Are you looking for a therapist because you’re in a relationship that feels dead or seems to provide only frustration and anger?

Few experiences are more painful than choosing to share your life with someone and later discovering that you’re unable to connect with them in a positive way.

When you feel like your partner isn’t the person you fell in love with; when you feel like the communication gap between you widens every day; when it feels like your relationship is beyond help after discovering an affair… you may begin to feel that it’s too late to do anything to salvage and save the love you once shared.

However, since you’re reading this article, it’s likely you still care enough about your partner and your relationship to want to help it in any way you can. If so, your relationship is definitely worth saving, and should be given a chance to succeed.

Couples counseling and therapy can help rebuild the trust and intimacy your relationship previously enjoyed. Couples therapy can furnish a secure and safe environment together with the skills and resources you’ll need to provide your marriage a chance of being successful. Couples therapy can help you and your partner:

Put an end to endless arguments

Resolve past hurts and painful memories

Overcome parenting differences

Improve your intimacy and sex life

Heal from an affair

Grow closer together

Take an active, involved and interested role in the life you’ve created together

When considering couples counseling and therapy, it’s not uncommon to ask yourself if visiting a couples therapist will really help.

With this in mind, in recent years research has been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of couples therapy.

In an article published by the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, clients of marriage and family therapists from 15 states reported their experiences with couples counseling. The findings indicate that marriage and family therapists can effectively treat a variety of couples issues in a relatively short period of time and that client results and satisfaction levels are quite high.

Most couples counselors would acknowledge that a couple’s desire to make their relationship succeed is the single most important determinant of successful couples therapy. Even the best couples counselor is unlikely to save a marriage in which one partner has already chosen to leave, and even a mediocre couples counselor is likely to benefit a couple who is utterly devoted to doing the work necessary to make their relationship succeed.

What type of couples make the most of couples counseling? Apart from those willing to do the work required, the answer is apparently comparatively young, non-sexist couples who continue to be in love and wish to be honest and genuine with one another.

Which couples receive the least benefit from couples counseling? Couples therapy seems to be less successful for couples who wait too long before seeking help, and where one partner is already set on leaving and is closed to any suggestions that may save the relationship.

Having said that, if you and your spouse are set on having the very best relationship possible, couples counseling and couples therapy can offer a secure space to examine your relationship, enable you to find and address any detrimental behaviors, and supply you communication skills and tools to revive trust, grow intimacy, and rediscover the joy, wonder, and closeness in your relationship.

Learn more about couples counseling by visiting Martin Baker’s website: http://www.martinbaker.org.

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