My Approach To Marriage Guidance / Relationship Counselling / Couples Counselling

I understand that it can feel like big step coming to talk about your relationship and often one partner is keen and the other is resistant. I create a safe environment where:

• You both have time to express what you want and to  see what the issues are
• Your partner begins to hear what you are saying and vice versa
• You see the bigger picture of what is going on
• You learn communication skills
• You learn about your differences and what you both need
• You find out  what is important to you
• You see how to bring back intimacy and loving feelings
• You learn how to manage your emotions and look after yourself better
• You find out how you can set limits over what you will accept and what you won't from your partner.

I’m a UKCP accredited psychotherapist in psychosynthesis psychotherapy. Separate from UKCP I have completed a specialist training in relationship counselling.

I use what I've found works best from a number of different approaches depending on what you need as a couple. Where appropriate  I refer to David Deida's concepts of ; masculinity and femininity that he details in his books ,'The Way of the Superior Man' and 'Intimate communion'  which is a way of understanding how men and woman naturally work together in a relationship; I use Harville Hendrix; Imago therapy which is a exercise you do together where you take turns to speak and listen where there is time to check that you are hearing  what each other is saying. I also like and use Terrence Real's approach to relationship counselling where he looks at what can be done to free up unexpressed feelings so that couples can reconnect to what they like about each other.

So what happens in the first session?

We meet for 75 minutes. I ask you questions about each other.

• We explore what the issues are
• We discover what you both want from counselling
• There's opportunity to say what is going on for each other and find out more about your partner's feelings
• You get to experience how I work and decide whether it feels right for you. Most couples feel a sense of relief and something beginning to change in their relationship after the first session.

Relationship Counselling/ Couples Counselling -Why It's a Good Idea