The newspaper advice columnist Ann Landers once stated, “Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” Ann Landers was not a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), but she certainly heard her share of relationship troubles, so she had some valuable insights into interpersonal issues. But friendship can “catch fire” in a way that warms two people like a fireplace in winter, or it can catch fire with a passion that burns and causes pain. In those cases, couples can benefit from talking to a professional who knows how to help manage the flames.
The licensed couples therapists and marriage counselors at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX have many years of experience working with couples who are motivated to work through their issues and obstacles. They treat each couple with compassion, understanding, and expertise. These LMFTs are not there to judge significant others, but rather to meet them where they are and help them achieve their goals.
What Is a Marriage and Family Therapist?
A licensed marriage and family therapist is a social worker, therapist, or licensed professional counselor (LPC) who works with couples and/or family members to solve their problems and strengthen their relationships. They are facilitators and mediators. They are both accepting and challenging. They are arbiters and listeners. During insightful therapy sessions at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX, these abundantly-qualified counselors ask meaningful questions and use evidence-based practices to tease out and resolve underlying issues.
Does Couples Counseling Really Work?
Couples counseling at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX is highly successful at helping couples achieve their therapy objectives. These goals can be wide-ranging, depending on the partners seeking counseling, but some common goals include the following:
- To establish better boundaries
- To manage anger and other negative emotions
- To improve rapport and mutual understanding
- To improve intimacy
- To reduce conflict and tension
- To stop having the same argument
- To confront alcohol abuse or addiction
- To heal after infidelity
- To manage life transitions
- To cope with empty nest syndrome or midlife crises
- To talk through infertility or parenting issues
- To identify mental health concerns that affect the relationship
- To work through trauma
- To grieve and cope with loss together
What Type of Issues Can Relationship Counseling Help Solve?
Couples therapy and marriage counseling at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX is for recognizing and enhancing strengths that already exist in the relationship as well as solving a wide range of problems. LMFTs can accomplish this problem-solving enterprise by helping couples examine the following:
- How their individual values overlap or differ
- Underlying beliefs and expectations
- Financial goals
- Communication styles
- Coping strategies and skills
- Family backgrounds
- Sexual intimacy
- Household management
No conflict is too big or too small for a couple to explore in marriage counseling. After all, a perpetual argument over who does the dishes can signify a deeper divide in a marriage. Qualified couple therapists at Thriveworks can help identify both problems and solutions.
What Is the Best Marital Therapy?
Every marriage counselor and couples therapist at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX has a different approach, but they all might draw from the following effective modalities in treating clients:
- Emotionally focused therapy (EFT)
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Trauma focused CBT (TFCBT)
- Person-centered therapy
- Strength-based therapy
- Solution-focused therapy
- Motivational interviewing
- Gottman method (pioneered by John Gottman)
- Substance abuse or addiction counseling
- Family therapy
- Depression counseling
- Anxiety therapy
- Mindfulness approaches
- Narrative therapy
- Collaborative couples therapies
These therapeutic approaches might involve talking and an exchange of feelings and ideas, and they may involve games and exercises. They might even involve homework! When couples choose a marriage counselor, they can research the counselor’s style and general approach to make sure they’re a good match. For example, a Christian couple might choose a counselor who specializes in Christian marriage counseling, and an LGBTQ+ couple might choose a counselor who specializes in specific issues that might arise in marriages between people of the same sex.
Enhance Relationships with Marriage Counseling at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX
The mental health providers at Thriveworks in Georgetown, TX are all highly qualified, recruited from the top 4% of applicants in the area. They also accept most major insurance plans, helping to make their essential services affordable to all who need relationship support. They also offer competitive self-pay rates for those paying for therapy out-of-pocket.
Thriveworks marriage counselors can meet with couples in-person at the modern office in Georgetown, or remotely via online counseling. Thriveworks members have the added benefit of being able to reach out to their therapists by phone or email between sessions.
It’s okay to ask for help when you and your spouse are facing difficulties. Call Thriveworks today and schedule your first appointment. You could be seen as early as tomorrow!
