Save the Marriage / Relationship its Worth the Effort

Your relationship is shaky, and you both know it. But you aren’t sure how to fix things — or even if you really want to. Maybe it’s time for relationship counselling.

So what is relationship/ marriage counselling?

Marriage counselling helps couples — married or not — to make improvements in their relationship. Counselling teaches couples how to understand each other and communicate better, problem-solve and negotiate differences, ultimately providing them with the tools to strengthen and rebuild their relationship.

This type of counselling is often short-term: you may only need a few sessions to help you weather a crisis, or you may need marriage counselling for several months, particularly if your relationship has greatly deteriorated.

Most relationships aren’t perfect; each person brings his or her own ideas, values, opinions and personal history into a relationship, and they don’t always match their partner’s. Those differences don’t necessarily mean your relationship is bound for strife; on the contrary, they can be complementary — you’ve probably heard the saying about how opposites attract. These differences can also help people understand, respect and accept opposing views and cultures.

But relationships can be stretched: differences or habits that you once found endearing may now get on your nerves. Sometimes, specific issues, such as an extramarital affair, will trigger conflict in a relationship: other times, there’s a gradual disintegration of communication and caring.

Whatever the cause, distress in a relationship can create undue stress, tension, sadness, worry, fear and other problems. You may hope your relationship troubles will just go away on their own, but if left to fester, a bad relationship may only worsen and eventually lead to physical or psychological problems, such as depression. Relationship problems can also have a negative effect on your work, other family members, particularly children, as well as friendships, as people you are close to feel compelled to take sides.

Millions of couples experience temporary problems in their relationships every year, fortunately these problems often repair themselves in just a short time. Occasionally though, professional help is required.

When couples decide to seek help with a problem it is potentially one of the most important decisions they will ever make. Therapy or counselling of this nature is often expected to be awkward and uncomfortable, but in reality this is seldom the case. Often couples at this time are feeling troubled and fragile, and need to be treated gently and compassionately, with the therapy being delivered at the speed and depth best suited to them. It is acknowledged that people are investing their time, energy and trust in both the counsellor and the process, and therefore have a right to expect the highest quality advice and guidance, ideally resulting in long-term, positive results.

Helping couples to achieve a positive outcome is ultimately very rewarding for both the clients and the therapist. Sadly however, research indicates that people often only seek assistance when the issues have become very complex and deep-rooted and therefore difficult to resolve.

As with any problem in life, the sooner you seek help, the easier it is potentially to solve it, but fortunately it is rarely too late to at least try and save something so special.

The team at Elite in Fuengirola can help,  you can contact them on 951 311 591 or email us here.