Couples Counselling

All close relationships experience both highs and lows. Various pressures, including family, finances, children, and work, can cause couples to struggle and face challenging times.

What is couples counselling?

Couples counselling focuses on developing new ways to communicate and reconnect, aiming to create a happier and healthier relationship. It provides a safe, non-judgmental space to address difficulties and reflect on relationship patterns.

Who is couples counselling for?

Couples counselling is for those looking to make a difference in their relationship. It is for all ages and stages of a relationship. Counselling does not have to solely be for those in crisis but can be seen as a way to check-in before problems develop or increase.

What problems can couples counselling help with?

Couples bring a wide range of difficulties to counselling, from difficulties with communication, breakdown in trust or adjusting to life changes, such as becoming parents. The impact on the relationship of external factors, such as financial pressures or grief, can also be explored in couples counselling.

How does couples counselling work?

Counselling can provide a safe and supportive space to explore your difficulties and help you find a way through. The way we behave in adult relationships can have roots in our own histories. An important aspect of couples therapy is highlighting the impact of the past on both individuals and working to disentangle it from the present. At the same time couples counselling is about looking at the present and finding solutions for what is not working. The sessions can look at what both parties need from the relationship and how that can be achieved for both parties. It is also an opportunity to focus on how you interact with each other and what that represents. It is often about the arguments you don’t have rather than the arguments you do.

What couples counselling can't do

But counselling isn’t a magic bullet that will solve a couple’s relationship problems. Couples counselling can be challenging and hard work. It is not about making your partner change. It requires both parties to put in the effort and being ready to make changes. For some couples, the safest and healthiest option may be for them to separate and couples counselling can be an important part of the process. It might be that the counselling works with the grief of the relationship ending and how to move forward, this is especially important if children are involved.