The author Maya Angelou once wrote, “Love recognises no barriers, it jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope.” Love definitely encounters major hurdles in its lifetime, not least of all is the fact that people who love each other have unique psychological profiles–and unique baggage. People in intimate partnerships were raised in different households, had different formative experiences, have different mental models for what relationships should look like, etc. It’s a wonder that anyone can get together and stay together! But they do! And the large number of relationships that weather storms may be due to the support of professional relationship counselors.
The licensed couples therapists and marriage counselors at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA know how to identify a couple’s strengths and weaknesses–and help them find a balance between constructive conflict and harmony. In just a few sessions, Thriveworks therapists can give couples the strategies they need to solve practical problems and enhance their bonds of intimacy.
How Can Couples Counseling Help Us?
Couples counseling can help intimate partners in numerous ways, but often a couples therapist or marriage counselor at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA will want to find out in your first session what you’d like to accomplish in therapy. Couples arrive with all kinds of motivations, including:
- I want to feel loved.
- I want to feel appreciated.
- I want my kids to have a healthy model for a relationship.
- I want to get our spark back.
- I want to improve our communication.
- I want to stop having the same fight over and over again.
- I want to save our marriage.
- I want help recovering from my affair or my partner’s affair.
- I want a better sex life.
- I want to talk about my partner’s addiction to drugs, porn, or alcohol.
- I want to stop fighting about my in-laws.
- I want him/her to be more emotionally available.
- We need help healing after a death or trauma.
A couples therapist can also identify areas where one individual in the relationship could benefit from solo counseling.
How Do I Find a Couples Therapist or Marriage Counselor?
When you begin looking for a couples therapist or marriage counselor, you should first make sure that the person is licensed in your state. You can look for an LMFT (licensed marriage and family therapist) tag after their name, for example. Thriveworks in Riverside, CA makes this part of the search process easy, because all of our marriage therapists are fully licensed.
You and your partner should also ask yourselves what kind of experience or expertise you’re looking for in a therapist. For example, if you’re a lesbian couple, you may want to look for a Thriveworks therapist who specializes in LGBTQ couples.
You should also find out upfront if the marriage counselor is affordable. Is Thriveworks couples therapy affordable? For most people, the answer is yes. Thriveworks therapists accept most health insurance so couples get premium care with fewer out-of-pocket costs.
You can also consider the expense of not getting marriage therapy. Is someone hiding their spending from the other partner? Can you afford to separate and rent different apartments? Couples therapy can often help clean up financial issues and save people money in the long-term by improving well-being at home.
Finally, find out if your couples therapist or marriage counselor can meet you online and in-person. It’s often nice to have both options. The first is convenient, but the second can feel more intimate, depending on your mood. You can also try a hybrid model. The couples therapists and marriage counselors at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA can meet you in-person at the office, or virtually via our secure telehealth video conferencing software.
How Long Does Marriage Counseling Take?
Marriage counseling is highly effective and solution-focused, which means that most couples accomplish their goals in fewer than 12 sessions. But couples therapists at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA have found that some couples benefit from regular “maintenance” in their relationship, and those couples may continue to see their counselor for years. Numerous celebrity couples have opened up about their long-term marriage therapy, for instance:
- Barack and Michelle Obama
- Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
- Pink and Carey Hart
- Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade
Get Your Spark Back with Marriage Counseling at Thriveworks in Riverside, CA
Whether you want to reignite your spark or work through a short-term crisis, Thriveworks in Riverside, CA has a marriage counselor who can support you and your spouse in your love journey. When you call the Thriveworks office, our highly trained staff can match you to an exceptional counselor that you and your partner will both agree on. You may be able to meet with them for your initial therapy sessions within 24-48 hours.
Don’t hesitate to give your relationship the TLC it deserves with a Thriveworks marriage counselor.
