What to Expect in Couples Counseling

 


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Couples counseling is often a more directive process than individual therapy, meaning simply that the counselor has more direct input into how the session progresses. What I tell couples who first seek me out is that couples counseling in my practice is a structure-based, communications-focused method of reaching out to the most important person in your life. It’s a means to re-establish what has been lost or building what may never have been there from the beginning.

Couples counseling should be about forming deeper and more flexible connections that can grow and change as individuals grow and the relationship evolves. At the heart of this process is providing the couple with the tools they need to achieve those connections. The counselor’s role is to model the use of healthy communications skills and intuit where the couple is along the road to applying those tools. I often say to my clients, I want them to leave my office being able to do my job.

Helping couples manage expectations is another important component of counseling. How we view a situation, how we think about and frame our thoughts contributes greatly to how we feel about a topic. Changing our thinking or viewing a situation from a different point of view can often help couples lessen the emotional impact and eliminate the need to lash out.

All too often one or both individuals will come to the relationship with pre-conceived notions that go unspoken because those notions seem a part of the basic fabric of life. When those expectations go unexamined tensions can build that are capable of ending the relationship.

With the proper use of communication strategies, couples learn to talk with each other about the emotional impact of the other’s actions and less about the specifics of those actions. Mastering listening and empathy enables true understanding and stronger bounds to take hold. To bridge the difficult times – be it raising children, living through the stress from or loss of a job, or the deep wounds of infidelity – couples who learn to put their relationship first through proper communications can withstand most any crisis.

Robert (Bob) Ryan is an Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Psychotherapist and Registered Art Therapist in St Petersburg FL. He serves individuals and couples in the entire state of Florida with caring personal respect regardless of race, creed or gender identification. His insurance-friendly practice can be reached at rbrt.j.ryan@outlook.com.

 

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