Many people fail to realize the damage they cause to their relationships with day-to-day conflict and misunderstandings before it’s too late. Others believe you have to be going through serious issues like infidelity to seek therapy.
The truth is that relationship counseling can have real life-changing effects on your relationship and your overall quality of life. Studies have shown that couples who go for regular counseling end up staying together for longer and enjoy their relationship more than couple’s who do not seek therapy.
In no particular order, the following are some of the ways you can benefit from relationship counseling in San Diego:
Fix Deep-Seated Relationship Issues with Therapy
San Diego is a big and busy city and relationships can get complicated. You are probably balancing so many things as a couple: your career, family, goals, friends, life events and so much more. At the same time, not everyone is born with the skills needed to maintain an intimate relationship over an extended period of time.
Relationship counseling in San Diego has supported many couples – therapy techniques and counseling approaches such as Imago Relationship therapy, Somatic Experiencing® and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy help to address deep-seated relationship problems.
Counseling and therapy done right can help unmask and address issues that you would otherwise never notice in your relationship. For instance, you have a partner who doesn’t like talking about challenges they are going through with you because of past experiences.
This is quite common because many people develop defense mechanisms after going through difficult experiences. Therapy or couple counseling can unearth these insecurities and provide strategies to cope and improve.
Improve Communication in Your Relationship
Almost everyone who has an opinion about why relationships fail will mention poor communication or a breakdown in communication as the main culprit. Over 65 percent of divorces can be linked to this very problem. Go through the following list of common complaints among couples and see if they apply to you:
- My partner suddenly went quiet when we had an argument and hasn’t talked to me for weeks –the “silent treatment”
- Most times I don’t even know what my partner is thinking or why they do certain things
- Sometimes I feel like I’m talking to myself and it’s so frustrating!
- My partner makes financial decisions without consulting me.
- She recently took out a loan to fund a vacation and never cared to mention it
- What is the point of telling my partner how I feel if they are just going to ignore me or gaslight me?
Relationship therapists are trained to identify communication problems in relationships and advise couples on how to address these problems. Where necessary, they can take you through deepening therapy exercises that help identify what you are doing wrong and how you can improve.
At the end of the session, you may gain a deeper understanding of your partner and yourself and be more comfortable expressing yourself. You’ll may also become a more effective communicator, with greater empathy and patience.
Change Behaviors Hurting Your Relationship
Transformative counseling can also help you identify negative behaviors that are possibly hurting your relationship. Some examples include being a controlling partner, abuse, gaslighting, stonewalling, and unhealthy expressions of anger and blame shifting. Structured relationship therapy gives both of you a safe platform to face these issues head-on so you can move towards healing and growth.
Some of the counseling success stories you’ll come across are of couples who were able to openly discuss their own triggers and have a willingness to self-reflect and grow.
Learn to Establish Roles and Responsibilities
Relationship counseling san Diego can also help you avoid conflict by learning how to set roles and responsibilities for each of you. Your counselor can help you come up with a formula for how you can divide roles like household tasks, shopping and responsibilities like financial planning or goalsetting. Doing so can have a profound effect on how you relate as a couple and help you build trust.
Address Sexuality, Intimacy and Satisfaction Issues
Many relationships suffer when issues to do with sex, intimacy, and satisfaction are left unaddressed.
Relationship therapists are trained to address sex and intimacy issues in relationships as a priority during counseling. They can help you openly explore this topic so you can achieve higher levels of satisfaction and intimacy as a couple.
Ending Your Relationship Through Counseling
In some cases, couples may decide that they don’t want to continue with their relationship post-counseling. While this might not be the intended and desired outcome of relationship counseling, it does help couples avoid the distress that comes with a breakup and aid in healing.
Whichever way you look at it, you stand to gain a lot from relationship therapy. As you can see the couples therapy benefits are numerous and invaluable regardless of what you may be going through. Take the right step and try relationship counseling in San Diego today!