For clients facing relationship struggles who are seeking marriage or couples counselling with a psychologist, we have compiled the below information help you know what to expect from couples therapy at our Indore practice.

Our Couples’ therapists in Indore will seek to work with you as a couple and an individual to improve your relationship. Seeing someone for help shows dedication in itself and a happy resolution is the aim of a relationship counsellor. Indore couples get the opportunity to talk openly in a safe environment to resolve underlying issues. Sometimes this involves working out together what has gone wrong, checking that both parties are committed to the relationship, and then teaching skills and tools to improve your relationship. The main aim is to heal past hurts and focus on improving closeness, connection and intimacy.

Our psychologists specialize in couples therapy, relationship counseling and marriage counseling.

Regardless of the type of relationship, our job as relationship specialists is to be more than a mediator. It is to take you through a process. To make sure we’re heading in the right direction we track our progress as we go.

What you can expect in a Couples Therapy session?

We use a range of approaches to relationship therapy in Indore including the following:

  • Emotions Focussed Therapy (EFT): gets you to focus on the underlying core emotions, rather than the content of conflict. Helps for dealing with and healing past emotional hurts and resentments.
  • The Gottman Method is John Gottman’s evidenced-based principles for making happy relationships: gives you tools/skills for communication/conflict, improving intimacy and closeness.
  • Overcoming sexual issues: such as lack of intimacy/desire, sexual pressure, incompatibility issues, problems with communication, etc. Sometimes individual therapy is needed at the same time.
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: identifying mutual values to give common future goals, and ultimately direction in your relationship.
  • Schema Therapy: identifies each person’s unique life-traps (we all have them!), which usually stem from childhood, and helps the couple to understand why they act the way they do towards one another (e.g., pushing each other’s buttons!)

How can counselling improve the relationship between a couple?

Couples therapy has proven to be very successful at increasing communication within your relationship. Two-way, honest and respectful communication is the center of any healthy relationship and is the root cause of many issues between partners.

Our qualified psychologists can help you communicate more efficiently by giving you a set of skills, allowing you to explore more rewarding and satisfied interactions with your partner. These skills equip you to interact more openly and honestly with your partner, which will help aid feelings such as anger, frustration or resentment to diminish. As these feelings diminish it is not uncommon to find that look at your partner in a new way – one where appreciation, honesty, respect and admiration are now commonplace. These feelings are vital for any happy marriage or relationship, and there is no reason why they should not be present in your relationship once more.

The Next Step?

The important thing to remember is that, as the research shows, the kind of treatment used is not as important as the relationship between you, the couple and the couples’ counsellor in Indore. Considering marriage or relationship counselling is the first step towards a happier and healthier life. Please contact us for more information on sessions.

We counsel couples who are experiencing relationship difficulties and provide practical strategies to improve positive behaviors, effective communication and resolve conflict.

 

Want a long and happy relationship?

Research indicates that for many, marital satisfaction decreases within the first two to three years of marriage. There are many factors that can impact on marital satisfaction in these early stages including the birth of a child, changes in employment, sexual problems, financial pressures or other day-to-day hassles. Some couples find it difficult to resolve problems when they arise. Unresolved issues can lead to ongoing conflict in a relationship and a continuing decline in marital satisfaction.

It is a well-known fact that very low levels of marital satisfaction are linked with increased likelihood for divorce. In India , the rate of divorce is rising. The likelihood that any marriage will end in divorce is on the rise. But, the outlook is not all doom and gloom. Researchers have also investigated factors that will enhance marital satisfaction and stability. Couples that are satisfied in their relationship usually can:

  • Engage in positive exchanges with each other regularly;
  • Effectively communicate with each other;
  • Solve problems adequately;
  • Manage their own negative thoughts and emotions; and
  • Resolve conflict.

These factors have been found to enhance couple satisfaction and lead to a longer marriage.

Relationship Tips

Here are some tips to help you with these factors in your relationship.

Increase positive behaviours

  • Sit down and develop a list of positive behaviors that you would like to do for one another (e.g. sharing a cuddle or kiss, or asking about their day). Behaviours must be positive, specific, small and not a source of recent conflict.
  • Put the list up in a noticeable place like on the fridge or in the bedroom.
  • Choose a positive behaviour to do for your partner every day.
  • When receiving a positive behaviour, make sure to thank your partner in some way. This will increase the likelihood that your partner will engage in this behaviour again.

Effectively communicate


DO
  • Express your feelings with I statements (e.g. I feel upset when you don’t say hello when you come home from work ).
  • Show you are paying attention with your body language.
  • Use verbal encouragement (e.g. OK, Yes ).
  • Try to understand your partner’s feelings.
  • Summarise what your partner has said.
DON’T
  • Use insults.
  • Blame your partner for something.
  • Say you always, you never, you should.
  • Bring up the past.
  • Interrupt when your partner is talking.

Solve problems

  • Pick an appropriate time to discuss the problem (both parties should be relaxed and have time to talk).
  • Define the problem and brainstorm all the possible solutions.
  • List the positives and negatives for each solution and work together to find the best solution.
  • Implement the solution.
  • Set a time to review the outcome of the action taken. If the problem has been resolved, fantastic! If not, implement the next best solution.

Manage thoughts and emotions

  • Take some time out for yourself each week and do something that you find positive and fulfilling.
  • Use slow breathing or other relaxation strategies to calm yourself down in times of tension.
  • Identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns.
  • Seek professional support if you are experiencing significant emotional problems like depression, anxiety or substance abuse problems.

Resolve conflict

  • Identify high-risk times for conflict and high-risk argument topics.
  • Regularly engage in some relationship planning sessions where these topics are discussed before the problem arises.
  • If an argument does arise, take time to calm down. Then communicate effectively about the issue.
  • Sometimes communicating feelings is all that is needed to diffuse an argument. But, if a problem needs to be solved, then you may want to use your problem solving skills.

If the conflict continues despite these efforts, it may be necessary for both people to agree to cease the discussion. Make sure that a time is set in a day or two to resume the discussion.