Most people expect their love life and relationships to go smooth like fairytales. Romantic dramas show that once people pass through all the difficulties, they get together and live happily ever after. However, real life is much different. Keeping relationships healthy and intact isn’t as simple as it seems to be in the movies. The real challenge begins after people finally get together as a couple. If you’re in a new relationship, chances are you’re going to face a lot of ups and downs in your journey together.
Couples often realize the impact and importance of being in a relationship after the initial infatuation is over. When the love bubbles burst and routine kicks in, the road to a happily ever after gets rocky. Also, many people face problems despite spending a lifetime together. Nevertheless, facing difficulties in relationships should not be the reason for two people who love and respect each other to split apart. If you’re feeling like you’re going through a tough time in your life with your partner, if you have trouble communicating despite loving each other, or if you keep struggling with arguments and fights, Psychotherapy for Couples by professional therapists is just what you need.
If you’re wondering what Couples Counseling is and how does it work, keep reading!
What Is Couples Counseling?
Couples counseling is an exceptional type of therapy which helps couples communicate better and solve their issues. It utilizes psychotherapists’ help to help the couple assess and re-evaluate their relationship goals in an unbiased way. It helps you talk about your negative feelings, emotions, and concerns positively and healthily. This method is beneficial for all couples who feel distant due to interpersonal conflicts or whom wish to simply strengthen their relationship.
What to Expect in Couples Counseling
If you and your companion are going through a time when nothing feels right and are worried about the future, the best way for fixing your relationship is through professional help. If you opt for couple’s therapy, here’s what you should expect:
Learning More About Your Partner and Relationship
In Couples counseling or marriage counseling, there are three people on the therapist’s couch, including each person – the relationship is the third entity. This therapy allows couples to learn more about one another. Often when you learn each other’s likes and dislikes based on previous experiences, you can understand better why one reacts to a particular situation in a certain way. Psychotherapists help you identify each other as a person and compare it to your versions as a couple. Often times, things in each partner’s personal life may be brought into the relationship affecting the couple.
Identify the Root Cause of the Conflict
Couple’s counseling sessions allow the couple to understand the root cause of conflicts they face. One reason for issues may be having unrealistic expectations from the other. As mentioned earlier, though love and having a partner can be a great experience, expecting too much or considering things to happen in a fictional movie’s way is impossible. Not every time the handsome prince follows Cinderella, who runs away. So, understanding one’s insecurities that create distance is essential. Besides, to solve an issue, you must identify it first. Some reasons that make once love-drunk hearts grow cold and far apart include:
- Not communicating effectively
- Holding onto resentment
- Trauma from previous relationships
- Fighting over the same issue every time instead of solving it
- Not fighting, ignoring problems, or showing passive-aggressiveness
- Issues in physical intimacy
Couples counseling teaches you how to fight healthy, identify actual problems, and respectfully solve them and compromise. Learn to fall in love again with couples counseling!
Developing Goals
Sometimes couples get the rainy days in their lives because one partner is moving too fast with the relationship while the other is facing commitment issues. Therapy with professional guidance allows you to identify where your relationship stands and whether it has a healthy future. For some couples, the conflicts are resolved, and they enjoy their lives in peace. In contrast, some understand how the relationship isn’t healthy anymore and decide to part their ways. After all, a relationship is meant to make you feel happy and loved. In any case, a couple’s psychotherapy session helps with developing goals accordingly.
Better Communication With a Loved One
Communication training is one of the main steps in building a healthy relationship. Counseling sessions help partners to understand ways they can communicate their feelings and emotions to an issue. Therapy teaches to validate each other’s feelings. When a partner communicates, the use of words like “you” should be limited, as they should talk only about their emotions. Loving each other is easy at the start, but staying in love long-term and fixing the relationship when times get tough is the real deal. You can expect a healthy relationship by owning and expressing your feelings instead of playing the blame game. The other partner should also act as a validator. Simple words like “I understand,” “I feel,” “I hear” without making it about themselves will undoubtedly strengthen the bond of love.
Learning Skills and Using Them Outside Sessions
Couple’s counseling sessions help you during the therapy period and outside the sessions in your everyday life. The lessons and skills you learn during these sessions will come in handy the next time you face any issue. Changing one’s perception and expressing feelings a bit more isn’t much to ask for in the name of love, is it? The therapy sessions teach many valuable lessons to couples, including:
- Patience
- Forgiveness and moving ahead
- Trust
- Honesty
- Stress-management
- Empathy
- Love languages
- Perception
Individual as Well as Psychotherapy for Couples
Both Individual Psychotherapy and psychotherapy for couples can be beneficial in couple’s counseling. The psychotherapist can better understand each partner in individual sessions and then help you identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses during the couples’ session.
Final Note:
All in all, couple’s counseling sessions are a great way to give your relationship a new life and bring the charm back once again. Forget problems, fall in love, and go gaga over one another like before with the help of Couples Counseling by MindShift Psychological Services. Having love in today’s world is a blessing. Don’t lose it because of problems that can be solved. Choose MindShift and keep loving each other!
