Like other forms of talk therapy, couples therapy aims to relieve people’s distress and improve their functioning in an important sphere of life.  Typically, couples seek therapy because they have conflicting points of view on the same experiences, and one or both partners is highly distressed.

​

Couples Counseling helps partners understand and resolve conflicts and to improve their relationship. The sessions give couples the tools to communicate better, negotiate differences, problem solving and resolve conflict in a constructive way.

​

Therapy usually aims at bringing partners closer together or ending a partnership intelligently. In the process of resolving dilemmas, partners learn to have compassion for their partner and themselves, learn ways of constructively managing their own negative feelings, and rekindle the feelings that originally attracted them to each other.

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

What to expect during sessions:

Most couples therapy is conducted conjointly—that is, with both partners present in sessions. Seeing or contacting one member of the couple separately is occasionally warranted but almost invariably done to gain information important to the relationship and with the permission of the other. 

The therapist is likely to ask many questions, including some about each partner’s family of origin and some that challenge an individual’s beliefs or perspective. Couples therapists do not take sides in disputes, but they may call out individual behaviors that contribute to joint problems. Relational science has firmly established that both partners play a role in most couple problems.

​

​

​