Relationships

About Relationships

The Merriam-Webster dictionary refers to the word “relationship” as a romantic or passionate attachment and a state of affairs existing between those having relations or dealings. Being in a romantic relationship with your boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife has its ups and downs and it is also true with family relationships. This is why you will need to consider marriage therapy or family counseling if the problems affects the whole family in order to sort out the root cause/causes of the problem and resolve it. Of course, there are no shortage of reasons why couples or the whole family erupts into shouting matches when living together as different personalities collide on a daily basis and it takes time to for those personalities to settle in, or God forbid, not at all.

Common Problems in Relationships

If socializing in a small or large group of people can have issues between one or more individuals with contradicting opinions on whatever subject that they’re dealing, then you can be sure that a romantic and intimate relationship between two people is bound to have problems too! As a matter of fact, it gets more complicated with romantic relationships because everything is personal and intimate and when people hold on to their hate and pain, they have trouble forgiving their partners. You may want to seek marriage counseling if,

• Your partner has a drinking problem.

• You’re confused whether or not he/she is the one for you, especially if they’re not treating you right.

• The age gap between you is troubling either one of you or your family and friends.

• If your partner wants to get married, but you’re not ready for that level of commitment yet.

• You find yourselves doubting whether or not you should take your relationship to the next level.

• Whether or not you’re ready to have kids.

• Either parent refuses to accept that their child is LGBT.

• Either one of you easily gives up your relationship and leave.

• You have reasons to believe that you’re in an abusive relationship.

• You’re being pressured to have sex.

• Either one of you have fallen out of love with their partner.

• Your relationship is an emotional rollercoaster and it's draining you.

What is Relationship Counselling?

It’s not a piece of cake to discern relationship therapy’s benefit to your relationship that is why you must first comprehend what couples counselling is and why couples enroll in it. In other words, a professional counsellor, psychologist or therapist offers relationship counseling to couples that want to resolve issues that put their relationship in strain and the goal of such a therapy is to root out the cause and create a strategy to avoid these triggers. Even though relationship counseling is generally viewed as exclusively for romantic relationships, it also applies to relationship in the family, relationship with friends and co-workers.

Relationship counselling help couples:

A.) Explore their story: The therapist will facilitate a safe space of each partner to communicate their thoughts and feelings, so both parties can be heard. The problems and their impacts on their relationship will be thoroughly discussed. The therapist will also explore the history of how the challenges and difficulties came to be and ask them what changes they want to make in order to improve their relationship.

B.) Understanding your story: The couples will brought to a realization as to why they’re struggling in their relationship as the counselor will point out the patterns and triggers of what’s causing the problem, so they can focus on solving that instead of getting into endless bickering.

C.) Changing the Patterns: Relationship therapy’s goal is to magnify the source of the problem in order to solve it and once that has been accomplished, then your story and the patterns that leads up to creating the problem will be seen more clearly. You as a couple will then use all your strengths, resources and reasoning to come up with a plan to change things that will ultimately result in solving the issues you’re having in your relationship.

Benefits of Relationship Counseling

The primary benefits of couples counselling include:

1. Improving your communication between each other, identify and supress what triggers intense arguments and/or argue more constructively to solve the problem and not end up blaming one another, understanding each other’s wants and needs and work out a win-win situation at the end of every argument.

2. Restore the love that you had by focusing on revitalizing intimacy that was lost due to constant fighting.

3. Assist couples in negotiating/re-negotiating their commitment to each other.