What Is Couples Counseling?
Couples counseling — or marriage counseling — is a type of therapy for intimate partners who may be experiencing difficulties in their relationship or marriage. Relationship counseling is talk therapy focused on resolving issues in your relationship with the goal of moving you toward a healthy relationship with your partner.
Regular counseling sessions can help you and your partner improve your relationship by working together through a variety of problems, such as communication issues, conflicts over parenting styles, financial issues, infidelity, or other sexual issues. Couples therapy gives partners the tools to work through issues and improve their connection with one another and their overall relationship satisfaction.
How Does Couples Counseling Work?
Couples counseling is designed to help you and your partner improve your communication skills, improve intimacy, and set goals for your relationship.
Your therapist will work with you and teach you both how to express your thoughts, feelings, and emotional needs in a clear and respectful way, while still actively listening to your partner’s perspective. This new way of hearing the other person – and of being heard – can lead to a deeper understanding of each other’s point of view and can help to reduce conflict or resentment in your relationship.
Counseling can help you and your partner to identify and address underlying issues that may be contributing to your problems or creating conflicts in your relationship.
Your therapist will help you recognize whether you have unresolved past traumas or unmet needs that might be impacting your relationship. By addressing these underlying issues, you can learn to heal old wounds and create a more resilient and satisfying relationship with each other.
Can Couples Counseling Help My Relationship?
Through therapy, couples can learn how to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs in a clear and respectful way, and how to listen actively to their partner’s perspective. This can lead to a deeper understanding of each other’s point of view, help to reduce conflict and resentments, and be the beginning of a healthier relationship.
Couples therapy helps intimate partners build and maintain intimacy in their relationship.
A therapist can help you identify the barriers keeping you from achieving intimacy in your relationship and will work with you and your partner to overcome these barriers. Working together on these issues can help couples to reconnect with each other and to feel more emotionally close and satisfied in their relationship.
Couples therapy can also help couples to understand and manage differences and conflicts in their relationship in a healthy way.
Conflicts are a normal part of any relationship, and they can provide opportunities for growth and improvement if addressed in a respectful way. A therapist can teach couples how to disagree fairly and respectfully, how to negotiate and compromise, and how to resolve inevitable conflicts in a healthy way.
Can Couples Counseling Help Partners Who Decide to Separate?
Couples therapy can be very beneficial for partners who are thinking about separating or have considered ending the relationship.
If you’ve decided to separate or divorce, couples therapy can help you navigate your breakup in a way that is respectful and designed to minimize the negative impact on children or other family members.
By exploring and identifying areas of your relationship that could be improved you and your partner can make a fully informed decision about whether to stay together.
Learning new tools and techniques to communicate can help you co-parent more effectively. It can help you navigate a new relationship with a healthier perspective.
What Are Some of The Benefits of Couples Counseling?
There are many benefits of couples counseling. Working to achieve happiness and resilience in your relationship can ensure that you and your partner grow together in a positive direction.
- Improved communication skills: You’ll learn how to communicate more effectively with your partner. You’ll be able to express your thoughts and feelings in a clear and respectful way and listen actively to your partner’s perspective.
- Resolution of underlying issues: Your therapist will help you and your partner identify and address any underlying issues that may be impacting your relationship. By addressing these issues, you’ll be able to heal from previous trauma and create a more resilient relationship.
- Shared goals and a new sense of purpose: With the guidance of a therapist, you and your partner can set goals for your relationship and develop a plan for working together to achieve them. This will give you a sense of direction and purpose for your relationship which can be very motivational.
- Deeper intimacy and emotional connection: Your therapist will help you and your partner build and maintain intimacy in your relationship. You’ll learn how to overcome barriers to achieving intimacy and how to feel more emotionally close and satisfied in your relationship.
- Effective conflict management skills: Your therapist will teach you and your partner how to handle conflicts in a healthy way, providing you with the tools you need to navigate disagreements and to keep them from escalating.
- Making informed mutual decisions: If you are considering separation, divorce, or otherwise ending your relationship, couples counseling can be a great way to gain a better understanding of the reasons for your problems, identify areas that can be improved, and help you make an informed decision about how you’ll handle issues that come up in the future.
What Types of Therapeutic Techniques Are Typically Used in Couples Counseling?
Not all couples-focused therapists use the same approach, so it’s essential for a couple to find the right therapist that fits their needs and style. At Elite DNA Behavioral Health, our skilled providers design a treatment plan using an evidence-based approach that is effective for addressing a wide range of relationship issues.
Some of the types of psychotherapy models we offer to individualize your care plan are:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This type of therapy focuses on helping couples change negative thought patterns and behaviors that are contributing to their relationship problems. CBT helps couples identify and challenge negative thoughts and beliefs and gives them the skills to replace them with more positive and realistic ones even in stressful, emotional, or difficult situations.
Supportive Psychotherapy
Designed to be supportive and empathetic, supportive psychotherapy is used to help you and your partner navigate periods of intense emotional stress. You’ll be able to talk about the issues in a fluid, conversational environment and get immediate feedback or advice from your therapist to help you and your partner resolve conflicts.
Your therapist may also recommend trauma-informed care to help you address past traumas that are causing issues in your current relationship.
There may also be benefits to seeking individual or family therapy to work on other close relationships while addressing the specific needs of your marriage or relationship.
Working closely with a marriage or family therapist can be healing and beneficial for all your interpersonal relationships.
Can Telehealth Be Used Successfully for Couples Therapy?
You and your partner will receive the same high-quality care and personalized attention in online couples therapy as you would in our offices. Telehealth is especially helpful for people who need to fit therapy into a busy schedule, or who are unable to travel into the office.
If you are more comfortable in your home setting, telehealth provides you with the ability to access sessions in the comfort of your home. You and your partner may find it easier to keep to a regular therapy schedule when using telehealth together.
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You’re Not Alone… We Can Help.
Couples counseling is an opportunity for you and your partner to enhance your relationship, improve your communication skills, and overcome challenging situations together.
When you work with us, you’ll be supported in a reassuring environment where you and your partner will learn how to have a healthier, more fulfilling relationship.
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