Healthy marriages are about finding a balancing between connection/intimacy and independence/autonomy. Ideally, each influences and helps the other. Achieve this balance in your relationship through participating in marriage counseling. Marriage counseling slows down your interactions so you can begin to identify how each of you can get emotionally triggered in your relationship. Also, it can help you learn new skills and tools that you and your partner can use in your everyday life together.
Improve your Communication
Going to marriage counseling can help you discover new methods for communicating with your spouse. Learn communication skills that can help foster intimacy and closeness. Break out of unhealthy ways of communicating that can cause destructive cycles of anger, criticism and shame. Enhanced ways of talking with each other can go a long way to creating an atmosphere of sharing, safety and connection in your marriage.
Support for difficult times
Marriage counseling can be helpful if your marriage is going through an especially difficult circumstance or transition. An example of this could be death, divorce, retirement, infidelity or having a special needs child. All of these situations are valid reasons to seek marriage counseling. When both you and your spouse feel overwhelmed with stress, it can be tough to support each other emotionally. A marriage counselor can help alleviate that emotional stress through providing empathy for both of you. Through this added support, you and your spouse can eventually learn to be there for each other even when times are demanding.
Rediscover your connection
The daily routines of life can cause you and your spouse to lose your intimate connection. Your sex life might not be where both of you would like it to be. Or your relationship may just not be as affectionate as it once was. Wanting greater intimacy and connection is an important reason for seeking marriage counseling. Your counselor can help you settle back into enjoying the connection that brought you together in the first place. Marriage counseling can serve as inspiration in getting your marriage going in the right direction. However, if you want to sustain your loving connection with your partner, you will have to practice it regularly.
Gain clarity before making a big decision
Marriage counseling can help you gain clarity before making big decisions. It could be a decision about whether to move, to have more children or a something business related. In a marriage, it is important that the voice of you and your spouse be clearly heard, especially when life-changing decisions are about to be made. A marriage counselor can insure that everyone's voice is heard.
References
- "Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples"; Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D. and Susan Johnson, Ed.D.; 1988.
