Marriage and Couples Psychotherapy
Couples therapy provides a safe place to facilitate effective communication between you and your partner. If you have been fighting for weeks or months, it can be difficult to look past the immediate situation or issue without an objective party to help neutralize the high emotions you may be feeling. Your therapist will help get you to a place of understanding and negotiation, moving past the immediate stressor and examining the bigger picture.
Typical couples therapy goals include: improving or creating healthy communication, understanding conflict resolution, learning how to “fight fair”, and improving your style of communication, as both the listener and communicator. If you are in a relationship and find that your negative interactions outweigh the positive interactions, you may benefit from couples therapy.
Some common reasons why couples seek therapy are: engaging in frequent conflicts, unable to communicate effectively, experience power and control struggles, experience betrayal from their partner, or are having difficulties with being intimate. Couples learn how to interrupt or even prevent the negative patterns from continuing by being aware of the triggers and patterns, and developing new behaviors to replace the old patterns that were not working.
You can develop a healthier, more satisfying relationship. You will learn new skills and take them with you to use long after therapy has ended. Once you have learned how to talk effectively with your partner, you will have a greater appreciation for each other as separate individuals and your relationship will grow.