Marriage Counseling

Marriage Counseling is a type of counseling provided by counselors to couples to help improve their marital relationships. It helps couples solve problems and resolve conflicts while aiding the partners in strengthening their marriage.

A marriage counselor is usually a learned and experienced professional who is an excellent listener and has the skills needed to guide the couple suitably with the issues they have come for counseling with.

There are various reasons that a couple or spouse goes in for marriage counseling, while infidelity, emotional outbursts and arguments with each other are the most common reasons, there could be hundreds of other reasons why a couple or spouse seeks marriage counseling.

In countries such as India, a marriage is not just a marital relationship between two people but often extends to both the families and cultures too. Achieving a suitable balance between two different families is sometimes quite challenging.

During the process of marriage counseling, ideally, the marriage counselor will help the couple reflect on the state of their relationship, understand the basic reasons why disagreements and conflicts happen between them, and will lend a ear to allow free-flowing communication during the counseling session and beyond.

In a marriage, external factors such as other family members, friends of the couple, the neighbors, work commitments, etc tend to play a key role in the couple's daily lives.

Personal responsibilities in the marriage play a crucial role as well. If one of the partners is unable to fulfill his or her role in the marriage then there is bound to be misunderstandings or mishaps in the future. Misunderstandings can blow minor problems out of proportion.

It is the marriage counselor's primary role to help the couple come to amicable solutions for their problems. It is also important to help the couple find ways to repair and grow in their relationship.

If time permits, then during the counseling tenure, the counselor will aspire to find out the history of both the partners. The reasons for them coming together in holy matrimony will also be ascertained.

A basic understanding of each partner's personality helps in identifying key character traits that can help the couple resolve conflicts in the future and come closer as partners.

The communication styles and patterns between the couple are focused upon the most. As it if often the root cause of all conflict and disagreement.

An open sharing of thoughts and feelings is of great importance during the counseling session. It will be difficult to resolve conflicts and sort out problems if both the partners are not given ample opportunity to express themselves freely with the counselor and each other.

Inherent qualities while speaking and listening to each other that may cause hindrances towards effective resolution of marital problems will be addressed and hopefully resolved to aid in proper communication between the partners.

Disturbing or destructive behavior patterns that can cause problems in the marriage are made note of. Apart from communication, these behavior patterns may hold the key to the successful resolution of marital problems.

While marriage counseling aims at resolving marital conflicts amicably and peacefully, it is also important for the counselor to focus on offering meaningful ways for the couple to communicate more with each other, interact more too. This will help them come closer together as a couple and avoid future conflicts.

In our experience as marriage counselors, it is most fruitful to have both partners present for all counseling sessions together. However, if this is not possible then providing counseling to each or a single partner is alright too.

The length of therapy purely depends on the couple, how effectively they cope with counseling, how much time it takes them to resolve their conflicts, and how committed they both are to staying in the marriage for a long time.

The comfort of the couple during counseling sessions is most important. The counseling room must be comfortable and should have sufficient space for both partners to sit down comfortably with enough distance between each other so as not to enter each one's personal space.

In today's world, with the hustle and bustle of modern life, and smartphone communication making up such a vital part of overall communication between couples, the possibilities of misunderstandings is high.

The demands of modern life does keep one or both partners away from each other and the home for many hours each day, leaving little or no time for each other, reducing quality time that they spend with each other.

With advancements in technology, these days it is easy to book marriage counseling sessions online itself, and marriage counselors usually offer counseling sessions over the webcam or email or the phone.

The competition between counselors is high, marketing and sales skills are now considered important skills for a marriage counselor to have, especially in big cities with millions of couples potentially facing marital conflicts.

Marriage Counseling remains one of the most popular forms of counseling in the world today. With more and more people getting married everyday, and the pressures of modern life, there is bound to be conflicts, disagreements, misunderstandings, misgivings and problems in a marriage.

The marriage counselor's main job is to help a couple solve these problems that creep up along the way. It is also a marriage counselor's key responsibility to help married couples come closer to each other, grow stronger as a couple, and love each other more than they ever did before.