The Differences Between Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling
Challenges eventually arise in any couple, and the first
thing that the two partners do is trying to solve their problems on their own. Unfortunately,
there are times when they cannot succeed, and this is where some of them decide
to contact a
Southwest Counseling Associates specialist in couple's psychotherapy.
The nature of the problems that makes a couple turn to
professional advice vary greatly and that`s because each couple is different. However,
there are some main discussion topics between the therapists and their
patients: lack of proper communication between the two partners, frequent or
constant disputes, unmet emotional needs, financial difficulties and conflicts
related to children.
Some couples who decide to go through a psychotherapy
session do this not necessarily because their problems are very different from
other people`s, but because they reached a vicious point of their relationship,
where they seem unable to properly communicate and create adequate emotional
connections.
Marital counseling is quite similar to couples therapy,
considering that it has the main purpose - to help the two partners overcome their
problems. The differences are almost indistinguishable and consist in shorter
duration and limitation of some of the therapeutic goals. Counseling focuses on
optimizing the relationship - solving current problems and adopting tactics to
deal with immediate difficulties, while therapy attempts to resolve psychological
conflicts throughout the couple's history, using emotions as both the target
and the agent of change.