least ten times since Cesar first left his pregnant wife 13 years ago for another woman; the Crume Family, comprised of a mother who has twice cheated on her husband and three young children, the oldest of which, Julian, is angry and abusive to his younger sister, eight-year-old Isabelle; the Lucatorto Family, which has a mother sufferering from agoraphobia after years of abuse, a father who went into depression after losing his job -- made worse by having to take care of his wife -- and a daughter who is frustrated -- and made to feel helpless -- by her mother's illness; the Ramirez Family, whose son Sammy feels unloved and disadvantaged compared to his step-brother, Tommy, and dropped out of high school, causing his parents to fight over how they raised the two children differently and what to do to improve the situation; the Stewart Family, with a father who almost had an affair, causing his marriage to deteriorate after confessing about it to his wife, and who was arrested for domestic violence following an incident when his seven-year-old son saw him push his wife aside as he tried to leave the apartment following a fight; the White Family, for which Steven became an instant, 19-year-old stepfather to a nine-year-old son -- but, since Steven wasn't ready, he cheated on his new wife twice in three years, and she still reminds him about it every single day; and the Wolfe Family, who have a shut-in mother, a former rocker for a father, and four kids who disrespect their mother, see their dad as a wimp, and can't wait to move out.