COUPLE THERAPY

People might benefit from couple therapy for many different reasons. It may be that the relationship has broken down or that there is anxiety that it might. Sustaining a fulfilling and stable relationship is never easy. Pressures from work, money, children, family tensions and ill health can all contribute to creating problems and these problems can lead to depression and other difficulties for one or both partners. Sometimes couples can’t talk to each other, and meeting with a couple therapist can open the way to better communication, which is a key part of improving relationships.

Couple therapy aims to help you to achieve:

  • Recovery from depression

  • Better communication and ability to work together

  • Greater awareness of each of your needs

  • Greater understanding of your partner and yourself, and of the differences between you

  • A better sense of closeness between the two of you

  • Being less stuck in repeating patterns in your relationships

  • Help with feelings of anxiety and stress in facing the challenges of your relationship and family life

  • Help with coming to terms with life changes such as the arrival of children, bereavement or separation

  • A more stable family life

  • Greater confidence about the future

  • An improved sexual relationship if this is needed.

How does it work?

Couple therapy helps those who are suffering from depression by reducing the kinds of things that make partners feel alone and distressed, or which push partners apart and make them feel angry with each other. It improves your relationship by helping you both to work together on the things that create unhappiness and to move on from stuck and sometimes hostile patterns of interaction. It helps you to understand each other at an emotional level as well as a practical one (how you feel and what you do). It gives you skills as well as understanding. This can lead to a happier and more fulfilling relationship in which differences between you are not so problematic. This relieves depression which in turn improves your relationship. This positive cycle improves mood and emotional wellbeing.