Do you feel like your relationship is at a standstill? Are you and your partner stuck in the same argument loop? Are you having trouble feeling heard? Do you feel like you and your partner are drifting away from each other? Do you desire more intimacy between you and your partner?
These are the issues that are best dealt with in Couples Counseling. Relationships can be improved, changed and bettered, with just a little support, no matter how big or small. With couples counseling, you’ll learn how to communicate your feelings and needs, and get what you want out of your relationship, while also learning to hear your spouse, and help provide what they need in the relationship. Bring balance and cooperation back to your relationship.
Some issues are right for Couples Counseling:
- Pre-Marital/Readiness
- Values Misalignment
- Balance (Work/Life/Family)
- Blended Families: Steps/Foster/Adoptive Parenting
- Chronic Illness
- Extended Family
- Intimacy
- Mental Illness
- Communication Blockages
- Past Traumas
What if the hurt and anger go too deep? That is when an experienced Relationship Counselor knows that couples counseling is the wrong approach. While most couples counselors don’t know the difference, a Relationship Counselor will-if well experienced.
When there is major hurt or anger between two people or a family, traditional couples counseling is more likely to cause damage than to help. Yes, it is true that working on communication skills, mutual support, conflict resolution, and such is important. But, how can you do that when you have been betrayed, abused, or abandoned in your relationship? These are the result of infidelities in the relationship, and cause devastating hurt and pain. When hurts are unresolved, they lead to frustration and anger, often metastasizing into rage or bitterness. couples counseling cannot address this depth of distress with its available tools.
The answer is Conjoint Counseling. In conjoint counseling, the counselor or counseling team focuses on the relationship by first strengthening and working on the individuals who are in pain and who are causing the pain. Sometimes that goes both ways. Once the individuals are strengthened so that the cause and effect of the pain is under control, the couples is brought back for couples work. Conjoint counseling focuses on the state and needs of the relationship. This differs from individual counseling because the counselor is not looking at the partners as individuals, but as participants in relationship. The Relationship is the client!
Issues that demand Conjoint Counseling include:
- Pending Divorce
- Infidelity/Cheating
- Partner Addiction Recovery
- Pornography/Cyber Addictions
- Sex Addictions
- Emotional/Spiritual Abuse
- Domestic Abuse
In my relationship counseling I help people develop the necessary skills needed to maintain sustaining relationships that are based on love, not self. Couples are not two selves struggling for control, but one relationship that is empowered by two persons who love and are lovable.
If any of the above relate to your and your partner in your relationship, contact me today for a free consultation. I would love to speak about how I may be able to help reconnect and rekindle your love for one another.