Debra Canning
Counsellor & Crisis Worker
Debra Canning
Counsellor & Crisis Worker
Couples Therapy
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy is beneficial for any kind of relationship, whether partners are straight, gay, mixed-race, young, old, dating, engaged or married or even for relationship therapy with siblings or parent and child.
For example, a recently engaged couple might find premarital counselling an invaluable opportunity to address relationship expectations prior to getting married. Another couple, together 25 years, might discover couples therapy is an effective way for them to regain a sense of excitement and romance in their relationship.
Couples’ therapy will enable you and your partner to work with a therapist in order to facilitate change in your relationship. Sometimes, talking to someone (a therapist) with no connection to yourself or your partner is all it takes for you to gain perspective.
Couples’ therapy aims to help you:
Understand how outside factors such as family values, religion, lifestyle and culture affect your relationship
Reflect on the past and how it operates in the present.
Communicate in a more constructive way.
Learn why arguments escalate.
Negotiate and resolve conflicts where possible.
As therapy progresses, you and your partner may find ways of overcoming your problems, or you may ultimately decide to part ways. Either way, therapy will hopefully offer you the space to grow and decide what you would like the future to hold for both of you.
Couples therapy can resolve a current problem, prevent an exacerbation of problems or simply provide a “check-up” for a happy couple that is experiencing a period of transition or increased stress. Common areas of concern addressed in couples therapy include issues with money, parenting, sex, infidelity, in-laws, chronic health issues, infertility, gambling, substance use, emotional distance and frequent conflict.