Relationship and Marriage Therapy Services, One And The Same.

The Problem

Those in non-married relationships are often struck by problems that could be addressed in counseling, but are prevented from entering into counseling out of a uninformed idea of what it’s is all about, and who it is for. Placing too much emphasis on the idea and institution of marriage than the average, people often think that what’s expected of them in a relationship changes once they reach the other side of an arbitrary moment in time when both man and woman say “I do”. Before that moment, counseling is seen as an acceptance of defeat; after that moment, a statement about a couple’s commitment to a long-lasting relationship. This idea; that couples counseling is inappropriate before marriage, is completely absurd and has been the downfall of too many relationships that could have flourished. Don’t let your relationship join their number.

The Idea of Marriage

To a relationship counselor, marriage is nothing but a legal contract that confers certain tax benefits on two people, and has absolutely nothing to do with their relationship outside of their financial and legal situation. Your emotional connection to another person has nothing to do with marriage understood this way. Connection is all that matters inside of couples counseling, and it doesn’t require marriage. If this connection exists between you and your partner, and you want it to continue existing in light of some existing tension, then relationship counseling with Marriage Therapy Services is for you, whether you’re married or not.

Challenge Your Ideas

In the therapy business, marriage therapy and couples counseling are often advertised as different, but practiced with exactly the same methods and practices. This is because there exists, as mentioned before, an arbitrary idea in the general population that there is a difference in relationships between the married and the unmarried. To a therapist, there is no difference. Commitment to a relationship before and after formal recognition of that commitment is no different, and therefore the ways that a therapist works with this commitment are also the same. If you are unmarried and in need of counseling, it is important that you and your partner challenge your ideas of what’s legitimately expected of your relationship, because if your expectations disallow you from accessing the thing you need to continue your relationship, in this case counseling, you might risk it altogether. If the idea of therapy before marriage seems wrong to you, ask yourself if sacrificing your relationship is seems worse, because that might be the cost of avoiding therapy.
Marriage Therapy Services, while advertised for married couples, is not meant exclusively for them. The truth is that the popular idea that couples therapy is not for the unmarried forces us to advertise this way. Marriage Therapy Services is for any struggling committed partnership, regardless of legal title. So if you’re in a struggling relationship, married or unmarried, get in touch with is.