What Is Couples Therapy? 

Updated on July 15, 2022

Fairytale movies, Rom-coms, and romance novels often create an illusion that relationships are positive, magical, and smooth-sailing. You meet the love of your life, fall head over heels, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. However, relationships don’t work that way in real life. It takes hard work, dedication, consistency, and sacrifice to cultivate and sustain a lasting relationship. 

While it’s possible to find your soulmate and live a fulfilling life, it won’t be easy. You’ll have to overcome many obstacles and continue to evolve as a team to accomplish your goals. Although there are several ways to work at maintaining a healthy relationship, couples therapy is an essential tool that can help you throughout your journey. 

What is Couples Therapy?

Couples therapy is a therapeutic process in which a licensed therapist helps couples to resolve issues or enhance their relationships. During couples counseling sessions, your therapist will use various techniques to help you identify problems, gain new perspectives, set goals, and develop healthy habits that benefit you and your partner. 

Benefits Of Couples Therapy

Whether your relationship is in good standing or you’re experiencing challenges, going to couples counseling has many benefits. 

  • Discover Relationship Dynamics – What are the dynamics of your relationship? In other words, how do you behave, relate, interact, and communicate with your partner? When you understand the dynamics of your relationship, you can overcome obstacles, resolve issues, accomplish goals, and navigate life more effectively. Therapy can help you discover relationship dynamics you weren’t aware existed. 
  • Unbiased Opinion – Sometimes, issues arise in a relationship because you cannot communicate or understand each other. Asking for advice from friends and family is common but may not always be practical or accurate because they’re biased to their relation to you and personal experiences. A therapist has no personal ties to you or your partner and can provide impartial and unbiased advice. 
  • Restore Trust – Restoring trust after being wronged by your partner is difficult. While you may want to forgive and move on, past experiences, emotional triggers, and unresolved issues can make things challenging. A therapist can help you learn to trust your significant other again. They will assist in identifying the underlying problem, forgiving, and retribution, if necessary. A therapist can also help you set new boundaries and develop healthy methods to heal as a couple. 
  • Build Intimacy – It’s not uncommon for couples in long-term relationships to lose intimacy. Hectic schedules, comfort, medical problems, age, and unresolved emotional issues can influence your ability to connect with your partner on an intimate level. Attending couples counseling can help you resolve problems, make healthy lifestyle changes, overcome fears, build confidence, and reconnect with your partner. 
  • Get Through Significant Transitions – Having children, making a career change, moving, unfavorable health diagnosis, financial struggles, and other occurrences throughout life can cause problems for couples. Counseling gives you the tools you need to get through the good and bad times. 

Finding A Couples Therapist

Does couples counseling sound like something that can help you and your partner? If so, you’ll need to find a therapist that best suits your needs. You want to work with a therapist with the appropriate education, certifications, training, and experience. You should also look for a therapist that uses therapeutic techniques that align with your goals, values, and beliefs. 

Ask your doctor, friends, or family for recommendations for couples therapists. Use the internet to research at least three to five different options. You should evaluate their credentials, read client reviews, and explore their website to find out what services they offer. Finally, schedule an initial meeting where you can learn more about your therapist. 

After completing these steps, you should be able to secure a couples counselor you both love. However, it could take several appointments before you know for sure. If it’s not working out, go back to the drawing board and keep looking until you’ve found someone that works. 

When you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you must commit to working on your relationship through the ups and downs. While it won’t be easy, attending couples therapy can help you overcome challenges and strengthen your relationship in ways you never thought possible. 

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.