Marriage counseling can help couples to discover more about their partner and themselves and so strengthen their relationship. Counseling services are not only for people who have a problem in their intimate relationship but also for those who wish to develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship with their partner.
Chicago Marriage Counseling: Highlights
- Marriage counseling in Chicago is available to all. You do not need to be legally married or even be living together. Moreover, counseling can help both heterosexual and homosexual couples. The only requirement is that you are in a loving relationship which you would like to improve or enhance.
- Your relationship does not need to be experiencing a serious problem to benefit from couple’s counseling.
- Relationship counseling by a licensed professional can target specific problems such as conflicts, communication difficulties, intimacy, and trust issues. Or, it can aim at broader issues such as dividing labor and parenting responsibilities or revitalizing a long-term relationship that has lost its magic.
- Chicago marriage counseling sessions can take place in person or online.
- Retreats for couples can enhance the effectiveness of a regular weekly meeting with a marriage therapy counselor.
How Can Marriage Counseling Help Your Marriage?
Many couples seek premarital counseling when they’re preparing to get married to identify areas that could become problematic in the future. Therapy can help when passing through a period of change which can cause stress and anxiety in your relationship. Starting a family, parenting, when your children leave home, changing jobs, or retiring are all times when couples can benefit from the support and guidance of a qualified professional therapist. Couples counseling can even help clients who have decided to separate or get a divorce.
How Does Marriage Counseling Work?
Marriage counseling works by first identifying problem areas in the relationship, and then finding ways to solve them. A therapist can show couples how to communicate with each other without becoming angry or walking away. Sometimes, the therapist will want to conduct individual counseling sessions with each person before starting sessions together.
There are of course, sometimes, issues that cannot be resolved. A marriage counselor can help couples learn how to live with unresolved conflicts and still move on in their relationship. Counseling can help couples to develop a deeper understanding of their partner which can lead to a more respectful, empathetic, and appreciative relationship. In such a relationship, each person can freely express themselves and have space for their own personal growth.
What About Online Therapy?
Online therapy can offer a less expensive and more convenient counseling option. For some people, receiving counseling in their own home makes them feel more comfortable and relaxed and keeps the issues more private.
Common Reasons Why Married Couples Need Counseling
Although no specific reason is required for seeking therapy, overcoming an affair is a common reason for couples to look for help. Other reasons can include conflicts about money, mid-life crisis, the empty nest syndrome, and divorce. Substance abuse, mental health issues, and physical illnesses also put relationships under stress and couples can obtain guidance and relief from counseling. Domestic violence often precipitates couples to seek a solution.
What Does Chicago Have to Offer?
The Couples Retreat Illinois has two locations where Dr. McNulty, who has over 40-years of experience as a therapist, offers individual weekend retreats for couples where he uses a scientifically-based therapy.
The Ardent Counseling Center offers video and phone counseling services for couples, as well as retreats run by licensed professionals.
Urban Balance offers couples counseling using cognitive behavioral therapy either individually and/or together.
Consider a Couples Retreat
A couples retreat offers the opportunity for a couple to concentrate solely on their relationship. They are freed from everyday pressures like cooking, childcare, and their normal day to day routine. This allows them to examine and evaluate their relationship more closely. It can be a getaway where you can focus all your attention and energy on your partner and discover things about them and about yourself.
Retreats usually last for a couple of days and take place in a relaxing and peaceful setting. Exercises, discussions, lectures, and role play are often used to enhance the experience and to encourage communication and emotional growth.
You will learn techniques to strengthen your relationship and to increase your understanding, appreciation, and trust of one another. Also, you will discover new ways to handle conflicts and to repair past hurts. You will be shown how to boost your intimacy and you will learn how to form a strong and healthy bond.
Retreats can be on a one couple to one, or even two, therapist basis or several couples can partake together. Retreats with several couples are not usually suitable for couples who are experiencing a crisis situation or where there is any kind of abuse involved.
Science-Based Interventions
Doctors John and Julie Gottman designed a scientifically-based approach to couple’s therapy. Years of research allowed them to observe certain traits common to all relationships that enabled them to develop their Sound Relationship House Theory. Dr Michael McNulty at the Couples Retreat Chicago is a Master Couples Therapist and studied with the Gottmans. He uses their methods as part of his personalized couples retreat program.
Learn More About Yourself and Your Partner
Everyone thinks that they know all about their partner, but you may be surprised to discover just how much you don’t know about them, and about yourself.
Away From Everyday Stressors
Many couples choose retreats that are like a mini-vacation where they can enjoy fine dining, massages, and outdoor activities which also serve to enhance their relationship. Being away from your day to day routine can allow you to have fun and relax together which can breathe new life into your relationship.
Rediscover Your Marriage
Married couples can easily fall into behaviors that can inhibit the development and progress of their relationship. Couples therapy can help people to be more attentive and understanding to the needs of their partner and also to their own needs.
A successful relationship is not luck or something that just happens. It is something that has to be worked at and fortunately, a trained therapist can show you techniques that can help you to transform and rediscover your marriage.
Resources
- https://psychcentral.com/blog/what-is-a-couples-retreat-and-why-should-you-plan-one/
- https://urbanbalance.com/services/couples-counseling-chicago/
- https://www.eventbrite.com/d/il–chicago/marriage/
- https://couplestherapyinc.com/couples-retreat-illinois/
- https://www.ardentcenter.com/methods/couples-retreats-intensives-chicago-il-iowa/
