Can A Couple In Trouble Benefit From Marriage Counseling?

A successful and long-lasting marriage touches the lives of that couple their children, their extended families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Many people who feel they are having problems living with their partner turn to marriage counseling for help. Marriage Counselors assist couples in discussing the most common issues that cause problems in a marriage:

Finances
Communication
Trust
Fairness
Child-rearing
Work
Sex and Fidelity

Counselors help the couple to build a foundation that will withstand the pressures of married life and other challenges faced by families. Additionally, issues that are of special concern to particular couples, like religion, culture, and past traumas can be discussed and planned in order to relieve marital stress.  Marriage counseling can help you get to the root of problems in your relationship.

It is important to remember that lots of couples begin the most important relationship in their lives with no skills, no training, and no support system. This is not a recipe for success. Unfortunately, many marriages end in divorce. Many therapists, community and faith based organizations and self-help groups have realized the need for marriage counseling so that couples can make plans to handle the troubles and challenges of married life. Forming a stronger smarter partnership that can be successful with money, sex and child rearing not only reduces stress for the couple, but also makes a divorce less likely. Healthy marriages create stable communities. This is good for the married couple, as well as friends, neighbors and children.

Different groups and practitioners can help to address problems specific to a couple's situation while being sensitive to their cultural or religious background. Christian, Jewish, Muslim and non-denominational counselors all exist and can be found by searching online or asking others in the community for help. Each marriage counseling instructor will have their own unique way of dealing with a difficult marriage, so it is important to ask questions about the specific things that are happening to you. Many things that seem horrible, embarrassing and unfair or things that a professional deals with often and can help you look at in a more objective way. A counselor can't make choices for others, but they can slow things down in a relationship and examine existing patterns of behavior that are causing problems. 

Once a counselor and a couple have discussed what is happening in the marriage, they can work together to find some new things for the spouses to try. By attending regular sessions, the counselor is able to analyze things that are working and things that are not by listening to the couples stories and statements about their lives. Couples who have successful counseling sessions often are able to work through the conflicts that are causing problems. Sometimes a counselor may recommend a weekend counseling seminar, or an intensive marriage counseling session of a week or more depending on the unique situation faced by a couple.