MARRIAGE THERAPY:

by Saima Husaini

Why Seek Marriage Counseling?

At Hope & Harmony Therapy, marriage or relationship counseling is available to couples in all types of intimate relationships — heterosexual or homosexual, married or not.

Some couples seek marriage counseling to strengthen their bonds and gain a better understanding of each other, while others seek counseling to recover from the trauma of infidelity.  

Premarital Counseling helps couples that are planning to get married, achieve a deeper understanding of each other and address potential differences before the start of their marriage journey that could potentially interfere with the marriage union. Topics of discussion include boundaries, raising children, paying bills, and marriage roles.

In other cases, couples seek marriage counseling to improve a troubled relationship. You can use marriage counseling to address many specific issues, including:

• Communication problems
• Intimacy difficulties
• Conflicts about parenting or blended families
• Substance abuse
• Financial problems/concerns
• Infidelity
• Anger/Aggressive behaviors

Marriage counseling might also be helpful in cases of domestic abuse. If violence has escalated to the point that an individual is afraid, therapy alone is not enough. In these situations it is imperative to contact the police or a local shelter or crisis centers for emergency support. Here is the website for the National Domestic Violence Hotline: http://www.thehotline.org/ or 1-800-799-7233 | 1-800-787-3224 (TTY).

What Can We Expect?

Marriage counseling normally brings couples or partners together for joint therapy sessions. At Hope & Harmony Therapy, working with one of our therapists, couple will learn improved and effective skills to strengthen, and often rekindle, their relationships. These skills might include communicating openly, solving problems together and discussing differences rationally. You'll analyze both the good and bad parts of your relationship as you pinpoint and better understand the sources of your conflicts and work with your therapist to resolve them in a healthy way.  Often times, communication and intent get lost in the way we deliver and receive each other’s message.  Our therapists help couples better understand their partner’s body language, non-verbal cues, and automatic assumptions that are often made based on personal values and character traits and models of relationships.

Feel free to contact any of our therapists for an appointment.