Couples Therapy is a type of counseling, a service to further help improve you and your partner’s relationship in the time of conflict and frustration.
It is a safe space to talk about any issues or topics relating to family, the relationship itself, forms of intimacy and children.
Couples counseling can help when there are feelings of being misunderstood or unappreciated. This form of therapy may dig deep into the past as to what helped shape the individuals you both are today, surfacing suppressed feelings.
What is Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy aka couples counseling, are clinical counseling sessions that involve both parties in a romantic and/or sexual relationship.
These clinical therapy sessions help couples recognize barriers in their communication, understand each other’s perspective on different situations, how to deal with challenges and also portray sympathy where needed.
What Does a Couples Clinical Counsellor Do?
A couples clinical counsellor acts as a neutral guide who helps couples communicate better, resolve conflict, and strengthen their relationship.
They listen to both partners, create a personalized plan, and use various therapy techniques to build emotional connection and overcome challenges.
Think of them as relationship coaches helping couples navigate tricky waters and build a happier, healthier partnership.
Couples Counseling Techniques
The following are a few techniques your couples counselor may utilize to best help you and your partner put problems behind and improve your relationship.
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-focused Brief Therapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT)
Each therapy technique will be explained more in detail. Please follow us.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
This methods is a couples counseling technique to help identify destructive patterns within a relationship that prevent overall bonding between two people.
When we are able to identify those patterns, healing and bonding is able to arise.
Narrative Therapy
This technique is a specific counseling method that allows both partners to narrate their story in their own way and to how they see fit, then later encouraged to rewrite the entire story.
The purpose of narrative therapy technique is to help couples realize that one story doesn’t override the experience you both share. This technique is specifically helpful for partners who blame themselves for a failing relationship.
Solution Focused Therapy
This method is used when couples are having a conflict towards the same issue over and over again.
The solution focused therapy method is used to create short term goals within the big goal to create baby steps, letting yourself believe the short term goals are a lot easier to achieve on both individuals thus willing to work towards the end goal instead of dwelling on the fact that they are not getting anywhere.
Imago Relationship Therapy
This technique is looking more into your inner child. Unraveling childhood memories that helped shape who you are today as an adult and the relationships you have created.
This technique helps couples come face to face with why they may have commitment issues for example, or trust issues, ultimately unleashing childhood trauma.
There are many more techniques that a couples counselor is able to provide, these techniques vary couple to couple on what they need and are wanting out of this service.
What Issues Can Couples Therapy Help with?
There are so many factors in life that can arise as issues between couples. Some issues may be recent and fresh while others may be long standing issues that have remained unsolved for years.
Whichever issue that you may be struggling with, it is important to know you are not alone and making an attempt to solve the issue now rather than never is the bigger picture.
The following are a few examples of issues most couples may come across and counseling sessions can help solve:
- Negative communication
- Infidelity
- Alone together “living as roommates”
- Unmet emotional needs
- Unsolvable problems
- Mismatch in parenting styles
- In laws
- Finances
How Do Couples Counseling Sessions Work?
During a couples counseling session, it is asked for both partners to be present to help the therapist see both individuals as a team and hear both sides of the story.
Both you and your partner will be seated in a room with a professional couples therapist to communicate and explore what’s going on within the relationship.
Couples counseling is something that doesn’t work overnight. This type of therapy requires commitment and showing up for not only yourself, but your partner.
Both individuals require ongoing learning to understand one another on a deeper level while showing compassion and sympathy for one another’s feelings in a safe space.
Benefits of Couples Therapy
In order for couples therapy to benefit both individuals, they both need to be invested in the experience and have patience during the process.
Some might say that this is the best thing two people can do for their relationship so let’s talk about the different benefits you and your partner can gain from this therapy.
Develop a Deeper Understanding of the Relationship
Learn about power dynamics, is it balanced, are there negative patterns that occur in the relationship. Identifying the good and not so good traits can help strengthen a bond between two people.
Hearing and Learning Another Perspective to the Problem
Looking at things through another pair of eyes. Usually in a relationship, we often seem to think about our own feelings before thinking about our partners, this is because no one understands our feelings better than us.
Creating a Safe Space
This is critical for couples to be able to say what it is on their mind without being judged or criticized. A safe space allows both parties to express their needs and frustrations, resulting in being heard.
Learning Effective Strategies for Communication
Everyone has their own unique communication style. Learning your partner’s communication style and adapting your methods to help them understand your point of view is critical in effective communication as it has many forms.
Think of this as learning one another’s love language, we don’t all feel loved and cared for in the exact same way.
Having a Professional Counsellor present, they can open you up to objectively thinking about your partner’s feelings and thoughts, resulting in avoiding miscommunication and understanding the main issue and being able to really listen to each other.
How to Choose a Professional Couples Therapist?
Couples therapy has shown to have a success rate of up to 98% and can be extremely effective for those partners that are committed to the process.
Couples counseling uses various scientifically proven techniques to help couples overcome their struggles and to understand each others’ needs and concerns.
The process works extremely well when both partners want to make the relationship work and are committed to the process.
Our Coquitlam Registered Clinical Counselor (RCC) Aditi Jasra is well equipped in techniques used and proven to be effective when it comes to couples therapy. We take confidentiality seriously and information shared between you and our therapist will not be visible to other therapists at the clinic.
Aditi has years of experience helping couples overcome a variety of issues and has helped hundreds of couples regain their relationship confidence and or spark. She is looking forward to meeting you and helping you move forward in your struggles and challenges.
If you’re a couple seeking a couple’s therapist, go ahead and call our office at 604-917-0777 to book your counseling session with our RCCs.