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Can I Rebuild My Relationship With Couples Therapy?

Rebuilding your relationship takes courage, dedication, and patience. If your relationship has been tested and you aren’t sure how to heal from the hard things you’ve been through, couples therapy may be the right avenue.

What Is Couples Therapy?

Couples therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on the romantic relationship between two people. This type of therapy can be attended by couples who are dating, engaged, or married. The person hosting the session should be a licensed mental health professional, such as a licensed professional counselor (LPC) or licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT).

Being licensed as a professional counselor or marriage and family therapist requires a masters degree, as well as a certain amount of supervised hours counseling patients. Using a licensed professional will ensure that you are receiving quality care from someone whom the state has deemed safe and equipped to do so.

How Do I Know if We Need Couples Therapy?

Just as every person is unique, so is every relationship. Every person brings their own baggage, traumas, communication style, attachment style, and beliefs. When you combine two sets of individual life experiences, things can get tricky. This is where couples therapy comes in.

While every couple could benefit from therapy, the point of needing it will vary. It’s best to not wait until your relationship is in crisis to reach out. However, that’s usually easier said than done, as you don’t always see the unhealthy behaviors building up until they’ve already exploded. If you aren’t sure where to start, you could evaluate anything that puts a strain on the relationship and use those elements as a launching point. Feel free to contact treatment centers, like Sage Recovery, and ask if they think you would benefit from couples therapy.

Some common reasons couples begin going to therapy include:

Benefits of Attending Couples Therapy

There can be many benefits of attending couples therapy and, like most things in life, you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you are willing to participate, be honest, and follow the therapist’s instructions, couples therapy can benefit your relationship and everyday life.

Strengthens Communication Skills

One of the key elements in any relationship is communication. Communication isn’t just the words you say, but also your body language, tone of voice, and how you convey your emotions. Everyone has different ways of communicating and understanding the way other people communicate. This can create issues in relationships, especially if one person doesn’t understand or like the way their partner communicates.

Furthermore, trust can be broken based on the way you communicate or don’t communicate. This is often true of couples who have experienced the complicated relational dynamics that occur when substances have been present. Any time dishonesty is conveyed, either by one partner or both, it often creates a rift in the relationship that will take significant time to repair and redeem. The good news is that trained therapists, like the ones at Sage Recovery, can help with this if both partners are willing to participate.

Moreover, couples therapy can help improve your communication skills because the therapist can equip you to:

Fosters Empathy and Intimacy

Empathy and intimacy are key elements in any relationship, even more so in romantic relationships. Having empathy for another person not only humanizes them but also makes it easier to feel connected with them. When you feel safe with someone, it’s easier to be vulnerable with them, which creates more intimacy, which breeds more empathy, etc.

It’s important to note that this type of intimacy is not strictly referring to physical intimacy. While that is an important part of romantic relationships, it’s not the only way to experience intimacy. Emotional intimacy, or feeling emotionally connected to your partner, is crucial to overall relationship satisfaction. This is because true, healthy emotional intimacy that is mutually built over time has a higher likelihood of withstanding the hardships of life.

Emotional intimacy produces mutual honesty, vulnerability, understanding, and value. Maintaining both physical and emotional intimacy requires hard work, but if the relationship is worth holding on to, the work will be worth it.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult to see through the conflict, struggles, and past hurts, which doesn’t leave much room for loving feelings. This is where it can be helpful to have a third party present to facilitate difficult conversations. Counselors and therapists can make room for each partner to show empathy and understanding to the other as they share their feelings and experiences.

How Couples Therapy Can Improve Self-Awareness

An extremely important attribute that contributes to all parts of life, especially recovery, is self-awareness. Therapy can help you uncover and become aware of the elements that make you who you are. This may include:

Identifying the underlying reasons why you do things a certain way can be very helpful in all of life. More specifically, self-awareness can positively impact your:

Here at Sage Recovery, we do whatever we can to support families, couples, and healthy relationships. That’s why we offer extensive counseling services for individuals, couples, and families who are struggling. Whether you need help healing from substance use, anxiety, or broken relationships, we’re here to help. Our masters-level clinicians are experts in providing evidence-based treatments, such as CBT, DBT, EMDR, and group therapy. Additionally, we also offer more innovative approaches, like equine therapy, nature immersion, and wellness groups. Our customizable treatment plans will ensure that you heal healthily in a way that works for you. When you’re ready to begin your healing journey, reach out to us at (512) 306-1394. We’re here for you.