Do You Feel Like You’ve Lost Connection With Your Partner?
Are you and your partner struggling to recapture your spark? Does it seem like you have it all together from the outside, but things are rocky at home? Are communication problems becoming difficult to navigate?
Perhaps you and your partner feel like two ships passing in the night rather than two people truly in love. It might seem like you’re living parallel lives instead of working together. Or maybe communication about difficult topics just brings up anxiety and stress, making it feel like nothing ever gets resolved.
Past Relationship Patterns Can Cause Friction In Current Relationships
Maybe past relationship issues or early family dynamics are creeping into your relationship without you noticing. It could be that you and your partner are still carrying trauma or difficulties that you’ve experienced in the past. For instance, maybe one of you was betrayed in a past relationship and now you have trouble trusting your partner. Or perhaps you’re holding onto past hurts without even realizing it. These experiences could be coloring how you relate to each other right now.
With the right support, it’s possible for both of you to let go of the weight of your past and find your spark again. Couples therapy can help you learn to communicate better and find more peace at home.
Problems Impact Every Relationship
Most of us grow up with some idea of what a partnership is supposed to look like, and those ideas might differ from our spouse’s. We might have different desires than our partners when it comes to affection and sex. Or perhaps we have different visions about the roles within our relationships. When our ideas of what a relationship should look like clash with the reality of our current partnership, it often causes conflict.
Add on the fact that we all deal with stresses in daily life, such as parenting, work, finances, insufficient childcare support, or even just managing a home. When we are stressed about other things, this can sometimes impact how we deal with tension within our relationships. It’s important to find ways to communicate with our partners and loved ones so we don’t let issues remain unresolved.
Relationship Comparisons Can Make Us Feel Alone In Our Struggles
It’s hard to turn a corner without hearing a love story. Novels, movies, and TV shows show us bigger-than-life romances. But because they are created for entertainment, they don’t truly capture the minute details of what makes a real relationship work.
In this day and age, we are bombarded with details of other people’s relationships through social media. When we see the happy photos and loving captions that our friends and family post about their partners, it can seem like everyone else is living a fairytale.
But what you see on TV and social media isn’t the entire story. Yes, your relationship can be a source of delight, but when you journey through the storms of life with someone, there’s also going to be stress and conflict. You and your partner aren’t alone in this. At Gatewell Therapy Center, our approach to couples counseling can help you and your partner traverse the rocky roads of conflict and fall in love again.
Couples Therapy Can Help You Understand Your Partner And Break Free From Negative Cycles
Our marriage and couples counselors are here to help you understand how you and your partner’s histories—together and individually—affect the way you show up in your relationship today. This can help you navigate triggers, work toward communicating your needs more effectively, and manage conflict more constructively.
What To Expect In Sessions
When you begin counseling, you will have an appointment as a couple first. Then your therapist will see each of you separately to gather more background information and address your individual concerns for the relationship. From there, you and your significant other will resume meeting together with your couples therapist.
Most importantly, we believe you and your partner are the experts on your relationship. That’s why you get to decide the direction your couples therapy takes. Our role is to help you find some of the answers within yourselves, to teach you specific skills and strategies, and to empower you to meet your relationship goals.
Counseling Is Individualized To Meet Your Needs
With feedback throughout the therapy process, we will develop a plan that addresses your core challenges. Some methods we use include:
● The Gottman Method, which works to improve the quality of connection between you and your partner and teaches you how to identify and stop destructive communication patterns.
● Bowen Systems Theory, which can help you understand how your past impacts your present, find ways to break negative cycles, and develop a stronger sense of self.
● Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which teaches you skills to help manage distress and regulate your emotions, how to validate your partner, and how to ask for what you need in your relationship.
With these methods, you and your significant other can learn how to listen to each other, respect core differences, communicate your needs, and set healthy boundaries. Doing so makes it easier to understand each other’s inner world and interact more effectively.
Our therapists are experienced in treating a wide range of marital and couples issues, including trauma, lack of intimacy, and infidelity. No matter what you’re going through, there is hope that you and your partner can work through your difficulties and come out stronger on the other side.
But You May Still Have Concerns About Couples Therapy. . .
My significant other and I have been arguing more recently, but I don’t think it’s enough for marriage therapy.
Couples therapy can be beneficial for every relationship regardless of how much conflict is occurring. Waiting until you’re in crisis to seek help risks letting things pile up in your relationship, giving you more challenges that you have to work through later on. Our therapists can assess where you are and help you find the best way to strengthen your partnership. Addressing concerns proactively can be more effective than addressing them reactively.
I’m afraid if we talk about our problems, they’ll only get worse.
Leaving issues unresolved doesn’t make them go away. Instead, it usually makes your relationship problems worse. Talking about emotions and conflict can be challenging at first, but our therapists are experienced at helping couples like you navigate tough conversations. You’ll learn plenty of skills and strategies for managing the emotions that come up as you work together to resolve your problems.
My partner and I have been talking about couples counseling, but it seems too expensive.
Couples counseling can be expensive, but relationship issues can have a financial burden on your family, too. If you don’t address underlying issues within your partnership, it can lead to significant issues both emotionally and financially down the road. The quality of our relationships is the best predictor of health and longevity; couples counseling is worth the investment.
Couples Therapy Can Help You Reconnect With Your Partner
Couples who choose therapy usually have better experiences than those who try to navigate their difficulties on their own. Find your way back to your partner and create lasting change together. Contact Gatewell Therapy Center to schedule your first appointment.
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*Note: Insurance will not reimburse for couples counseling unless at least one member of the couple carries a mental health diagnosis and the counseling is geared toward addressing this diagnosis.