Couples and Marriage Counseling

Why Do Couples Seek Counseling?

There are many reasons why couples might seek counseling, and they don’t need to be “in trouble” to do so. In fact, often a few sessions of counseling might just help couples guard against marital problems! Here are just a handful of the issues for which couples may see a marriage therapist:

Pre-marital Counseling

Marriage is a huge commitment. It is the blending of two people from different backgrounds with different habits, and even different definitions of marriage or being a couple! Many couples seek pre-marital counseling to assist them in areas that are most likely to cause conflicts, such as communication and conflict management. Any problem faced in a relationship requires the ability to communicate in a healthy way, and the ability to manage conflict. Marriage counseling can also help uncover potential issues that may lead to problems later on. Believe it or not, the way the toilet paper is hung (or anything seemingly as trivial) and those habits in your partner you find “cute” now will, at some point, become an issue, and talking about them early on can help prevent them from becoming relationship breakers. By participating in pre-marital counseling, couples can learn skills with which to approach just about any problem that arises. 

Depression or Anxiety

While often depression and anxiety are addressed in individual therapy, it can be extremely helpful to include the couple’s counseling. The fact is depression and anxiety affect more relationships than just the person diagnosed. They affect our partners and our children. Seeking couples and marriage counseling can promote understanding and support of the diagnosed partner as well as address any issues that depression and anxiety create within the relationship.

Grieving

Loss is a part of life and can put great strain on a marriage—especially the loss of a child. Whether the loss is a child, a parent, a sibling, or close friend grief is not a linear process. It ebbs and flows, and there is no timeline. This can create tension or feelings of abandonment within the marriage relationship. Grief therapy as a part of couples and marriage counseling can help couples grieve together and be more supportive of each other throughout the process.

Family Issues

Parenting, in-laws, job changes, financial problems—there are many stressors that impact a marriage. Couples and marriage counseling can help couples talk through touchy subjects and determine possible solutions. 

Substance and Behavioral Addiction Abuse Recovery

While it is important that both the identified addict and the spouse seek their own healing process with support groups and individual counseling, couples and marriage counseling is an important part of the recovery process. Couples often struggle to learn how to communicate again, and how to relate to each other now that addiction has been stemmed. A therapist can help couples accomplish this goal.

Betrayal Trauma

Have you or your spouse had an emotional or sexual affair? This can rock a marriage to its core, often creating symptoms of trauma in the betrayed spouse. A couples and marriage therapist trained in betrayal trauma can help couples navigate the aftermath of an affair and help them come to a decision about the future of the marriage relationship. With help, couples can heal and rebuild or work through the complex feelings resulting from the affair in order to end the marriage with peace and be able to co-parent with grace.

Couples Going Through Divorce

On the wedding day, no one thinks divorce can happen to them. Whether because of a lack of nurture that causes couples to grow apart or an explosion like an affair that creates an irredeemable rift, many marriages do come to the point of no return. Couples and marriage counseling is an important tool in the process of separation and divorce, as it offers the opportunity to process the pain, guilt, and anger so each member of the couple can move forward freely without bitterness. This is especially important for couples with children. Couples and marriage counseling can help establish a new relationship that makes co-parenting effective, peaceful, and benefits the children. 

Other Reasons to Seek Couple’s Therapy

In addition, there are many other reasons to seek couple’s therapy. In truth, just about any issue that would benefit from individual counseling will also benefit from couples and marriage counseling. Here’s a list of just some of them:

• Anger issues/Anger management (when safe for both parties to do so)
• Low self-worth
• Phobias
• Social anxiety
• Painful memories that just won’t heal
• Unable to manage emotions
• Loneliness
• Negative self-talk
• Sexual abuse
• Loss of health

If you are ready for couples counseling, call Soul Work Counseling at 763.746.0842 or reach out through our contact form. We look forward to your call.