This is therapy that involves professional help towards conflict resolution, improving communication or strengthening emotional bonds among people in a relationship. It can be among family, couples or colleagues.
Individual therapy focuses more on you as a person, and how you can improve yourself and be in line with your personal needs and development.
This varies from couple therapy whose focus is on you and your partner. The essence of couple therapy is to help you and your partner to learn about yourselves and how to strengthen your relationship.
Anyone in a relationship can benefit from therapy, regardless of their age, sexual orientation, or relationship status. Whether you are in a new relationship, a long-term marriage, or facing specific challenges, therapy can help improve the health and happiness of your relationship.
Couple therapy is not always meant for troubled relationships or couples in crisis but can also extend to the best of the couple. Even seemingly simple initiatives like agreeing to select a counselor together may require some teamwork.
The first session of therapy is usually to meet your therapist and identify your expected goals of the service. During this session, the therapist will discuss with you distinctly why you are seeking help so as to identify an objective approach to your challenges. You will also discuss the privacy boundaries of your sessions. A therapist is ethically and legally bound to keep all information about your sessions confidential unless you are a danger to yourself or others and may require additional help.
Unfortunately, there is a misconception that a therapist’s role is to save your relationship. The role of the therapist is to guide you through the process by observing the situation, giving feedback, and offering suggestions and probable solutions. All said and done, you and your partner must have the will to mend your relationship and remain receptive to the feedback.
To make counseling worthwhile, you need to have an open mind. Sometimes the feedback from therapy sessions may not be pleasing or easily acceptable. In situations like these, it helps to listen and restrain yourself from resentment and feelings of annoyance.
Your relationship does not miraculously improve as soon as you leave your couple’s therapy session. Marriage/Couple counseling only provides you with the guidance you need to improve your relationship. You then need to put this guidance into practice outside therapy sessions.
This is the only determinant of the outcome of your relationship in the future. Of course, you would say; “it is far much easier to do the work in the presence of the therapist. How is it expected that we would do the work at home, frustrated with one another and having a bad day?”. You need to remember that you and your partner are responsible for strengthening your relationship, and this makes outside-therapy sessions the most important place to do the work.
The length of therapy depends on the individual challenges you or a partner needs to resolve. Some people may only require a few sessions while others may need more sessions to solve their challenges. The frequency of your sessions will be discussed by your therapist and will be determined by your individual circumstances. With the therapist, a customized plan will be created to guide you through how long or how frequent your sessions will be.
Usually, individuals and couples wait far too long to try therapy. For a couple, every time that passes fuels the initial issues to pile up. The gap between them becomes too wide and resolving conflicts gets almost insurmountable. If you wait too long to deal with issues in your relationship, it may get to the point of no return. Failure to properly address matters only makes them fester and difficult to resolve as they could have been initially.
Individually, pushing aside the feelings that upset you everyday and not seeking help towards feeling happier and psychologically healthier, denies you the chance for personal growth and acceptance.
The best time to seek therapy is NOW.
When you sign up with us, you are prompted to provide some personal details for the purpose of contact and appropriate matching with a suitable professional. You can give brief details of the challenge you are interested in resolving at this point. You will notice that you are only asked to give a nickname and not your actual name at this point. This is to assure you of confidentiality as we use the information to match you with a professional expert that is experienced in the area you require assistance in.
You will receive confirmation of this after which you will be led to the various payment packages for the services. Once successful, you will be able to choose an available date and time for your first session.