What is Couple Therapy/Marital Counselling?
25 Nov 2020- Marriage counselling, also called couples therapy, is a type of psychotherapy.
- Marriage counselling helps couples of all types recognize and resolve conflicts and improve their relationships.
- Marriage counselling is often short term.
- Marriage counselling typically includes both partners, but sometimes one partner chooses to work with a therapist alone.
- The specific treatment plan depends on the situation.
- With the new strains and challenges that have emerged for the Indian family, the latter has been going through a new kind of transition. It has been wavering between traditional and Western models. The fast-changing social and family environment has thrown up new challenges, particularly to the young people, like growing instability, lack of communication, changing attitude towards sex, changing roles of husband and wife, and tensions of fast life. All these have resulted in the lack of harmony among married couples. The decline in harmony can be associated with values that emphasise individualistic, materialistic and self-oriented goals over family well-being.
- Divorce Rates has increased from 0.50 per 1,000 marriages in 1988 to 13 per 1,000 in 2019.
- Not only is the incidence of divorce in Indian society increasing but also the underlying causes of divorce have been assuming new dimensions.
- Marriage counselling typically brings couples or partners together for joint therapy sessions. Working with a therapist, you'll learn skills to solidify your relationship, such as:
- Open communication
- Problem-solving
- How to discuss differences rationally
- If you have a troubled relationship, however, seeking help is more effective than ignoring your problems or hoping they get better on their own. Sometimes taking the first step by admitting the relationship needs help is the hardest part. Most individuals find the experience to be insightful and empowering.
- The couple therapist will then assist the couple in identifying the issue that will be the focus of treatment, establishing treatment goals and planning a structure for treatment.
- During the treatment phase, the therapist will help the couple gain insight into the relational dynamics maintaining the problem, while helping both partners understand each of their roles in the dysfunctional interactions. This will help them change the way they perceive the relationship and each other.
- Although gaining insight is important, another crucial aspect of couples therapy involves actually changing behaviours and ways of interacting with each other. Couples therapists will often assign partners homework to apply the skills they have learned in therapy to their day-to-day interactions.
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