Does marriage counseling work? (And can it save your marriage?)

Marriages can be extremely hard to navigate through as they require excellent communication skills, trust, understanding, and collaboration. A troubled marriage can be a cause of concern for both the parties involved and the immediate family and friends as well. When the differences and oddities in one’s marriage seem too difficult to overcome, considering treatment options like marriage counseling is important.

At Cadabam’s Hospitals, we cater to all your needs with our multispecialty team of psychologists, psychiatrists, and family therapists. For over 30 years, we have excelled in providing behavioral therapies. At Cadabam’s Hospitals, we care. 

How to Make it Work?

Marriage is not an easy feat, marriage requires work. Believing that marriage counselors are magicians that will swish their wands and somehow make your marriage work is a misconception. A number of factors are involved in order to make marriage counseling work, from how well you respond to the therapist’s techniques to the amount of effort you are willing to offer in order to change.

Marriage counseling aids your marriage when:

When there is little or no communication

Communication is the key to any successful marriage. If you and your spouse are not able to communicate better with each other, it can cause lasting damage. A therapist can help you get back in the right direction and teach you effective ways of communication that involves understanding the other’s point of view and empathizing with each other. Not being able to communicate effectively can cause feelings of depression, insecurity, and disregard for one another. 

Most relationships face challenges when it comes to communication. Marriage counseling can help navigate these challenges and facilitate new and effective ways of communicating with your significant other. Once the communication gets worse or deteriorates over time, it gets hard to go back in the right direction.

Infidelity crawls into the union

Infidelity can cause a huge amount of strain in a marriage. Recovering, forgiving, and forgetting are great challenges to incur when a spouse has been an infidel. The therapist can offer guidance, support as well as perspective to help you forgive and move ahead. Commitment and honesty can help you move ahead in times like this unless you choose otherwise.

Your marriage is a loveless one

When you believe that your marriage is just a means of having a better living situation, you need counseling. It is essential that an element of intimacy, conversation, and genuine affection for each other exists in the marriage. Just being roommates is not enough for your marriage. Co-existing is often not enough for a happy marriage.

Resolve your differences

Sometimes you just aren’t equipped enough to resolve your differences. A therapist can help you gain perspective, offer skills and coping techniques to guide you better, communicate openly and effectively, and help you take the necessary steps to change. Sometimes you know what is wrong, but just don’t know how you can fix it. It is here that a skilled therapist may be able to guide and help you.

Separation is your only resolution

Separation does not resolve anything; in fact, it only reinforces the problem. The therapist can help you resolve the problem without spending time away from each other. Marriage counseling can save your marriage unless the relationship demands closure due to unhealthy factors that are part of the marriage.

Negative attitude

Negative communication can be judging the partner, shaming them, feeling insecure, disregarding their needs, or being passive-aggressive after a conversation. Negative attitudes among partners can escalate to emotional abuse, and marriage counseling online can help it from getting to that point.

Withholding affection

When a person gets angry and withholds affection as a sign of punishment, it can be a red flag of an unhappy marriage. This is where marriage counseling services help couples and encourage them to talk about their issues freely, rather than suppress them and hurt their partner.

Keeping Secrets

Every person has the right to privacy, even in a marriage, but when the secret-keeping gets in the way of the couple’s happiness then something is not right. Marriage problems counseling will help couples communicate securely and safely.

When small mistakes cause huge arguments

Everyone has triggers, and when these triggers are pushed, they drive the person crazy. It can be pet peeves like keeping the home messy, being indecisive, nagging, being careless, and so on. When one partner keeps losing their temper over the smallest details, the significant other is usually confused about the cause of the fights. Marriage counseling services help couples discuss various issues and figure out the root cause of each problem.

Ongoing relationship issues

Relationships have sticking points or recurring arguments that can go on for a long period without any kind of resolution. The issues usually include different views on family finances, child-raising philosophies, intense differences in opinions, and so on. These challenges can feel impossible, but with marriage counseling and cooperation from both partners, a reasonable resolution can be made. Therapists can help the couple understand each other’s perspective and help them find a common ground.

Financial infidelity

This infidelity can be as damaging as a sexual affair. If one spouse keeps financial secrets from their partner, then it can be disastrous to the relationship. If your significant other does not want to be transparent about your bills, monthly budget, or savings, then it’s time to resolve these issues with the help of marriage counseling services.

Save your marriage: Why Cadabam’s Hospitals

At Cadabam’s Hospitals, we leverage an evidence-based approach to deliver couples the best marriage counseling. Our team of experts belts extensive experience in helping couples build a healthy and lasting bond that centers on respect and happiness. We tailor our solution to provide couples a personalized experience that exceeds their expectations. So, if your marriage or relationship is going south and things are bad, consider marriage counseling or premarital counseling. We are here to help you. 

Call us now on +919741476476 and get in touch with an experienced marriage counselor.

FAQs About Marriage Counseling

• Can marriage counseling help?

So many couples benefit from marriage counseling. But there’s no guarantee will it be successful in helping you. That depends on so many factors, including the kind of problems you’re dealing with in your marriage and what kind of bond you share with your partner. For instance, if you’re in an abusive relationship, marriage counseling won’t magically end that abuse and make things right.

In some extreme cases, ending the marriage might be a better idea than trying to make things work. This is something your counselor will tell you. But all said, in general, marriage counseling can be extremely rewarding for couples.

• What to expect in my first session?

The counselor will make you feel at ease. The first session will usually be spent in knowing you, your marriage, and your problems. The insights counselor gets will help them outline a proper solution in the subsequent sessions.

If you’re about to attend your first session, don’t feel anxious. Also, remember that you can share as much or as little based on your comfort level. You don’t have to reveal it all in your first or following sessions. 

• How many sessions will I need?

There’s no right answer to this. Some couples may need only two-three sessions, while others can need counseling for months and even years. It depends on your marriage and the problems you’re dealing with. Moreover, even if things start getting better, you may still want to attend a few sessions occasionally to ensure things remain that way. Marriage counseling will help you strengthen your marriage. 

• When marriage counseling is too late?

There’s no such thing as “too late”. Admittedly, couples are recommended to see a counselor at the first sign of trouble. But even if you’re having big problems in your marriage, marriage counseling can be helpful. The counselors may help you and your partner realize the problems and work towards the solution through effective measures and approach. And if they do feel that the marriage cannot be saved, they would offer their honest advice and provide a way out for both. 

• What will marriage counseling be like?

Different counselors have their own ways and style to lead therapy sessions. So, there’s no definite answer to this. But in general, you can expect a lot of “solution finding”. Instead of looking at the problems, you’ll be asked to look at the solutions.

The counselor will ask some questions and both the partners will lead the conversation to respectfully address their problems and then figure out the right solutions. The key objective of such therapy sessions is to promote clear and effective communication between the partners.