If you haven’t considered it before, deciding to try couple’s counseling before there are any relationship problems might feel unnecessary. It might even leave you feeling worried that you’ll create problems that didn’t exist before. The truth is, developing healthy, open communication strategies helps you form deeper connections than you’ve had before. How? Let’s take a look...
1. To Fortify a Strong Foundation
Healthy relationships include healthy communication. Whether you feel that your relationship includes great communication or not, the likelihood is that there are areas that could be emphasized and built upon.
Couples therapy not only helps you build on the communication freedom you’ve already established, but it motivates you to develop communication intimacies that you may not have considered. Perhaps you’ve identified arguments as a space to constructively criticize, but it could be important to center validation in those critical discussions. The details impact the future of your relationship, so clearly delineating your starting point can eliminate conflict down the road.
2. To Explore Complex Topics In A Neutral Space
There may be things that you simply don’t talk about in your relationship. Couples counseling is an opportunity to develop the tools to start those conversations yourself, in a space where uncomfortable escalation can be managed. Whether you’re interested in exploring a sensitive topic for the first time, are looking for advice on how to dive into a topic that you haven’t had success with before, or you’d like to develop a protocol to address any tough topic in the future, the setting of couples counseling facilitates that groundwork.
3. Because You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Sometimes, the perspective of an observer guides you to understand habits or other elements of your relationship that you would never have noticed otherwise. Having someone there to advise can help you see relationship quirks that allow you to better understand your own interactions.
This added perspective may identify and alleviate sources of tension that you hadn’t consciously noticed, but which were affecting your happiness and relationship anyway.
4. To Create Space for Vulnerability
For a variety of reasons, you or your partner(s) might be wary of exploring certain vulnerabilities related to identity, perspective, needs, or otherwise. You, or they, might not be aware that conversations have been held back, despite their importance, due to the sensitivity of the topic and the vulnerability it creates. A couples therapy setting adds a level of safety — and the time and opportunity to truly listen — that are not feasible at home or in other settings.
5. Because There’s Always Something to Learn
Busy lifestyles eliminate time for communication centered on your relationship or on one another’s innermost thoughts and desires. Setting aside the time for couples counseling means creating an all-important opportunity to learn new things about each other, building on the understandings and bonds that you already share.
If you’d like to talk more, contact me and schedule a free 20-minute session with my assistant.
Sophia Lou. O’Connor, MA, LPC
Psychotherapist | Trainer | Educator
[Pronouns: She/They]
Tel: (720) 935 2706