Relationship counseling strengthens bonds involved in interpersonal relationships. It is not necessary to have a troubled relationship to seek counseling. Relationship counseling can include couples or families to achieve more adequate, satisfying and productive romantic and family relationships and social adjustment. Relationship counseling or therapy also includes premarital counseling, divorce or separation counseling and other relationship counseling.
Family Counseling
Family counseling helps individuals understand each other and resolve conflicts more effectively. It also allows individuals to manage stress and improve their relationship. It provides individuals with proper tools to communicate better, negotiate differences, problem solve and argue in a healthier and more constructive manner. Relationship counseling is intended to promote growth and increase closeness and cohesion in a healing fashion.
Couples Counseling
Couples counseling can help couples in all types of intimate relationships — heterosexual or LGBTQQ and married or not. It is often short term. Some couples need only a few sessions to help weather a crisis. Couples whose relationship has greatly deteriorated may need counseling for several months.
Couples counseling helps couples of all types recognize and resolve conflicts and improve their relationships. Through couples counseling, individuals can make thoughtful decisions about rebuilding one’s relationship or working toward dissolution.
Couples counseling can be beneficial to address many specific issues, including:
- Communication problems
- Sexual difficulties
- Conflicts about child rearing or blended families
- Substance abuse
- Financial problems
- Anger
- Infidelity
- Divorce
Couple’s Therapy Intensive Workshops
The Association for Compassionate Transformation, Inc. Couple’s Intensive Workshops is designed for couples to engage in healthy conflict resolution, move toward healing past hurts and restore love. The couple’s intensive workshop provides couples with the necessary ‘jump-start’ to changing the negative patterns of relating and facilitate an emotionally connected marriage. The couple’s intensive workshop model is powerful because it allows couples to focus exclusively on their relationship for a longer duration which allows them to gain knowledge and understanding that often takes months of counseling.
Regardless of whether your marriage simply needs a tune-up or is barraged with wounds, hurts or betrayals, you can salvage your relationship, strengthen and restore the love.
Dr. Drecun practices from Gottman’s Couples Therapy model that is based in science. Gottman’s work has been empirically validated and is grounded in 40 years of research with more than 3000 couples. The science behind the Gottman’s Couples therapy model is that 86 percent of people who complete the couple’s workshops make significant progress. There is hope in spite of how distressed or disconnected you may be in your relationship. The couple’s intensive workshop can help in improving your relationship to be richer, deeper, and more intimate and rekindle the love that initially brought you together.
We offer two intensive experiences: 1 day or 2 days Couple Intensive Workshop. Please call us at 848-792-3541 to schedule your intensive workshop or email us at Dr.Drecun@a4ct.com.
Premarital Counseling
Couples counseling can also help couples who plan to get married. Premarital counseling assists individuals to achieve a deeper understanding of one another and sort through differences. It is a process that explores strength and growth areas for the premarital couple. Premarital counseling strengthens communication skills, identifies and manages major stressors and conflicts.
Discernment Counseling
In situations where individuals are considering separation or divorce and they are not completely certain which direction to pursue; they can utilize a helpful form of therapy called Discernment Counseling. Discernment counseling provides couples with one last opportunity to reconsider how to proceed with the relationship before making a permanent decision to stay together or separate; as each decision comes with long term consequences. It is a helpful approach for couples who want to give their relationship or marriage another chance even though their partner or spouse is moving towards dissolution or divorce.
Discernment counseling is short term, and the focus is not on solving relationship problems. Rather it is an avenue that explores whether the problems could potentially be resolved.
Unlike traditional marriage counseling that assumes that both partners are willing to work on the relationship, discernment counseling helps people decide whether to work on their relationship or keep moving towards dissolution or divorce.
The discernment counselor works to understand both partners, even if they perceive their situation very differently. Discernment counseling helps individuals and couples decide whether to try to restore their relationship to health, move towards dissolution or divorce, or take a time out and decide later.
“Hopeful Partner/Spouse” Counseling: Counseling for Individuals:
Hopeful Partner/Spouse Counseling is helpful for individuals who are committed to saving their relationship or marriage while simultaneously their partner or spouse wants it to end or divorce. This is a very common scenario many couples find themselves in. It can be beneficial to work constructively on your relationship or marriage even when you partner or spouse will not participate in Discernment Counseling with you at the present time.
The goal of Hopeful Partner/Spouse Counseling is to help you bring your greatest self to your relationship crisis with the hope and intention that there will be a favorable outcome, hopefully restoring the relationship or marriage but if not, a more cooperative dissolution or divorce. The Hopeful Partner/Spouse counselor will support your desire to save your relationship by helping you learn from this crisis about yourself and the relationship, and engage in healthy, productive ways to prevent a dissolution or divorce and heal and restore your relationship to health if that is possible.
Hopeful Partner/Spouse Counseling, which is usually between 1 and 5 sessions. It allows the hopeful partner/spouse to learn how to make positive changes that will be healthy for one and may contribute to saving one’s relationship. The process will also teach you to avoid common mistakes that make the situation worse during a relationship crisis. Lastly, the counseling will allow the hopeful partner/spouse to create a more collaborative relationship with your partner even if the relationship ends.