23227 Red River Dr. Katy, Texas 77494
281-299-8607
5870 Highway 6 N, Suite 310. Houston, Texas 77084
Marriage Counseling in Houston, Katy and Cypress, TX
At Life Cycles Counseling, we work with couples to restore the relationship build it to it’s optimal level. While not every relationship can be ‘saved’ our counselors are skilled to maximize your chances of success in your marriage. Please note that the terms marriage therapy and couple’s counseling will be used interchangeably on this site. It can easily include couples who live together, boyfriend/girlfriend, gay couples, and any other form where two people engage in a romantic relationship.
What some common problems addressing marriage counseling?
- Communication Issues: Difficulty in expressing thoughts and feelings, frequent misunderstandings, or lack of active listening.
Conflict Resolution: Struggles with resolving disagreements in a constructive manner, leading to frequent arguments or ongoing resentment.
Intimacy and Emotional Connection: Issues with maintaining emotional closeness or physical intimacy, which can lead to feelings of neglect or disconnect.
Trust and Infidelity: Concerns about trust, including past infidelities or other breaches of trust, and how to rebuild and maintain it.
Financial Disagreements: Conflicts over spending habits, budgeting, or financial goals that can strain the relationship.
Parenting and Family Dynamics: Differences in parenting styles, managing family responsibilities, or dealing with extended family conflicts.
Life Transitions: Adjusting to major life changes such as moving, job changes, or health issues, which can impact the relationship.
Individual Issues: Personal challenges like mental health concerns or substance abuse that affect the relationship.
Unmet Expectations: Discrepancies between partners’ expectations and reality, leading to disappointment or frustration.
Work-Life Balance: Struggling to balance work demands with personal life and relationship needs.
How can marriage counseling help
Marriage counseling can help on multiple levels, depending on the situation of the couple.
Improves Communication: Therapy teaches couples effective communication skills, helping them express their thoughts and feelings more clearly and listen actively to each other.
Resolves Conflicts: Couples learn strategies for addressing and resolving conflicts constructively, reducing the frequency and intensity of arguments.
Enhances Understanding: Therapy provides a platform for partners to understand each other’s perspectives and needs better, fostering empathy and deeper connection.
Rebuilds Trust: For issues involving trust or infidelity, therapy helps couples address underlying issues, work through feelings of betrayal, and rebuild trust.
Strengthens Emotional Intimacy: Therapy encourages the sharing of vulnerabilities and promotes emotional closeness, helping couples reconnect on a deeper level.
Provides Tools and Strategies: Therapists offer practical tools and strategies for managing stress, making decisions, and navigating life transitions together.
Facilitates Personal Growth: Individual therapy within the couples’ framework can help partners address personal issues that impact the relationship, such as mental health challenges or past traumas.
Offers Objective Insights: A therapist provides a neutral perspective, helping couples see issues more clearly and avoid being stuck in negative patterns.
Supports Problem-Solving: Therapy helps couples develop problem-solving skills to tackle specific issues like financial disagreements, parenting styles, or work-life balance.
Encourages Commitment: The therapeutic process can help couples reaffirm their commitment to each other and the relationship, providing a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
What are some potential obstacles to couple's counseling?
If one of the parties has already “checked out” mentally out of the marriage, it may be difficult to bring them back in to continue the relationship. They may be there physically, but if they have already decided to leave, it’s unlikely that counseling will convince them to stay. Occasionally we can do ‘post breakup counseling’ where we discuss co-parenting and other important issues as a result of the breakup, but the goal is not reconciliation. Marcel Gamboa also does Family Mediation, which may be a valuable service for some parties.
Another potential obstacle is some form of abuse and/or violence in the relationship. If this is the case, marriage counseling is usually not recommended.
Most other barriers can be overcome in session. This may include infidelity, emotional maturity or partners, addictions, communication problems and various disagreements. Some times one party is worried that they are not going to be “allowed” to speak if they perceive their partners as too assertive and talkative; other times, one party may fear they will be ‘ganged up on’ by counselor and their partner. In reality, this rarely holds true as it’s counselor’s job to keep things neutral and hold both parties accountable for their actions. It’s not the marriage counselor’s job to take sides or decide who is right and who is wrong. Rather, he/she will foster a good working environment where a dialogue can occur.
In the end, s long as two people are willing to work on their relationship – and be committed to the process – most situations can be resolved
Our approach to counselor's counseling - How we can help!
In the first session, the marriage will prompt each party to tell their side of the story and share their concerns. Things are kept orderly as each individual will be given about the same time without too many interruptions from their partner. Sometimes these first sessions can be a bit charged as people get things off their chests, but most of the time things settle down. Subsequent sessions consists of various coping skills, prompts, exercises, handouts and other aids to help the couple improve on their challenges. The couple’s counselor often follows a Gottman style marriage counseling approach, which includes doing one individual session with each party and then resuming the sessions jointly. There may also be questionnaires to fill out as this is part of Gottman’s method. Other styles are also utilized, including Emotional Systems approach and IFS for couples.
We ask that the couple commit to at least 8-12 sessions initially. This time is usually needed to work through most of the issues ,and learn coping skills. Our counselors are experienced in helping out couples resolve their disagreements.
If you would like to ask more questions or your would like to schedule with one of our counselors, please call 281-299-8607 or schedule an appointment online.
