MARRIAGE/COUPLES
What is Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy is a form of psychotherapy that can help you and your partner improve your relationship. If you are having relationship struggles, you can seek couples therapy to help rebuild your relationship.
Couples therapy can help address a wide range of relationship issues, including feelings of disconnection, issues related to sexuality, difficulties due to external stressors and recurring conflicts.
Couples therapy can help at any stage of your relationship, regardless of marital status, age, race, or faith orientation.
How Couples Therapy Can Help
Couples therapy can give you and your partner the opportunity to discuss and resolve issues related to several aspects of your relationship, which can include:
Roles in the relationship: Couples therapy can help you examine the roles you and your partner play in the relationship and identify unhealthy dynamics. It can also help address differences in expectations.
Beliefs and values: Couples therapy can help you and your partner discuss your beliefs, values, and religious sentiments and the implications of these aspects on your daily lives.
Finances: Finances can be a major source of conflict in relationships. Couples therapy can help promote open dialogue and transparency around income and spending habits.
Time spent together: You and your partner can address issues that have been sabotaging your time together.
Children: If you and your partner are not on the same page about whether or not you want to have children or how you would like to raise them, couples therapy can help you communicate these concerns. It can also help with stressors like difficulty conceiving or adopting children.
Familial relationships: Couples therapy can help you and your partner work out issues stemming from conflicts with other family members, like parents, children, and siblings.
Sex and intimacy: If you and your partner are having issues related to sex and intimacy, or infidelity, couples therapy can offer a safe space for you to share your feelings and needs.
Faith and religious issues: Differences in faith expression and understanding can lead to a further distance with your partner.
External stressors: Therapy can also help you and your partner deal with conflicts caused by external factors, like work for instance, that can put stress on your relationship.
Benefits of Couples Therapy
Understand each other better: Couples therapy can help you understand yourself and your partner better. It can help both of you express your feelings, hopes, fears, priorities, values, and beliefs.
Identify relationship issues: Your therapist can help you and your partner identify issues that are leading to recurring conflicts, trust struggles, and feelings of disconnection.
Improve communication skills: Therapy can help you and your partner communicate with each other. It can help you express yourself and ask for what you need without attacking or blaming your partner.
Resolve conflicts: Your therapist can help you and your partner work through your issues and resolve them.
Strengthen friendship and attachment: Couples therapy can help strengthen the friendship, attachment, bonding, and intimacy between you and your partner.
Terminate dysfunctional behavior: Your therapist can identify dysfunctional behaviors and help eliminate them.
Learn skills: Couples therapy is not a long-term form of therapy. Instead, it is a short-term therapy that aims to equip you and your partner with skills to help you prevent and manage conflicts that arise down the road.
Improve relationship satisfaction: Couples therapy can help improve the overall quality of your relationship, so that you and your partner are happier together.
How to Get Started
If you feel your relationship would benefit from couples therapy, discuss it with your partner and see if they’re open to it. If they’re resistant to it, explain why it’s important to you and how you think it might help your relationship.
The next step is to find a therapist. Couples therapy is often provided by licensed therapists known as marriage and family therapists; however, some licensed professional clinical counselors offer it as well.
Check with your partner what days and timings work for them. Try to find a therapist who is conveniently located, if you and your partner prefer in-person sessions. If your desire to not pay private pay, make sure the therapist takes your insurance plan.
Your therapist will work with you and your partner to outline the goals for therapy. While couples therapy typically involves joint sessions, your therapist may also do individual sessions with you or your partner.
GET THE CARE WHEN YOU NEED IT THE MOST