The Marriage Counseling Blog

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 a stranger about complex, intimate problems
• Fear of the counselor’s reaction – maybe they’ll tell you that your problem is insurmountable and your situation hopeless!
• Fear of not being ready for a long road to healing
• Fear of being blamed for all of the issues in the marriage or the counselor siding with one spouse over the other

These are all normal concerns that most couples go through before beginning therapy, but, like most fears in life, they seldom actually happen as long as you are seeing an experienced and well-trained counselor.

The fear of having the counselor side with one spouse over the other is one of the most common fears that couples have before their first session. Again, a well-trained counselor is trained not to “take sides.” Instead, they are trained to serve as a mediator and a sounding board.

Insurmountable problems and hopeless cases are incredible rare, though some marriages do take more work to heal than others.

The first session of marriage counseling is usually a time for the counselor to become familiarized with both of you as individuals and as a couple. At this stage, the therapist is attempting to obtain an overall impression of the problems and issues the two of you are encountering.

Your first session of marriage counseling should not be something to fear, but rather something to look forward to.

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• One Session Marriage Counseling Benefits
• Can a Single Session of Marriage Counseling Really Help?
• Your First Counseling Session – What to Expect
• One Session Marriage Counseling Intensives