Heterosexual Couples

Most long term couples will at some point experience periods of conflict, anger, mistrust or a breakdown in communication. Failure to communicate and resolve core issues can damage relationships, performance, self-esteem and mood.

Common relationship concerns are about:

  1. Mismatched expectations of each other and the relationship
  2. Differences in values/interests, wishes, parenting, financial attitudes, housework, chores, responsibilities
  3. Difficulties with sexual intimacy
  4. Time, quality of time, lack of time
  5. Jealousy, mistrust
  6. Infidelity, affairs
  7. Conflict about children, or family members
  8. Unfulfilled emotional needs, feeling hurt, angry, neglected, disrespected or disconnected
  9. Frequent arguments
  10. Breakups to negotiate separation and help with painful emotions

Often however, it is not the differences that cause the biggest problem; it is the couples approach to dealing with their differences that become the major issue.

Effective work can be done working on your patterns in a relationship even if your partner does not wish to attend therapy or you are not currently in a relationship but have had difficulty in the past.

Counselling will help you uncover beliefs, expectations, patterns of communication and behaviours within the relationship. In addition it will teach new ways to think, communicate, and behave, changing old patterns, and creating opportunities to learn how to deal constructively with future difficulties.

Counselling invites you to openly talk about any problems, encouraging each person to take equal responsibility for awareness of the problem, awareness of their own contribution to the problem and making some fundamental changes in thought and feeling. Counselling will improve communication.

In addition, counselling can help individuals and families recover from a separation or a divorce and process this experience positively for future relationships.

Children are often affected psychologically by the problems which may bring people to couples therapy.

However children are not present in couples counselling which focuses on the relationship between the two partners. Therapy which includes children or other family members is called Family Therapy and can be provided by this practice, if it felt to be beneficial.