Couples Therapy in VirgInia: Improving your Relationship

IN THIS ARTICLE: 

• Benefits of couples therapy
• How to choose a couples therapist in Virginia 
• What to expect during couples therapy
• Success stories from couples therapy

Maintaining a happy and health relationship can be challenges and many couple experience challenges along the way. Common struggles couples experience include communication issues, broken trust, and decreased physical and emotional intimacy, just to name a few. Relationship problems such as these can put a strain on the couple bond. Couples therapy can help! In this article, we'll discuss the benefits of couples therapy, how to choose a couples therapist in Virginia, what to expect during therapy sessions, and some success stories from couples who have benefited from couples therapy.

Benefits of couples therapy

Issues can come up in any relationship, and couples therapy can be a helpful tool to help you work through relationship issues. Some of the benefits of couples therapy include improved communication, rebuilding trust, rekindling physical and emotional intimacy, resolving conflict, and developing a deeper understanding of each other. Couples therapy can also help couples identify problematic patterns of behavior or problematic communication pattern and help you work together to build new healthier patterns and habits. 

Common relationship issues that bring people to couples therapy include infidelity and broken trust, financial problems and spending differences, parenting disagreements. communication problems and unresolved conflict, and sexual problems. If you are noticing challenges like these, it's important to address them before the problems get worse and end up in breaking up. Many couples who go to couples therapy are able to have healthier relationship and remain together. The sooner you go to couples therapy after problems start, the sooner you can improve your relationship!

How to choose a couples therapist in Virginia

Choosing the right couples therapist is essential for your success in therapy process. You will want to find someone is qualified and has experience helping couples with your specific issue. When looking for couples therapy in Virginia, make sure to consider: 

1. Make sure they are a licensed therapist: Ensure that the therapist is licensed by the state of Virginia to practice therapy. 
2. Check their level of experience: Look for a therapist who has experience working with couples, and who has a track record of being able to help couples with your specific concerns.
3. Understand their approach to couples therapy: Different therapists use different approaches in couples therapy. Ask the therapist to explain their approach and makes sure that it fits with your needs.
4. Consider their availability and scheduling policies: You'll want to make sure that the logistics of working together will work for you. You'll need to make sure their schedule fits with yours and that their office is either in a convenient location or they offer online counseling. 

What to expect during couples therapy

Couples therapy usually consists of either 50-minute or 90-minute weekly sessions. The first few session as assessment sessions where the couples therapist will get to know you, your relationship history, your concerns, and your goals. After the assessment sessions are completed, the therapist will help you work toward resolving issues and fixing any underlying problems causing them.

The couples therapist will provide you with tools you can use and practice at home to improve your relationship. Some of the things they might help you will include active listening, communicating clearly, and negotiating conflict. They will likely have you role play to practice the skills in the session, and may assign you homework to practice the skills at home as well. 

Success stories from couples therapy

There are many couples in Virginia who have benefited from couples therapy. Here are some success stories (please note that identifying information about the real people has been removed to protect confidentiality): 

1. Lisa and Tom were having difficulty rebuilding trust after an affair. Through couples counseling, they were able to understand the underlying problems that led to the affair and work to rebuild trust. They decided to stay together and work on building a closer relationship. ​
2. Jamie and John were married over 10 years. Problems started for them after the birth of their first child. With the new focus on parenting, they drifted apart until they felt more like roommates. As they worked to improve their relationship in couples counseling, they were able to rekindle their emotional and physical intimacy. 
3. Sarah and Mark would fight all the time about little things that didn't matter, And even though they tried fixing their communication problems on their own, they couldn't figure out what was going wrong. Through couples therapy, they were able to break their communication spiral and learn new communication skills. 
4. John and Kim had different spending styles and financial priorities, which was causing a lot of tension between them. Couples therapy helped them learn to understand where each other as coming from and find a middle ground to work toward financial goals together. 

Couples therapy is a tool you can use to help address problems in your relationship. Whether you are trying to rebuild trust, improve your communication, or working on some other goal, couples therapy can help you resolve relationship issues so you can have a more satisfying relationship. When looking for couples counseling in Virginia, make sure to to work with a licensed therapist who is qualified and has experience helping couples with your specific concerns. 

Looking for Couples Therapy in Virginia?

Elizabeth Polinsky Counseling provides online Emotionally Focused Couples Counseling, as well as weekend-long Marriage Intensives, throughout the states of Virginia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Nevada. Click the button below to schedule a complimentary consult. 

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About the Author

Elizabeth Polinsky is a Certified Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist (EFT) providing EFT marriage counseling in the states of Virginia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Nevada. She also provides EFT training and supervision to therapists looking to become certified in EFT Couple Therapy. As a military spouse, she has a special passion for working with military and veteran couples, and is also the host of The Communicate & Connect Podcast for Military Relationships. ​

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