Does going to therapy or couples counseling really help solve all the issues that are tearing apart a relationship? This is the question most people are pondering as they grow desperate to save a marriage they really are not ready to let go of. The big question is whether talk sessions with someone else can really work for two people in crisis.
If you fall into this category seeking help with marital issues, it all hinges on how you go into your therapy sessions. You have to realize right from the start that there is no guarantee that someone else can fix your marriage. Ultimately, the real work has to be done by you and your spouse.
Before even walking in the door to your first session, have a clear understanding that the therapist is going to give an objective point of view, not validation to your own thoughts and feelings. If you go in there expecting this person to see that you are right and "fix" your spouse, then you will get nothing out of it but frustration and disappointment.
You both have things that you do completely right and other things that you are screwing up. The job of a couples therapist is to help you sort out the real issues from the futile so that you can fix this mess you mutually created.
The issues that must eventually be brought to light during therapy are the ones that lie beneath all the petty squabbling. A husband may argue to death that his wife never cleans the house but the real issue is likely that he feels she does not love and value him enough to keep the house clean for when he comes home from work. That is the issue the therapist cares about.
Under every petty argument is a deeper issue.
Couples who go into therapy knowing that finger pointing is useless and they both have their own flaws have a higher chance of success. Both people have to be willing to put their own defensiveness aside and just listen to one another.
Let's consider an example. A man goes into a session and hears his wife saying how lonely she is. He feels this is an attack on him for not being home and he starts saying how he is the one always working and she just sits at home. She is now defensive as well. Yet, what would have happened if he just heard that she was lonely and did not make it about his work pattern? What if he just simply listened?
If you want to save a marriage through therapy sessions then you can't automatically feel blamed by your spouse's problems. It's extremely difficult to hear that the other is lonely without blaming yourself, but that is what must be done to make this approach work.
If you fall into this category seeking help with marital issues, it all hinges on how you go into your therapy sessions. You have to realize right from the start that there is no guarantee that someone else can fix your marriage. Ultimately, the real work has to be done by you and your spouse.
Before even walking in the door to your first session, have a clear understanding that the therapist is going to give an objective point of view, not validation to your own thoughts and feelings. If you go in there expecting this person to see that you are right and "fix" your spouse, then you will get nothing out of it but frustration and disappointment.
You both have things that you do completely right and other things that you are screwing up. The job of a couples therapist is to help you sort out the real issues from the futile so that you can fix this mess you mutually created.
The issues that must eventually be brought to light during therapy are the ones that lie beneath all the petty squabbling. A husband may argue to death that his wife never cleans the house but the real issue is likely that he feels she does not love and value him enough to keep the house clean for when he comes home from work. That is the issue the therapist cares about.
Under every petty argument is a deeper issue.
Couples who go into therapy knowing that finger pointing is useless and they both have their own flaws have a higher chance of success. Both people have to be willing to put their own defensiveness aside and just listen to one another.
Let's consider an example. A man goes into a session and hears his wife saying how lonely she is. He feels this is an attack on him for not being home and he starts saying how he is the one always working and she just sits at home. She is now defensive as well. Yet, what would have happened if he just heard that she was lonely and did not make it about his work pattern? What if he just simply listened?
If you want to save a marriage through therapy sessions then you can't automatically feel blamed by your spouse's problems. It's extremely difficult to hear that the other is lonely without blaming yourself, but that is what must be done to make this approach work.
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