RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING

Communication & intimacy

Love means we can tolerate the other person's differences, respect their feelings, ideas and values.  Our partner cannot rescue us from all our difficulties.  We need to be responsible for our own happiness.    Our demanding lifestyle can take its toll on our relationships. To grow love in our relationship requires some action and hard work.  It means that we have to share our feelings and show our caring for the other person.

Types of issues:

●Adjusting to life stages (after the “honeymoon”, arrival of children, children leaving home)  ● Infertility ● Infidelity ●Conflict Management● Reconnecting ● Communication ● Intimacy ●Loss● Separation/Divorce

What is relationship counselling?

Relationship counselling is for people in a close relationship.  The counsellor takes a neutral stance of non-blaming or shaming.  It is about identifying stuck areas and strong areas, discovering how trust can be re-established, learning new ways of interacting and reconnecting. 

It may also be about supporting couples to separate in a constructive way when it has been decided the relationship is to be terminated.

Gaining insight into our own motivations, expectations and inner world and those of our partner, can help us to understand each other better.  When are you really listening to what your partner is saying and when are you simply listening to yourself react?  People need to be heard and acknowledged even if you do not agree with what they are saying.  Our beliefs, assumptions, personal experience and judgments can filter what we hear. Learning to focus on the words your partner is actually saying stands you more chance of getting the meaning behind his or her words. 

Harville Hendrix, the Imago Relationship therapist, states that good relationships depend on more than magic so we need to “create habits that capture the feelings you have for each other and make them durable”.