Couples Therapy And Marriage Counseling In Cedar Rapids
When your relationship gets rough, one of the best things you can do is to invest in quality couples therapy and marriage counseling to learn how to manage stress better, communicate, problem-solve, and rekindle what made you fall in love in the first place. But, before getting too far, what exactly is marriage counseling, and what is couples therapy?
What Is Marriage Counseling?
Marriage counseling is a form of therapy that teaches married couples how to develop a healthier, more sustainable relationship with one another. The primary focus of marriage counseling is to help improve a marriage's overall well-being, strength, and satisfaction. Therapists will do this by allowing both spouses to communicate their side of the story while mediating the conversation. Now that you know what marriage counseling is, you might wonder how it can improve your relationship with your spouse.
How Can Marriage Counseling Improve Your Marriage?
Marriage counseling can improve your marriage by teaching you how to resolve conflicts more healthily, showing you how to communicate with more compassion, and giving you the tools required to become better problem solvers together. Utilizing these tools, processes, and systems routinely is a great way to strengthen your marriage and decrease the risk of divorce.
What is the success rate of Marriage Counseling?
The positive impact of marriage counseling is 70%, according to a study conducted by the Journal of Marital & Family Therapy titled Research On The Treatment Of Couple Distress. The thing to remember about marriage counseling is that the success rate in your marriage depends on both you and your partner. The most significant indicator of whether or not therapy will help a marriage is whether you apply what you learn. But how do you know counseling is right for your marriage?
What Is Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy - also known as relationship counseling - is a form of psychotherapy designed to help couples resolve conflicts to improve the quality of their relationship. It can be used by anyone in a relationship seeking to improve their intimacy, understanding, and empathy and especially by couples hoping to avoid separation. In these therapy sessions, the primary focus is on the relationship. However, each partner in the couple will have to focus on improving themselves and working on the friction they bring into the relationship.
How Can Couples Therapy Help Your Relationship?
Couples therapy can provide a variety of benefits to those that take the time to invest in these types of sessions. It is an excellent way to improve communication, resolve ongoing conflicts, strengthen their bond, understand one another's perspective, and many more benefits. By working with one of our therapists, couples can learn how to listen effectively, exercise disagreements healthily, and solve any future issues, complications, or problems that arise in the relationship constructively.
In a relationship troubled by a particular issue, therapy can help to arm both parties in the couple with the tools and understanding to deal with the issue in a way that builds the relationship up.
What Is The Difference Between Marriage Counseling And Couples Therapy?
While "couples therapy" and "marriage counseling" are used almost synonymously, there is a difference between the two types of therapy. Both involve working closely with a therapist to improve a relationship's quality, health, and strength.
However, marriage counseling mainly refers to therapy focused almost exclusively on married couples. This type of therapy deals with issues that complicate marriage, and the goal is to help the marriage heal and end up stronger as a result of the counseling. Usually, therapy involving married couples is more complicated, as there is a higher probability children, houses, and many more legal issues are involved than a typical couple.
Couples therapy, however, can be used with married and non-married couples. It addresses many of the same issues that marriage counseling focuses on, but most of the time this is in a slightly different context.
The direction the sessions take and the therapist's approach will often depend on the type of relationship (married or non-married) and on many other factors, such as the length of the relationship, whether or not children are involved, etc. The methods used will also depend greatly on the issues the couple is faced with, and the willingness of both parties to do what needs to be done to heal and mend the relationship.
How Do You Know It's Time For Counseling?
A dead giveaway that it may be time for counseling is if you and your partner aren't fighting anymore. If you're so tired of fighting that you've just given up, it's time to seek a therapist to get your relationship back on track. However, there are many signs that you should look out for that also point toward the fact that it's time to visit a therapist. If you are constantly fighting over every little thing or starting to resent or even hate one another, it's time for marriage or couples counseling. One important thing to remember however, is that there is nothing wrong with seeking out professional help. More people go through therapy than you'd expect.
Marriage Counseling And Couples Therapy Is Completely Normal
According to a study by the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, back in 1986, 21.9% of adults reported that they had gone through some sort of marital therapy in the past. While this study is quite old, this and other studies show that even today, around 20-30% of married couples seek marital therapy at some point in their marriage, and 36% of couples have admited to going to therapy at some point in time before marriage. Not everyone has access to relationships, role models, and healthy examples of how to interact with their significant others in a sustainable way, and this is where therapy comes in. Guiding Light Christian Counseling Center offers a variety of therapy services, and in the next section we'll discuss who can benefit from our marriage therapy services.
Who Can Benefit From Our Cedar Rapids Marriage Counseling & Couples Therapy Services?
Anyone can benefit from the counseling services we offer here in Cedar Rapids. If your marriage or relationship has lost the warmth, love and joy it once had, we know that we can help you rekindle that passion and joy you once experienced with one another. Our goals are to help you clear up any miscommunications, learn to forgive one another, move forward with compassion, and to give you both tools necessary for developing a solid and healthy relationship.
What Are The Benefits Of Marriage Counseling & Couples Therapy?
There are plenty of benefits associated with both marriage counseling and couples therapy, and while this list isn't comprehensive, it will give you an idea of how counseling can improve relationships.
Improve Your Communication
Counseling can drastically improve communication among partners by teaching them valuable conflict resolution skills so that arguments are constructive instead of destructive. It teaches both parties how to be more empathetic to one another and promotes an open safe area for dialogue between both individuals with a non-biased mediator focused on what is best for the relationship as a whole, as opposed to a particular partner
Strengthen Your Bond
Therapy can improve intimacy by helping partners reconnect on an emotional level. The issues of physical intimacy can also be addressed and improved, both physical and emotional intimacy being addressed and improved will lead to an improved bond and a more satisfying relationship.
Restore Trust
One significant benefit of couples therapy and marriage counseling comes in the form of addressing past behaviors. The resolution of past issues can sometimes be the most painful of issues to address and tackle, but if done under the guidance of a qualified and licensed therapist, it is one of the fastest ways to rebuild the trust in a relationship.
Overcome Resentment
Counseling provides a structured and supportive environment where couples can address and work through resentment. Through communication, identifying underlying issues, and developing strategies that lead to resolution, couples can tackle and overcome resentment. In turn, this will lead to a healthier, more sustainable relationship.
Enhance Family Life
Counseling is almost never just about the relationship. One of the most important parts of this form of therapy is the focus it has on how the relationship, and especially the marriage impacts the family as a whole. By addressing and resolving conflicts, improving communication, and fostering a stronger bond, counseling can have a huge positive impact on the entire family. Not only can it help both partners lead their family more harmoniously, but it can also lead to a more nurturing and positive example of what your children should expect for their own homes in the future.
How Does Counseling Facilitate These Benefits?
With the help and guidance of a licensed therapist carefully adhering to proven therapeutic approaches, marriage counseling and couples therapy helps couples to develop healthier communication patterns, address and resolve underlying issues and reocurring conflicts. It also helps both partners be more empathetic and supportive of one another. All of these factors collectively help in creating, and sustaining a healthy relationship for both partners and their families.
What Do You Need To Prepare For Marriage Counseling Or Couples Therapy?
To prepare for counseling with your significant other, it is a great idea to communicate with one another regarding what your goals are with therapy. What are you hoping to get out of the process? You both have to be willing to be open with your counselor regarding underlying issues, expectations, key issues, etc. Once both of you agree with one another that you are willing to cooperate, you are willing to attend, and you are willing to be open and work towards bettering your relationship, you're halfway there. The next step is just getting in contact with a licensed therapist to guide you both through the process.