Just about every person has struggles or problems at some point in their lives and could use some help to get through the hard times. Counseling and therapy provide a safe and effective environment to discuss these problems and find ways to resolve them.
Unfortunately, counseling still has a negative stigma attached to it. This is especially true when it comes to relationship or marriage counselling. The belief is that a relationship should not require outside help in order to thrive. However, relationships are such an important part of our social existence that every bit of help that is available should be taken advantage of.
But how effective is marriage counseling really and can it save a flailing relationship?
There seems to be conflicting views on the effectiveness of relationship counseling. According to a recent study conducted by The Journal of Family And Marital Therapy, 7 out of 10 couples found counseling to be beneficial to providing greater satisfaction from their marriage. Even though this is a compelling figure, it is the 3 out of 10 that did not benefit from counseling that often gives the process a bad name.
There are however a number of factors that seem to influence the success achieved through marriage counseling. One of the main factors is timing – the earlier counseling is sought to address the issues in a relationship, the more successful it is likely to be. Early treatment prevents the problems from growing and becoming deeply entrenched making it more difficult to resolve the issues.
Another factor is the expectation of couples that a counselor is there to provide them with the answers to all their problems. This is however not how the process functions. A marriage counselor is there to facilitate communication between two people in an effort to assist them in finding and resolving their problems.
Marriage counseling is also only as successful as the amount of effort that each person in the relationship is willing to put into saving the marriage. Couples that don’t follow the advice of a counselor or are not actually willing to work on the relationship, are more likely to fall into the minority group where counseling is ineffective. The harder a couple is willing to work, the better the chances are that counseling will help their marriage thrive.
A relationship consists of two individuals who each have their own problems and issues that they bring to the marriage. In some cases, resolving personal problems is integral to solving problems within a relationship. In other words, a person who is not willing to face their own personal problems and admit to how it could be contributing to the marital distress, is less likely to experience success at saving their marriage.
At the end of the day, a 100% success rate in marriage counseling is not possible. However, the fact that many more marriages are saved than not helped provides clear evidence that this form of relationship therapy is highly effective.
If you are thinking about seeking marriage counseling in Coeur D’Alene to help save your marriage, give us a call to find out more about the benefits.
