Affirming Words Counseling

Are you having a difficult time in your relationships?  Are you feeling distant and disconnected from your partner/spouse?  Do you experience constant misunderstandings and feel like you and your partner are never quite on the same page?  Are there significant issues of trust in your relationship that prevent you from feeling emotionally safe?  Do arguments and constant conflict interfere with intimacy?

 

Relationships are challenging and take a lot of consistent work to keep things running smoothly.  People are always changing and evolving, and as people change so do the dynamics in a relationship.  Major life experiences such as marriage, children, changes in employment, financial issues, loss, trauma, aging, and other stage of life shifts all have a significant impact on our relationships.   

 

 

How can relationship/couples counseling help me?

 

Counseling will assist you in better understanding your own emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs, and how these needs are met and/or unmet in your relationships.  When you develop improved self-awareness and insight into the needs of your partner you are able to move forward into a deeper level of relationship growth.  One of the bedrocks of all healthy relationships is direct, open, communication.  For many people, communicating in this type of way is unnatural and uncomfortable, especially if it was never modeled early in life in their family or origin. Learning how to interact with others in a vulnerable, honest manner results in healthier, more meaningful, and more rewarding relationships.  Couples counseling allows both parties to learn about their unique communication styles,  how those styles interplay within their relationship, and practice engaging in healthier, more functional communication patterns to express feelings and needs more clearly, thus improving the quality of the relationship.  

 

 

What happens if I recognize a need for relationship/couples counseling, but my partner refuses to attend/participate?

 

This is often a common occurrence.  One partner is aware of the issues in a relationship or is feeling unsatisfied, however the other person is not open to engaging in counseling either due to being resistant to the therapeutic process, refusing to acknowledge there is a problem in the relationship, or simply an unwillingness to change.  While having both participants as willing and active members in the counseling process is the ideal scenario, there is still great benefit for you to attend counseling on your own.  Through increasing self-awareness and better understanding your needs, goals, patterns, communication style, triggers, and expectations you can take tremendous steps to improve relationship satisfaction and develop a clearer idea of how to move forward.