Are You Tired Of Feeling Lonely And Unappreciated In Your Relationship?
Do you feel like you’re doing all the hard work in your relationship and your partner isn’t?
Does your significant other seem to ignore, dismiss, or criticize everything you say?
Deep down, have you started questioning whether this relationship is built to last?
Maybe you’ve been feeling lost, frustrated, and disconnected from your partner. Perhaps the intimacy has dwindled and they seem uninterested in having sex with you. No matter how hard you try to reconnect with them physically and emotionally, it feels like they’re not reciprocating. This could make you cranky, exhausted, and impatient—everything they do and say gets under your skin. For the first time, you may be thinking of seeing a couples therapist.
Attempts To Spice Up Your Relationship Might Fall Flat
If your marriage or relationship is struggling, you might find yourself going out of your way to spice things up. Perhaps you tell yourself “We just need a vacation together.” Yet when you actually go on vacation and spend lots of time with each other, you feel a gulf growing between you. It’s like you’re not on the same page anymore. Suddenly, the things you look forward to are not the things you do together. You may ask yourself: Where did we go wrong?
If this is how both of you feel, we encourage you to pursue couples therapy with us. Here at Sarah Moore’s counseling practice, our goal is to help you and your significant other reverse bad habits, learn new conflict-resolution skills, and deepen your intimacy and love for each other.
Even The Healthiest Relationships Go Through Stuck Periods
Every marriage and relationship has its ups and downs. People change, and that’s why relationships change. Sometimes, those changes involve two people growing apart from each other. When this happens, many couples worry that their relationship is doomed. But in reality, it’s very normal for couples to go through seasons of frustration and emotional distance.
Over the course of a lifetime, one relationship will generally be three different relationships. That’s because couples go through so many changes that their way of relating to each other has no choice but to evolve and adapt. In many cases, these changes come about because one partner develops mental health issues like anxiety or depression. It’s easy to feel like you’ve lost your partner when they’re struggling, and that’s why it’s so essential to seek support.
The Competitive Climate Of The DC Area Makes It Hard For Couples To Make Time For Each Other
Nowadays, there are so many demands that get in the way of a couple’s ability to spend quality time together. This is especially true in the Washington, DC area where we practice therapy. People face so much pressure to maintain successful careers that relationships often fall on the backburner. Workaholism is condoned and being too busy for your own good is considered a virtue. As a result, it’s “cool” to be exhausted—it shows you’re in high demand and have lots of professional obligations lined up.
While there’s nothing wrong with pursuing success, there is a downside to this demanding lifestyle. Marriages tend to disintegrate fairly quickly and people have a hard time maintaining commitments outside of work. Counseling is a chance to step away from the hustle and bustle and focus on strengthening your relationship so that it can withstand whatever challenges life brings.
Therapy Can Help Couples Repair Hurts And Rekindle Their Romance
We all fall into bad habits throughout our lives. And when it comes to things like exercise, diet, and substance use, many of us are open to the possibility of change. Yet when it comes to relationships, we tend to resist changing our habits. Because we want to be right, it’s hard to let go of negative patterns in our relationships.
Therapy can help you break down the defensive behaviors that keep you stuck in a cycle of conflict and work on improving the foundation of your marriage. Whether you’re married, unmarried, or engaged, we are confident that we can help you breathe new life into your relationship.
What To Expect In Couples Therapy Sessions
Counseling looks different for every couple. We’ll have most sessions with you and your significant other together, but there’s a possibility for occasional individual sessions if you and your partner feel that it would benefit you. The most important thing is meeting regularly, as it allows you to build up momentum for change and quickly implement the skills you learn.
In sessions with you and your significant other, we’ll help you improve communication, decrease conflict, and rekindle your intimacy. We’ll work on establishing safe boundaries and making your relationship a haven in times of distress. And if there is past trauma or infidelity affecting your relationship, we’ll help both of you repair your hurts and rebuild trust.
Although counseling may focus on your hurts at times, we also want to bring an element of fun back into your marriage. We want you and your partner to step off the treadmill of busyness and simply learn to enjoy each other’s company again. When this happens, it becomes much easier to lovingly and productively take your relationship where you want it to go.
Creating Your Couples Counseling Plan
Our counselors draw from many different approaches to help couples work through their stuck points. We often utilize the Gottman Method, which can give you relationship skills that are backed by science and proven to help couples repair hurts and nurture intimacy.
We also use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is all about troubleshooting to find the underlying issues in your marriage. CBT can help you learn to problem-solve together and work as a team when conflict arises instead of trying to one-up the other person.
Ultimately, if you’re reading this page, then that’s a sign that you want your relationship to succeed. And wanting it to succeed is often the most important ingredient in couples therapy. We will be in your corner helping you and your partner nurture, tend to, and strengthen your connection.
You May Have Some Questions About Couples Therapy…
I can’t get my partner to come with me.
This is a very common issue. If your partner is truly resistant to therapy, we can’t make them come. But we can offer a free consultation so that they can meet with a couples therapist and simply test the waters of counseling. Ultimately, it’s important to prioritize your own wellbeing regardless of what your partner decides. That’s why we offer individual counseling as a way for you to work on yourself and your role in the relationship.
Do we really need counseling? It’s not like we’re about to divorce.
We’re glad to hear that your relationship is going well. Believe it or not, this is actually the perfect time to start. It’s best to seek support before shit hits the fan, since both of you have the energy and optimism to tackle difficult issues together. It’s much harder to invest in your marriage when extra pain has been caused and conflict has increased. You don’t have to wait until your relationship is on its last legs—we encourage you to get help sooner rather than later!
Are you going to focus on my partner? They’re the one that needs the most work.
Couples counseling works best when both partners come ready to learn and own the energy that they bring to their marriage. If one partner is simply a “scapegoat” who’s blamed for the relationship’s issues, then the relationship can’t heal. What’s more, your partner probably won’t respond very positively to being scapegoated. But they probably will respond positively to you working on yourself and pursuing your own healing and growth.
Strengthen Your Relationship For Years To Come
Using CBT, The Gottman Method, and other science-backed approaches to couples therapy, we believe that we can help you and your partner reverse bad habits and renew your love for each other. To begin the healing process, you can call 703-261-4468 for a free phone consultation. You can also email us or use the website’s contact form.
