Even the strongest relationship or marriage can run into trouble sometimes. Life can find a way of putting problems in front of us, but sometimes a little help can go a long way.
Like a rock hurled into a pond, a divorce or separation can send out waves of stress that affect our children, parents, friends, and other family members. There's no doubt that the end of a romantic relationship takes a hefty toll on our emotional, physical, and mental health.
If we sense that things with our partner are not as they should be, if arguments, conflicts, hurt feelings, and disappointments sabotage our most important relationship, we owe it to ourselves to explore every option that can save us from heartache and pain.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20% of first marriages end within five years. If that figure isn't sad enough, consider that 33% end within ten years.
For many people, the idea of couples therapy or family therapy can sound scary. Some even see it as a last resort or sign of defeat. But if you are feeling unwell, you see a doctor, and if your car's engine needs fixing, you see a mechanic, so why not seek counseling if your relationship isn't running as smoothly as it should?
Couples therapy and couples counseling are good, healthy steps for a relationship. Far from being a sign of defeat, it is a commitment to personal growth that will help you resolve relationship roadblocks. Taking steps to improve your relationship dynamic is a sure sign that you and your partner are interested in developing a relationship with commitment and intention.
Couples therapy and marriage counseling create a safe space where you and your partner can improve communication skills and gain a deeper understanding of each other. Your couples therapist is a neutral third party and serves as an impartial and compassionate facilitator so relationship problems can be explored in a healthy manner.
One of the biggest benefits of couples therapy is that a good couples therapist won't just encourage you to talk, rather, they will help you discover new conflict resolution skills. Couples therapists have training and experience with relationship dynamics and a better understanding of the ingredients a healthy relationship requires.
In the safe space created by a couples counselor, feelings can be expressed. You and your partner will begin to see things from each other's point of view. Improving communication skills during therapy sessions allows married couples to rediscover lost levels of intimacy.
Money can be a very emotional issue and frequently causes marital discord. Friction over how couples handle their finances can put undue strain on the relationship. In many relationships, money is a recurring marital dispute and one of the root causes of separation and divorce.
During marriage counseling, both you and your partner can discuss major decisions about your financial plans. Whether you are cohabiting or legally married, being able to communicate about money problems effectively is a key aspect of couples counseling. Debt management, future budgets, and reasonable expectations of what each partner might spend are all issues where the presence of a neutral third party can help a couple develop greater self-awareness.
For newly married couples, relationship counseling makes moving forward with a shared financial plan easy. In some ways, finances are the bedrock of a successful marriage, so the opportunity to resolve money issues early on makes couples counseling worth its weight in gold.
Sometimes, even the best relationships produce a lot of stress. Adding to the day-to-day stress factors we all face can be the traumatic impact of sad life events: redundancy, bereavement, miscarriage, poor health, addiction issues, and much more can burden a relationship with an unhealthy level of stress.
If this relationship stress is ignored, it can fester and grow in a marriage. The issue becomes even worse when couples use different methods for managing their stress. For example, if one partner's approach is to clam up and never discuss hurt feelings or distress, and the other's is to talk freely about their emotions, a clash is inevitable.
Poor relationship dynamics are a major obstacle to understanding proper coping mechanisms in a marriage. Sadly, gaining a deeper understanding of our partner's feelings isn't always intuitive. As an emotionally focused therapy, couples counseling allows partners to better understand each other's way of dealing with relationship stress.
This makes couples therapy very valuable. As just one of several benefits, couple therapy helps to create safe and mutually understandable mechanisms of coping for both sides. Moving forward in the relationship, you can be the best version of yourselves.
Couples counseling is an empowering experience that will help you and your partner to learn new perspectives. We each view our relationships in a certain way, from our perspective, and it can be tough to take into account a partner's different viewpoints. When disputes arise, the inability to see things from the other's vantage point can intensify arguments. If two people disagree on something, it will only get worse if they do not consider each other's viewpoints.
During couples therapy work, your therapist will help you talk through the way you each see things. This improvement in communication is a new skill you and your partner can apply to every situation in life, ensuring that you each take the other's thoughts and feelings into account. When you disagree in the future, you'll have the understanding required to talk it through in a healthy way.
If you're a newly married couple, it's understandable that you might view each other through rose-colored glasses. There is an old joke that says that while love might be blind, marriage is an eye-opener. Attending couples therapy before marriage can be helpful in identifying potential problem areas that might arise later. Do you feel jealous? Are there aspects of your sex life you're uncomfortable with? Is there anything about your partner you hope will change?
During premarital consultations, issues around anxiety, addiction, mental health, and many other potential problem areas can be discussed in a safe way that brings many benefits to marriage. Before marrying, it is important that partners gain new skills that ensure intimacy doesn't end with the honeymoon.
Premarital counseling offers partners an opportunity to share past issues openly. Discussion of challenging aspects of our past is crucial because previous romantic and family relationships can bring an unhealthy burden to a marriage. For example, if your parents divorced, you may have unrecognized fears about infidelity and abandonment. The long-term benefits of couples openly discussing and sharing their experiences during relationship therapy and marriage counseling will form a stronger, more intimate bond between each other.
One of a marriage's biggest challenges is communication. Couples without a good way of talking through problems could be steering their marriage straight toward the rocks. In healthy relationships, communication is essential for success. During couples counseling, you can have a controlled conversation together. It is an opportunity to reflect upon the challenges you've been through and to identify and discuss any current problems.
By improving communication skills, partners can restore trust and avoid future disputes spiraling out of control. Learning to communicate through couples therapy can help you establish a more effective marriage relationship. What's more, the benefits of couples therapy and marriage counseling persist in a relationship, ensuring that your marriage can stand the test of time.
At GIA Miami, our professional, experienced marriage therapists create a safe space where you and your partner can work through troubling issues together. It's a controlled process that prevents arguments from escalating as they might at home. A family therapist knows how to ensure that your and your partner's voices are heard. By working with you, our counselors guide relationships toward a healing resolution of past grievances and build a future based on good communication.
Perhaps you need an opportunity to identify and resolve the root cause of conflicts between you and your partner. Our couples therapy is a positive intervention that helps build stable and supportive relationships. In the non-judgmental space we create, you have the safety and freedom to express your feelings fully.
The therapy will help you gain and improve communication and problem-solving skills. Along the way, you'll build greater trust in each other and develop a nurturing, caring attitude that prioritizes each partner's needs.
To develop these new skills, our therapists may give you exercises to practice at home between sessions, ensuring that the benefits of couples therapy become a feature of your marriage.
We also offer individual therapy, and we can combine marriage counseling with other effective treatment approaches for co-occurring mental health or substance abuse issues. This includes transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy (TMS), cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT), and group therapy.
Whether you are dealing with issues related to lost trust, conflict caused by addiction, or seeking to improve your mental wellness, couples counseling at GMI Miami will help you build a long-lasting, healthy, and balanced relationship.
So, to put your marriage first and rediscover the person you love, get in touch with us today.
