Counseling can help build trust, intimacy, understanding in any relationship
Think counseling is only for relationships on the rocks? Think again.
Relationship counseling can be beneficial to healthy relationships, too. Here are seven areas in which counseling can benefit you and your partner.
Good communication
A relationship just doesn't work if you and your partner can't communicate . Therapy can give you the tools to do so in a positive way and in a way your partner can understand.
When it comes to communicating, we tend to do so in ways we learned as kids. Sometimes those ways are not supportive and understanding of our partners. Counseling can help you both overcome the patterns you learned when you were growing up and help you both communicate in positive ways.
Speaking of the kids
Do you and your partner find yourself out on date night discussing the lice outbreak at preschool? Maybe you don't know what else to talk about except for Tommy's grades and Jill's upcoming piano recital. Relationship counseling can help you discover each other's interests and give you things to talk about that don't involve PTO meetings or report cards.
Counseling also can help you find common ground when it comes to raising the kids. Whether you're trying to find a way to make your blended family more harmonious or simply just trying to find the right way to discipline and reward your children, relationship counseling can help you talk out your beliefs and wishes and listen as your partner does the same.
Seriously get to know each other
Whether you and your partner are contemplating marriage or just looking to take your connection to a deeper level, premarital counseling or its equivalent at the start of any relationship can provide a safe place to have those difficult conversations and lay the foundation for your lives together.
If you and/or your partner have been married before, second marriage counseling can help you sort through those same sort of issues.
In this same vein, relationship counseling can help you discover those things that shape your partner's thoughts and feelings outside of your relationship. Do you know what their work day is like? Do you know the stressors or factors that impact whether they have a good day at the office? When you try to learn more is your question of “How was your day?” met only with “Fine.”
Honest conversations in a safe setting of can help break down those barriers and lead to more empathy and understanding.
Cutting through digital distraction
We live in an always connected world. Whether it's checking work email on your cell phone or never missing a Twitter update from your favorite celebrity, there is no shortage of digital distractions to divert your attention from your partner and their needs.
Relationship counseling can help you and your partner not only see the problems technology is causing in your relationship, but also help you find ways to work past them and create boundaries for use (or lack thereof) that honor each other's feelings.
Achieving greater intimacy
Let's talk about sex. It can bring you closer or drive you apart. Sex counseling and therapy can help to make sure it does the former and not the latter, and can help you both avoid embarrassment, anger or anxiety as you work through issues and barriers as a team.
Counseling also can help you and your partner discover a deeper level of intimacy . The safe environment removes judgement -- whether real or just perceived -- and can help you achieve greater understanding of and respect for one another's thoughts and feelings, as well as their reactions to things you do or say.
Overcoming trust issues
Trust is the bedrock of any healthy relationship. If you or your partner are struggling to get past an affair or something else that damaged your trust in one another, counseling can provide tools to regain your trust and help you work through the process of rebuilding your faith in one another.
Good for the long term
Counseling isn't only about right now, it also is about getting it right for the long-term. Lessons learned and skills developed with your partner can not only help address immediate situations affecting your relationship, but can be beneficial throughout the life of your relationship.
If you would like learn more about ways couples counseling can set your relationship on the path to lasting love and success, our team of amazing counselors can help. Call us today for your free consultation .
