Couples Counselling & Gottman Therapy
About Couples Counselling
Couples therapy is for any couple at any time in their relationship. From the beginning (why not start right) all the way through to many, many years of marriage (hey, we're all human, we all change with time).
Couples counselling helps with developing communication skills to recognise and resolve conflicts to improve relationships. Through couples counselling, you can make decisions about strengthening and rebuilding your relationship with your partner or going separate ways.
Couples or marriage counselling is provided by licensed relationship or family therapists. There are several different styles of couples therapy including Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman Relationship Counselling.
Benefits of Couples Counselling
There are many benefits of couples counselling. These include helping you to develop the tools and skills to create and maintain a healthy, thriving relationship, improve your communication skills, increase fondness and admiration, feel more known by each other and be more connected. Couples counselling helps us to revitalize the friendship that is the basis of any good relationship. Your therapist can provide guidance during a couples counselling session, by highlighting aspects of your relationship that you may not be seeing and providing an objective perspective. With friendship built up and communication restored we can also navigate respectful separation if this is what is decided is best.
Couples counselling can help you clarify your feelings about your relationship and resolve relationship roadblocks. Having a set time for you and your partner to share your thoughts and feelings can help path the way towards the direction you want to take.
It may be that your relationship feels stale, or monotonous, that you have the same shallow conversations or that your sex life has suffered. It may be that things changed after having children, that financial and work life stress have taken over, that there is no quality time or that the quality time is spent in front of a screen. We can also be experiencing a feeling of criticism and disrespect, that we expect negativity from each other so we just stopped talking, or are just amicable “for the kids”. All of these things can be addressed in couples counselling and relationship counselling.
What to Expect from Therapy Sessions
At Mind Mode Psychology in Wollongong, we provide couples therapy through 'The Gottman Method'. This method focuses on skill development and creating a strong relationship where a couple has the safety and skills to be able to work through stressful times and conflict together, as a team.
Issues will be actively addressed in session using different communication techniques that the couple is encouraged to continue to develop between session. A focus is on the development of friendship and respect, on establishing a feeling of connection and safety within the relationship.
If you would like to learn more about the Gottman Method please visit the Gottman website.
Get in touch with our local team today to make an appointment.
Gottman Workshops
Our clinicians also offer a number of different skills-based group programs appropriate for relationships at any stage. For more information about any upcoming couples workshops, please
visit our Gottman Therapy Programs page.