Relationship Counseling & Therapy
Creating Healthier Relationships Starts by Healing Your Relationship with Yourself
Just as easily as our relationships can be the source of our greatest joys, they can also lead to incredible heartache and pain.
So, if it feels like the passion is slipping away from your marriage, or you seem to have the same arguments over and over again with your spouse, children, colleagues, friends, or other family members, or you have difficulty even getting into relationships, know you’re FAR from alone.
In fact, the vast majority of my clients come to me for help with either anxiety or relationship issues. And the two often go hand in hand …
If your partner and you constantly argue, that anxiety and stress show up in other areas of your life. And that anxiety and stress only serve to fuel further arguments and relationship issues, and so on.
Similarly, if you have anxiety and stress around finding the right partner or getting into relationships, that anxiety and stress will only make it harder to do so.
Fortunately, you don’t have to just stand by and watch your relationships spiral out of control or just slip away. Help is available, and it starts with getting some sort of relationship counseling or therapy.
Relationship Counseling for Individual Adults
To be perfectly clear, while a lot of people use terms like marriage counseling, couples therapy, and relationship counseling interchangeably, I draw a distinction between the former and the latter.
While I don’t provide couples and marriage counseling, I’ve been providing relationship counseling to individual men and women for the better part of the past 30 years.
Of course, this begs the question:
“Can relationship counseling really be effective if only one person attends?”
After all, if your partner and you are at odds with one another, if you’re having communication problems, constantly arguing, or experiencing a lack of trust and intimacy in your relationship, wouldn’t it be best if both of you attended therapy together to work through the difficulties you’re facing?
The short answer, of course, is “yes.”
Only by attending marriage counseling or couples therapy together will both your partner and you learn to share your frustrations and feelings openly with one another, better understand each other’s desires and needs, and work together to build the relationship you both desire.
That being said, it’s not uncommon for one partner to be ready for counseling and therapy before the other.
And what if your relationship difficulties aren’t just with your spouse?
Yes, there’s always family therapy. But it can be even more difficult to get all of the members of a family to buy into the idea of getting professional help.
And then there are the times we have relationship issues with in-laws and other extended family members, or colleagues, or friends.
Or we have problems even getting into relationships …
Obviously, there are times when it simply makes more sense to seek relationship counseling on your own.
Perhaps even more importantly, couples often enter counseling with the hope of changing each other as opposed to changing themselves. But the truth is that the only person we can ever hope to change is ourselves.
Thankfully, relationship counseling can be just as effective for individual adults as it is when couples and families attend together.
How Can Individual Relationship Therapy Help?
While most people think of relationships as being between two or more individuals, the most important relationship in your life is actually your relationship with yourself.
Whatever communication skills, emotional triggers, beliefs, perceptions, and subconscious needs and desires you may have, you bring those with you into all of your relationships.
This is why so many people end up falling for the same types of people over and over again, or ending up having the same problems with colleagues or employers, etc.
At the end of the day, no matter whom you’re with, your relationships aren’t going to change unless and until you do.
The good news is the conflict, the difficulty, the pain that have brought you here are an opportunity to heal and grow, and that’s precisely what the relationship counseling services I provide can help you do.
As a board certified psychiatrist and relationship therapist, we’ll work together to make sure you’re clear about your own needs and desires, as well as about how certain situations make you feel. After all, if you’re not clear with yourself, then you can’t possibly communicate clearly with those around you.
And we’ll make sure your wants and needs are congruent with your thoughts and actions. In other words, we’ll ensure that what you say and do actually helps you achieve your relationship goals.
I can also help you:
- Clarify your relationship goals;
- Understand the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that may be causing conflict in your present relationships;
- Recognize, work through, and heal ADHD, depression, trauma, or unresolved relationship issues from your past;
- Figure out what keeps drawing you to certain types of people;
- Better understand and express your emotions and improve your parenting and communication skills;
- Learn to balance your professional, personal, social, and family lives;
- Accept responsibility for the things you can change, and learn to let go of those you can’t; and
- Connect more deeply and authentically with others as you come to better understand yourself!
If this sounds like a lot, don’t worry. You don’t have to do all of this, or even a lot of it. The work we do together is determined solely by you and the goals you’d like to achieve.
Of course, if you’re like a lot of my clients and are truly curious about who you are and why you feel the way you do, you may well decide to continue exploring your relationships and your life.
Should You Seek the Help of a Relationship Therapist?
While relationship counseling doesn’t necessarily take a long time, it does require your commitment and effort.
It also takes curiosity and courage to see the tendencies in ourselves that need changing, take responsibility for them, and work on overcoming them, and I support and encourage my clients as they learn the skills necessary to do so.
When all is said and done, only you can decide whether or not you’re ready for some relationship counseling.
Just remember, whatever triggers or emotional buttons you have are yours. No matter whom you’re with, at some point or other those same buttons are going to be pushed again until you work through them.
And since our relationships (both with others and with ourselves), in a very real sense, define who we are and the lives we live, shouldn’t you try to make yours the best they can be?
I encourage you to contact me, today, schedule an appointment, ask any questions you have, and find out more about how the relationship counseling services I offer can help you gain the knowledge and skills you need to better understand yourself and others and create the relationships and life you truly love.