What if you could go back to loving your spouse like you did when you first met? What if you could understand your partner’s emotions, avoid arguments and have fun as a couple?
You can, and it’s easier than you may think, with marriage counseling therapy.
With a success rate of 70 percent, getting couples counseling is worth a try.
What is Marriage Therapy?
Marriage therapy is a form of counseling where you and your spouse meet with a licensed, certified marriage and family therapist. Mental health professionals are trained in healing relationships.
Marriage therapy typically lasts around three months but can vary depending on the issues to be addressed. Meetings include different types of treatments and education to improve your relationship skills.
The stigma surrounding marriage therapy is fading, and more couples are benefiting. It is no longer seen as something you do only when your marriage is in trouble. Instead, people recognize the need for it not only after marriage but pre-marital too.
Research shows that 44% of couples today participate in marriage counseling therapy before marrying, giving them a 30% higher success rate than those who do not.
These couples understand the reasons to get marriage counseling are plentiful.
Reasons to Try Marriage Therapy
You do not need a reason to seek marriage therapy, but most couples have at least one. What may be your reason may not be the same for other couples.
Some couples seek help to improve communication skills because someone has cheated or lied, financial troubles, or because some feel as if they are growing apart. Other reasons include an imbalance of responsibilities, role issues, lack of intimacy, or addiction.
Most couples seek treatment for multiple issues, all valid and equally important. No matter your reason, significant benefits are achieved, even if they aren’t your expected outcomes.
Below are just some of the most common benefits for couples.
Get to Know Your Partner and Yourself
If you are asked, you can probably answer a lot of questions about your spouse. You know their favorite food, movie, drink, and vacation. You know the basic information about their past and how they were raised. You even know some of their unsavory traits.
But do you know the answers to the deep questions?
With marriage therapy, you can get closer. You can find out their spiritual focus, ideas on parenting, expectations regarding finances and where they want to go with their career. You get to understand their dreams and goals. You get help evaluating if they match your dreams and goals.
Not only do you get to learn more about your spouse, but you can also answer the same questions about yourself.
Marriage and family therapists act as facilitators in challenging conversations while also teaching you how to communicate better with each other.
Improved Communication
Too often, couples talk to one another but don’t hear what is being said. Life is busy, and daily responsibilities can become overwhelming. One of the first things to suffer because of this is your relationship.
It doesn’t have to, though. A marriage and family counselor is like an educator who can teach you tools to implement at home to improve how you talk, listen, and reflect. Communication skills involve much more than having verbal conversations.
The way you text, email, and call is also meaningful. The way you do not do these things should also be addressed. Lack of communication can feel neglectful, which is a form of abuse, even if you do not intend it.
Some couples find themselves communicating only during an argument. This, too, can be worked through with marriage counseling therapy.
Learn How to Fight The Right Way
Yes, there is a right way to argue and yes, most couples argue. It is not just you and your spouse. Once you learn proper communication skills, you will find arguing will decrease. That’s because many fights happen due to lack of communication or miscommunication.
Arguments are connected to emotions. Understanding your feelings and those of your spouse can reduce time spent arguing and bring you closer together.
Your marriage counselor can teach both of you anger management skills, how to focus on your feelings rather than focusing on what your spouse is doing wrong, and how to resolve conflicts.
If you are like thousands of other couples, you may find yourself fighting the same old fight repeatedly. Or an argument starts out about one thing but turns into a review of all the bad things they have done since you met.
With counseling, you can quickly learn how to heal old wounds and move forward. You will learn how to change negative thinking to positive so that your feelings and actions will be more positive.
Change Together
It is impossible to move through life without changing. Life happens, and many times, things are out of your control. You must adapt to change or get stuck in the same rut.
The same is true for your relationship. It is going to change over time. Learning how to adapt to the changes together can be the difference between staying together or separating.
Change is not all bad, especially when it represents growth. As a couple, your marriage therapist can teach you how to embrace changes to support your spouse rather than fearful they may outgrow you.
A Few More Benefits
In conclusion, there are many other benefits to marriage therapy, including developing positive parenting strategies, learning how to deal with the in-laws, and forming healthy lifestyle habits. You can obtain individual and family therapy as needed. If you have a specific problem, like addiction, you can work one-on-one with your therapist to learn more about it and discuss possibilities of how to address it.
Your relationship deserves every opportunity to make it the best it can be. It is never too early or too late to seek help for improvements within your marriage. Whether you are about to get married or have been married for decades, you can benefit from working with a marriage counselor. You can even start today.