Your Guide to Marriage Therapy

Entering therapy, or even considering counseling is one of the scariest things most individuals can contemplate. Most people will easily book an appointment with the doctor when they fall ill or assume they have some physical ailments, yet far less people will book an appointment with a mental health professional. Most often, people feel that seeing a therapist or counselor makes them "crazy". The stigma attached to counseling is the main reason people do not seek help for problems that can often be stopped or reduced.

Most couples can benefit from relationship therapy, often even to prevent problems rather than solving those already present. However, most couples wait until the problems are at their worst, and will call a therapist days before or even during legal process, hoping that a quick visit will change years of hurt and struggles.

What can you expect, and why should you even consider marriage counseling?

- Marriage counselors often work on communication and improving the communication in a couple or family. No two people, no matter how close or strong they are, always communicate at their full potential. Lets face it- we cannot read each others thoughts, we all assume and read into situations and expressions and we often fail to relay the message to our partner in a way that we would like, or vice versa. Even the strongest of couples or families could benefit from a weekend of communication building and exercises.

- While you have become a unit, your own family, and you have joined together in a new setting, you both still carry the baggage and experiences of your past. Therapy doesnt always help you rid yourself of this "baggage" but helps both you and your partner understand your experiences, your history, your "baggage" and how it affects you as a couple today. Your therapist may not even ask you to change or to get rid of your past, but may simply just help you both to understand how the past is always influencing the present.