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MARRIAGE COUNSELING

OVERVIEW

We are excited to help people in their marriages at whatever stage you are at. Many married couples we meet with are in a highly negative time of their relationship while many other married couples are doing quite well. Wherever you find yourself, our goal is to help move your marriage to an even healthier, revitalized version of your relationship.

 

We offer both pre-marital counseling that utilizes the best assessment and exercises for couples who are going to get married (PREPARE-ENRICH, Gottman, etc.). We also offer regular ongoing marriage counseling for couples who are interested. Additionally, we provide one-time (or short-term) "check-ins" for married couples who want to take care of their relationship but are not looking for long-term psychotherapy.

COMMON MARRIAGE PROBLEMS

  • Poor Communication

  • Parenting Conflict

  • Lifestyle Changes

  • Infidelity (Physical or Emotional)

  • Disagreements over Finances

  • Work/Life Imbalance

  • Family of Origin Issues

  • Sex

  • Lack of Intimacy/Affection

  • Growing Apart

  • Co-parenting Issues

  • Avoidance of Problems

  • Forgiveness

WHAT TO EXPECT

Marriage counseling often looks different for each married couple. We personalize all marriage counseling to meet the needs of your specific relationship and your specific goals. That being said, there are a few elements we find are almost always helpful:

  1. Quality Assessment - It is often worthwhile to take time to understand exactly where your relationship is at. For some married couples, this involves taking some written assessments that help to pinpoint where problems are at in the relationship. For other marriages, it is most helpful to have an in-depth conversation about how they got to their problem. No matter what we do, it is our commitment to be sure that when you come to counseling, you know you are working on something that will make a difference in your relationship.

  2. Respect and Safety- In marriage counseling, we sometimes say that the "relationship is the client." In other words, the goal will be to take care of your relationship, and in order to do so, it is important that both people feel respected and that the counseling environment is safe for them to explore the thoughts and feelings they feel ready to explore.

  3. Helpful Practices - Like with anything, practice is important to improvement. In marriage counseling, we will practice healthy exercises both during counseling and outside of counseling.

 

Types of Marriage Counseling Include:

  • Pre-marital Counseling - this often entails 4-8 meetings that are done at some point in the year before someone gets married. We have both couples who are engaged and couples who are not really considering marriage yet.

  • Marriage Counseling - we offer traditional marriage counseling, where we meet on a regular basis to help strengthen and revitalize your relationship

  • Check-ins - many couples come to us on an irregular basis. Some couples come once a year for their annual "check-up," others come several times a year, and some married couples focus on coming during big transitions in their relationship (kids, work changes, moves, empty nest, etc.)

  • Consultations - we also offer one-time consultations for couples. These consultations can take the form that best meets your needs. Some couples come for a two-hour consultation and want to quickly assess where they're at and get some ideas for things they can work on to grow closer. Other counselors who are working with the couples kids or one of the adults often refer couples for one-time consultations, because they feel it is necessary to get an experts assessment on how to best address issues in the marriage. Consultations can also be used in other forms, we just want to ensure that their are options for any and every married couple.

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