Couples
Couples therapy is an evidence-based approach to help couples improve their relationship.
Couples Therapy Goals: Achieving Success in Your Relationship
By working towards these goals, couples can improve their communication, build a stronger connection, and achieve a healthier, happier relationship.
Here are some of the common goals of couples therapy that can help you improve your relationship:
- Improved Communication Skills: Couples therapy can help you and your partner learn to communicate more effectively by identifying communication barriers and providing strategies to overcome them.
- Identify Repetitive Conflict Styles: Couples often have patterns of conflict that repeat themselves. Couples therapy can help identify these patterns and provide strategies to break them.
- Increased Sense of Safety in the Relationship: Couples therapy can help partners create a safe and secure environment for each other to express their needs and feelings.
- Build Support for Insecurity and Jealousy: Couples therapy can help partners address feelings of insecurity and jealousy and build trust and support in the relationship.
- Repair a Relationship or Amicably Separate: Couples therapy can help couples work through issues and make decisions about the future of their relationship, whether that means repairing it or ending it amicably.
- How to Move Forward After Infidelity: Couples therapy can help couples work through the aftermath of infidelity and rebuild trust in the relationship.
- Address Controlling Behaviors and Find Solutions: Couples therapy can help partners address controlling behaviors and provide solutions to improve the relationship.
- Understand and Overcome Dysfunctional Patterns: Couples therapy can help couples understand and overcome dysfunctional patterns that may be causing conflict in the relationship.
Couples counseling is a process that can help you and your partner improve your relationship by addressing issues that may be causing tension and conflict.
What to Expect in Couples Counseling?
A Step-by-Step Guide:
- Step One: Defining the Problem
During the first session, your therapist will ask questions to better understand your relationship. This may include questions about your history as individuals and as a couple, as well as what brought you to therapy. The goal of this step is to identify the sources of friction and conflict in your relationship.
- Step Two: Building Trust and Empathy
Trust and empathy are crucial for conflict resolution and rebuilding your connection as a couple. In this stage, your therapist will work with you and your partner to improve communication, understand each other's perspectives, and develop a sense of empathy towards one another. - Step Three: Finding Solutions
Once a foundation of trust and empathy has been established, your therapist will work with you and your partner to create custom solutions to address your specific issues. This may include improving communication, changing problematic behaviors, or forgiving past traumas. - Step Four: Staying Healthy
The goal of couples therapy is to increase relationship satisfaction, and your therapist will work with you to establish new rules, plans, and methods of interaction to help you and your partner stay healthy and satisfied in your relationship long after your sessions have ended.
By following these steps, couples can overcome challenges, build a stronger connection, and improve their overall relationship satisfaction.