What is marriage counseling?
Marriage counseling, also known as couples therapy and relationship counseling, helps couples work through their specific relationship issues. Thriveworks marriage counseling in Westminster, CO is led by licensed professionals — often licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFTs) — who are experts in their field and best-equipped to help couples. Some examples of common focuses within Marriage counseling include:
- Jealousy
- Trust issues
- Infidelity
- Opposing values
- Different visions for the future
- Disagreements in parenting
- Lack of trust
- Financial distress
- Sex issues
How does marriage counseling work?
Marriage counseling works by helping couples identify and better navigate their unique challenges. Following an initial assessment of the couple in terms of strengths and needs, the therapist would then discuss their therapeutic goals and any possible approaches or ways of working together as therapist and couple.
Couples attend sessions together, whether they meet in person or by video. In addition to regular marriage counseling sessions, each partner may also be asked to attend a few individual sessions to supplement their progress. This will allow their counselor to get to know each individual better, assess each of their personal needs, and develop the very best treatment plan moving forward.
Is marriage counseling conducted in person or online?
Marriage counseling at Thriveworks is conducted both in person and online by video. We encourage you to choose the option that works best for you and your partner.
How long does marriage counseling last?
On average, couples attend marriage counseling for 12 weeks. However, marriage counseling may last longer or shorter, dependent on the couples’ needs, the challenges they’d like to work through, and the pace of their progress. Marriage counselors and therapists at Thriveworks in Westminster, CO work with their clients to create goals, decide on ideal timelines, and establish treatment plans.
Need more help deciding?
Marriage and Couples Counseling in Westminster, CO
More and more, spouses are going to marriage counseling to help them carve out a path forward in their relationship. Sometimes, the way forward is to divorce. Sometimes, the way forward is to work through the challenges. Only those within the marriage can decide the next steps, but they can lean upon a marriage therapist for guidance. There is no universal “right decision,” but there are marriage counselors who are often able to help establish a better relationship—whatever form that relationship may take.
There are no guarantees in any relationship, and there are no quick fixes for any marriage. The marriage therapists at Thriveworks in Westminster, CO have worked with many spouses and helped them build a better marriage or walk through an amicable divorce.
How Might Marriage Therapy Help?
While marriage therapy is not a quick fix, there are tangible ways that it may help. Marriage therapists are often able to provide…
- A safe space for arguments. Disagreements, arguments, and even fighting are not inherently bad for a marriage. In fact, they can be signs of a healthy relationship where each partner feels free to express their own feelings and thoughts. What makes an argument harmful or helpful is how it is conducted. All too often, disagreements escalate. What may have started as a discussion about what to eat for dinner can turn into a personal attack on how lazy your spouse is. Can you relate? If you can, a marriage therapist may be able to teach you and your spouse conflict resolution skills that can keep arguments safe.
- A reasonable timeline for change. Growth is a process. It takes time. People need to see the behavior they need to change, understand what may be fueling that behavior, create a vision for the future, and practice the change. It can be a long, complicated process with two steps forward and one step backward. And yet, in the meantime, if there are safety concerns, changes can and should be made immediately. No spouse has to tolerate abuse of any kind. Therapists often help couples identify what changes need to be made and how to make them.
- Advocacy for each spouse. Within a marriage, each individual is important. Each spouse’s feelings, thoughts, needs, preferences, and desires should be honored because they make valuable contributions to the relationship. Often, marriages fall off track because one or both spouses’ individuality is not being respected. Marriage therapists often help spouses honor their own uniqueness within the relationship and honor their partner’s uniqueness as well.
- Increased awareness of unhealthy ways of relating. Often, each spouse is completely unaware of the things they are doing to undermine the relationship. Seeing patterns of relationships from within the relationship requires incredible amounts of self-awareness, and it is a difficult process. Many people need help seeing patterns and changing them. Marriage counselors often provide that help.
Scheduling Marriage Counseling at Thriveworks in Westminster, CO
If you are ready to start marriage therapy, the counselors at Thriveworks Westminster are ready to meet with you. There is no right or wrong time to start therapy. It is a personal decision, but here are a few challenges that have brought other spouses to marriage counseling at Thriveworks Westminster:
- There has been cheating. Affairs are a relational crisis. They decimate trust between spouses. If one or both spouses have cheated, it may be time to go to marriage counseling.
- You are arguing all the time. When tensions run high in a relationship, spouses may not have the relational skills to work through the conflict and move forward. Spouses often become stuck on solvable issues. If you and your spouse are arguing all the time, it may be time to go to marriage therapy.
- You and your spouse feel apathetic toward one another. The fire of arguments can cause harm, but ice can cause just as much harm when spouses ignore each other. When each spouse feels nothing—not even negative emotions about the other, it may be time to go to marriage counseling.
When you reach out to Thriveworks Westminster, you may be meeting with your therapist the same week–call or go online to get started.
