About Therapy For Couples

Psychology and Living uses an approach with couples that acknowledges both the individual and the relationship.

Whenever two people enter into a relationship, they bring with them their unique individuality. When couples later experience difficulties, it is often because issues in the individual before they entered into the relationship, haven't been resolved and are playing out in the relationship. To respond to this at Psychology and Living couples therapy will often involve:

• Seeing the couple for an initial 1 or 2 sessions;
• Seeing one partner in the next session, and the other in the following;
• Bringing the couple together for the subsequent session and talking about styles of communication and other issues in the relationship, while also discussing plans for future sessions. At this point in the therapy, it is often agreed that both partners require individual work. The immediate future plan shifts to working with one partner for 4 or more individual sessions, while giving the other partner work to do at home. The process then reverses, so that the focus shifts to the second partner for 4 or more individual sessions;
• The focus then returns to couples therapy, proceeding with less interference from individual issues which had not been resolved.

We find that the above approach, with some modifications to cater for specific couples needs, is far more effective and forges a gentler path, than merely launching straight into couples therapy.

One of the more emotive circumstances that couples can find themselves in is where one party has had an affair. There is some information about healing this situation here.