New York Psychiatrist

Marriage CounselingNew York, NY

Marriage counseling can play many roles. It can help to save marriages in trouble, and it can help to keep a good marriage strong. The reason that counseling for couples is so important is this:

As humans, we learn to get along with people who do not think and act exactly as we do. It turns out some of those people are the most important people in our worlds. As a child, it was an annoying sibling. As a teen, it was the parent who just did not get it. And as a parent, it is the teen who just does not get it.

As a spouse, you butt heads with the person that you have vowed to spend your life. Within a relationship, there is bound to be some annoyance, but unfortunately, serious conflict can also happen. Here is how counseling helps with marital conflict.

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Keeping the relationship in shape with marriage counseling

A good place to start is prevention. Marriage counseling is not just for fixing the broken things in the relationship. It can be an important part of preparing for the future or dealing with the things that life throws at a couple.

A marriage counselor can give a couple the tools to:

  • Find common ground when each partner has a different point of view
  • Identify common values, life goals and motivations
  • Communicate effectively about their emotions and needs by being assertive but not offensive
  • Learn how their partner communicates love, disappointment and other emotions
  • Listen to their partner and respond in a meaningful way
  • Resolve conflict in a wise manner
  • Keep the spark burning, especially when life seems to take up most of the couple's time

  • These tools come in handy all through the course of a marriage. Think of them as maintenance tools that a couple can use to get through the ups and downs of married life.

    Marriage counseling helps to resolve conflict

    Sadly, there are situations and events that cause conflict in a marriage. Marriage counseling allows a couple to deal with marital problems head-on before they lead to a broken relationship.

    By learning how to communicate in a positive way, the couple can learn more about each other's hopes, fears and needs. They will begin to rediscover each other, as though they were dating again. Each person will also learn about themselves and take stock of who they have become and who they want to be.

    A therapist will also help the couple to identify and work through unresolved issues.

    Marriage counseling is a worthwhile investment

    There are few life skills as important as learning to make a relationship work in a way that is healthy for you. As relationships go, marriage is one of the more difficult ones.

    The skills you learn in marriage counseling will not only help your marriage, but they will also help you navigate and/or strengthen other relationships, including the one you have with yourself. At Eileen Wachter, MD , we help couples to overcome some of the issues that come with marriage. Visit us at our New York office today.