It has many names: couples counseling, relationship counseling, marriage counseling, premarital counseling, re-marital counseling, and others.
The fact is that couples come to counseling for many reasons.
- Frequent arguments
- Loss of emotional or sexual spark
- Infidelity
- Feeling taken for granted
- Not feeling "heard" or respected
- Pre-marital counseling
- Maintaining civility in divorce
These and other common issues often respond well to couples counseling.
In addition to specific issues, most couples benefit from improved communication and conflict-management skills. Learning to shortcut arguments, to listen respectfully, to voice one's real needs, to express respect and appreciation... Skills like these break many apparent logjams. They save marriages and relationships.
It's common that one person in a relationship wants counseling but believes "My partner would never agree to that." Surely it is helpful to have both partners come to counseling for any relationship. But it only takes one to change the relationship or the marriage. Time and again a partner has been surprised to discover that far from being helpless, he or she actually had the power to change the whole relationship just by changing his or her own actions and reactions. It's also common for a reluctant partner to refuse to come at first but later to decide that he or she doesn't want to be "left out" of the counseling.
Couples counseling has the power to...
- End chronic arguments
- Recover intimacy
- Restore trust
- Rebuild respect and appreciation
- Get your needs met
Couples counseling is not only about solving problems. We work to strengthen the foundations of the relationship, rediscover the positives that brought you together in the first place, and create new habits that build up rather than undermine the relationship. A couple with strong positives is resilient against stress and setbacks.
It's not unusual for "graduates" of successful couples counseling to report that their relationship is not just "back to the good old days" but better than those good old days.
Many people regard a healthy love relationship to be life's most valuable asset. Few things are so important to long-term health and happiness. What else in our lives could be more deserving of the best we can give? Call it couples counseling, relationship counseling, marriage counseling, or anything else -- sometimes counseling is the best thing we can give to our relationship or our marriage.
Non-conventional couples are welcome.