Therapy and Relationship Problems

What Relationship Difficulties Can Therapy Help

Relationship Problems

            If you’re seeking therapy because you are having difficulties in any relationship, know that you are not alone. Most people who seek therapy are experiencing some kind of struggle in their relationships. These relationship difficulties can often come from some damage done to early relationships, such as the parent-child relationship, teacher-student relationships, or early romantic relationships. Oftentimes, these relationships create “interpersonal pathology”—problems in relating to others and sustaining healthy relationships—that actually keep the problems in relationships going.

            In my experience with counseling so far, I’ve seen a range of relationship difficulties such as anger, anxiety, attachment concerns, criticalness of others, perfectionism, compulsive lying, and infidelity. I believe that counseling can help all these challenges and more.

How Therapy Can Help

            In therapy, we will uncover the realities of your existence as a person and in relationships to explore what is keeping you in these old patterns and how to break free. Part of this work is done in having a healthy therapeutic alliance—facilitated by both you as the client and me as your therapist—to model a health, effective relationship and seek to generalize those lessons to your relationships in your personal life.

Group Therapy for Relationship Problems

            Group therapy is an especially potent adjunct to individual therapy that can help strengthen the lessons of therapy and find improved functioning in relationships. Group therapy works by coming together as a whole group and sharing in the many common factors that helps us attune to others and the group. Put simply, being able to be a healthy member in a functioning, healthy group helps us learn within the group therapy room and then take those lessons outside of the group sessions.

            And even if relationships are not your primary focus of enrolling in therapy, I do believe that addressing the underlying concerns you’re facing will ultimately improve the relationships in your life: an added bonus to feeling and doing better!

Inquire About Individual and Group Therapy

            If this article resonates with you, please feel free to contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation about individual or group therapy. You can also read more about group on my services offered page.