Modern life’s hustle of busy careers creates a ton of stress on relationships, sometimes resulting in feelings of disconnection or being misunderstood with your significant other. Couples therapy aims to bridge the gap of that disconnect. It isn’t waving a white flag accepting defeat, it is about choosing a path that will strengthen and help you learn how to invest into life with your partner.

Here are three ways counseling can help a couple lay the groundwork for a solid friendship, boosting the relationship as a whole.

1. Learning Healthy Communication and Conflict Resolution

People often think if a couple goes to therapy, it is because they have stopped loving each other. But, couples may have a hard time showing love in a way the other person understands. When it comes to communication, one person may clam up during fights, while the other person wants to discuss it immediately. This doesn’t mean that there is no love, it simply means that there are different ways of communicating your needs.

Couples therapy offers a chance to discover how to share your emotions, ideas, and feelings in an effective way your partner understands. The therapist’s job is to spot patterns causing mix-ups, and give tools on how to handle difficult conversations. Developing empathy and patience for your partner is important. Therapy helps train you in the art of making your needs clear while also tuning into the needs of your partner. As you develop these techniques, you can see trust deepen with your partner. This makes working through challenges with your partner far smoother than the feeling that you are on an opposite side than your partner.

2. Promoting Emotional and Spiritual Wellbeing

Toward the beginning of a relationship, it may seem that connecting to your partner feels effortless. As the days go on, life’s tasks and troubles might make you slip into patterns where you don’t put time with your partner first.

Counseling lets you and your partner connect on a deeper level. It is about setting aside time to look at your relationship, and to discover things about one another. The counselor’s job is to guide you in finding where you and your partner currently are, and to see how each partner desires to have love expressed to them. Finding these common values, how they desire to feel supported, and having ample opportunity to spiritually grow together, the relationship can be strengthened.

3. Creating Long-Lasting Friendship

Love is an important aspect to a relationship, but the strength of a relationship is rooted in growing through life’s challenges together. Whether you have been dating and are considering marriage, or you have years of marriage under your belt, counseling is a great option to ensure your relationship is built on strong principles.

For the dating couple, counseling is a great time to discuss topics such as expectations for when you are married, handling money, the family life you want, and your hopes down the road. It is a perfect opportunity to learn about conflict management. If you are already married, counseling gives you a chance to tackle the rough patches, and sort through life’s transitions while developing tools to keep your bond consistently growing.

Whether you are seeking support before troubles feel too overwhelming, or you feel hopeless, there is beauty in taking the steps to learn, adapt, and choose one another every day. A unique goal of counseling is to help both partners feel safe, secure, valued, and in sync with what the other person needs and their goals.

Final Thoughts

Couples willing to tackle life’s hurdles often find success when they commit to a counseling process. Counseling is not just for couples in crisis, but for anyone willing to put time into learning how to communicate more effectively, connect deeper to their partner, and see growth in all aspects of their relationship. The tools that counseling provides gives opportunity for you to grow alongside your partner, strengthen your relationship, all in an environment that makes you feel safe and heard. If you would like support for your relationship, we would love to partner with you as you create and add to important tools to help your relationship flourish and grow!