psychologist North Brisbane
Couples counselling Brisbane
Couples
What is it
Couples therapy helps couples who experience problems such as communication difficulties, lack of intimacy or sexual dissatisfaction. The goal of couples therapy is to improve functioning in couples who experience distress in the relationship, improve the quality of the relationship and increase the satisfaction of the couple. It provides a safe environment for partners to explore their feelings and emotions and confront their problems. Partner therapy provides clarity and identifies those areas where misunderstandings or lack of appreciation of the other couple's perspectives, desires or needs are causing distress or frustration. Partner therapy helps couples experiencing difficulties to communicate effectively, address their problems and move forward.
What includes
Partner therapy helps couples identify behavior patterns in their relationship, identify problems that contribute to misunderstanding or lack of communication, negotiate areas of difference or disagreement and improve communication at all levels. Other problems that could be addressed in couples therapy include parenting, sexual difficulties, financial matters, relationships with the extended family and the challenges that arise when creating and maintaining combined families.
Partner therapy can also help in the development of emotion regulation, which is important for resolving relationship conflicts. Emotion regulation is the ability to improve one's mood when feeling depressed or experiencing some other form of negative emotion such as frustration, anger or hostility. Research indicates that couples who are able to regulate their emotions work better than those who have less emotional control (Scott et al., 2014) and may feel better faster when they face disagreements or conflicts (Bloch et al., 2014). More generally, it has been found that couples experiencing positive emotions are better to calm down, an important ability to maintain individual balance and harmony of the relationship (Yuan et al., 2010).
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How a psychologist can help
If effective communication has become difficult between you and your partner, it may be appropriate to seek help from a psychologist with experience in partner therapy. Although different psychologists may employ a variety of appropriate therapeutic approaches for each couple and each situation, most will focus on the following five underlying principles that have been identified as fundamental to effective couples therapy:
Improving communication with the relationship.
Help partners to change their views of the relationship and to be more objective in their evaluations of what happens within the relationship.
Modify problematic behaviors within the relationship.
Decreased emotional avoidance and encourage attachment between couples
Taking advantage of the strengths that each partner brings to the relationship and the strength of the relationship itself (Benson, McGinn and Christensen, 2012)
