Finding new commitment to your relationship with your spouse is one of the goals of marriage counseling. It is beautiful to see couples who have spent long periods of time fighting and finding only negative aspects of each other searching out and finding new things to love about one another and entirely new reasons to [...]
One day counseling sessions have become an intensive therapy choice for thousands of couples whose relationships are in trouble. These brief counseling sessions are especially popular among individuals who have no mental health insurance and are on a budget, being unable to afford multiple weekly sessions. For marriage counselors trained in giving one day intensive [...]
Affairs are a very common problem brought to light in couples counseling. They are also one of the most damaging of the emotional battles that couples fight, leading to long-term trust issues, insecurity and resentment. While the traditional focus on infidelity has seen a face lift with the introduction of online affairs in the past [...]
For many couples, the dream of running their own lives and working side by side towards a common goal is their idea of a successful marriage. Some couples, on the other hand, take that metaphor literally and choose to begin a business together. Running the business, owning it, working long hours side by side with [...]
Communication in all of its forms are vital to the success or failure of a marriage. Because communication is a foundation in a relationship, marriage counselors spend a lot of time learning about, understanding and training for communication types and subtypes. Most people immediately think of verbal speech when the subject of communication is brought [...]
The ways in which we communicate with our partner is one of the ways in which we define our relationship. There are a myriad of ways we communicate with people every day, whether its through our body language or through our words and it affects how we interact. While communication is one of the major [...]
Few people enter into marriage counseling without the intent of changing some of their partner’s behaviors. If you are unhappy, and your partner is a major source of your unhappiness, then it is natural for you to want your partner to initiate some changes in the ways in which they are treating you. The flip [...]
We’ve talked a lot about couples who enter into marriage counseling because of constant arguing and fighting. This type of habitual communication breakdown can cause incredible damage to people as individuals and as a couple and often lead to marriage counseling in order to learn newer and healthier ways to communicate. What happens, however, when [...]
Many couples are afraid that their couples counselor will choose a side during counseling and, of course, side with the other partner. For some, however, that isn’t the fear of counseling, it’s the hope. It is common for couples in trouble to begin polarizing their friends and family against the other partner. In essence, they’re [...]
Even if, to outside observers, your marriage seems like a harmonious match made in heaven, the fact is that you know when something is wrong. Every marriage is different. Some have a constant stream of low level bickering that is actually a part of the couple’s communication pattern while others function calmly and slowly. Only [...]
Millions of papers, articles and books have been written about the power of humor in a relationship. If you look at most people’s list of desires for a partner, a sense of humor is often near the top of the list for prospective mates. Some of the benefits of shared humor A common sense of [...]
Kathy and Tom had been married for 18 years, the past 7 of which had been unhappy and unfulfilling for both of them. With two teenage children and a distance between them that seemed too vast to cross anymore, they agreed marriage counseling would be their last effort to make things work before they separated. [...]
A marriage based on similar goals, interests and desires is a marriage that has a commonality between partners. That commonality can decrease the amount of friction and conflict between a couple and give them a head start on a lifelong relationship. When a marriage or long term relationship is based on a much more focused [...]
Each year, many marriages are shattered as a result of sexual addition. Sexual addition isn’t always what people think it is. Sexual addition can be characterized by a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers with the intent of using them only to satisfy sexual urges. It can also be characterized as [...]
For couples who have never been to a marriage counseling session before, anxiety and trepidation can build up before that first session. They aren’t alone, as many couples experience a good deal of fear or anxiety before their first couples counseling session. This reaction can stem from a number of reasons. First Session Fears Telling [...]
Individual Therapy can be sought out for a number of reasons. Many people seek this type of therapy for personal problems with Mental Health issues such as Anxiety or Bipolar Disorders, and many others seek out individual therapy to help them cope with life stressors such as grief or relationships. It is becoming increasingly common, [...]
Anger in a marriage takes a far deeper toll when there are children involved. Wheareas some couples may feel that spark of excitement when they argue, it is simply not a good enough reason to accept those patterns of relating once there are children in a home. Anger itself is a very negative pattern in [...]
Family counselors are becoming a very helpful resource for families that have grown in a variety of ways. Whereas the traditional family idea of opposite sex parents and biological children is the most commonly thought of, the reality is that, these days, the family next door is just as likely to have become a family [...]
Jayne was an outgoing and generally cheerful child that had no problems making friends throughout her years at school. This popularity carried over into her college years, which is where she met Scott. Scott enjoyed the social crowd and was a steady participant; however, he was much more introverted than Jayne. It was easy for [...]
For some people, the idea of sitting in a therapist’s office and opening up about their personal fears and relationship problems is just too overwhelming. Often times these feelings stem from the idea that, within a therapist’s office, there is no control over the environment, there is no control of the questions asked and there [...]
Relationship therapy is a tool that helps more than just couples. For years, relationship therapy has helped families and groups find ways to open the lines of communication and empathy and learn to reconnect with each other in a healthy and responsible way. One of the common groups that find their way into this type [...]
Dealing with loss is an individual experience. The person that you loved and lost was completely unique and so is the loss, both tangible and intangible, that you experience when they are gone. While it is a popular phrase that “it gets easier over time,” the truth is that time is relevant when you are [...]
When every moment leads to preoccupied thoughts of what can and might go wrong, chances are that an Anxiety Disorder is affecting your life. One of the common signs of an anxiety disorder is the barrage of worst-case scenario thoughts even where there isn’t a realistic basis for those thoughts. Negative thoughts are normal and [...]
Even the best of relationships can become strained overtime. This can happen to anyone at any point in their marriage or partnership. Many couples report that they were perfectly happy for many years and then, almost overnight, there was an intractable distance between them that they couldn’t seem to breach. Connor said: Lindsey and I [...]
Financial issues in a marriage aren’t always about the money. Financial arrangements within a relationship can be as varied as the couples involved. In many relationships, the partner who is stronger with numbers is the one in charge of finances. In others, the finances are jointly managed, and in still others couples switch off, month [...]
At any given point during a long distance relationship there are different stages of relating, loving and communicating. When the more difficult stages of a relationship appear, couples counseling is a wonderful tool to help you learn about the natural progression of a relationship and how you can understand them and weather them in a [...]
According to Arlene Foreman, M.S., pre-marital counseling is tool that serves as a pre-emptive strike against marital issues later on. Research shows there is a window of opportunity a year before the wedding and six months after when couples get the optimum benefit from marriage counseling. Later, under stress, negative habits and relationship patterns develop, [...]
For many couples, especially those going through a particularly difficult time, the success of a long term marriage seems more like a dream than a possibility. It is common to hear troubled couples refer to others who have been married for 40 years or more to chalk it up to being “soul mates, “ and [...]
One of the most beneficial aspects of attending couples therapy sessions is the ability to learn that you are not alone in how you feel, relate or react. Couples therapy allows couples in many different stages of relationships to see that there are hills and valleys to every partnership and many of those are predicable [...]
Counselors that specialize in relationship therapy are well versed in the commonly accepted five stages that characterize a normal long term relationship. Counselors can use this knowledge to help educate couples who believe they are alone in dealing with the issues, thoughts and troubles that are found in these stages. Understanding that their relationship and [...]
