Marriage Counseling Questions

Deciding to try marriage counseling is a big step. For many couples, going to see a professional for help with their relationship feels like a last resort. It’s only after months — sometimes years — of struggling with frustrations, hurt feelings, and smoldering resentments that marriage counseling starts to seem attractive. And sometimes it takes a flat-out crisis to finally push couples through the door.

This is a common question. All relationships have ups and downs, and it’s hard to know the difference between a passing rough patch or a more serious situation that isn’t going to change on it’s own. Even if your relationship feels pretty difficult, it can easy to talk yourself out of marriage counseling (“Things will get better” or “We’re just under a lot of stress right now” or “This week has been better”).

So here are 3 clues that you really do need to get help.

People often wonder whether couples therapy works. Specifically, they wonder whether couples therapy will work for them.

(And to clarify, the terms “couples therapy,” “couples counseling,” and “marriage counseling” are interchangeable. Marriage counseling is the term that’s used when a married couple is in therapy together, and couples counseling is the general term used for the same therapy when a couple is committed, but isn’t married. The kinds of techniques the marriage counselor uses and the goals of therapy are often similar).