Couples Therapy

What is Couples Therapy?

Systemic Couples Therapy is a solution-focussed approach to couples relationship issues. While traditional talking therapies typically focus only on the client, the systemic approach offered takes in the whole picture. The picture of the couple as part of a larger set of systems – family, community, ethnic group and so on. By seeing ‘what is’, rather than our usual incomplete and imagined picture, the systemic approach creates the potential to clarify hidden dynamics that often include previous generations or rejected elements. By looking at what may be entangling you and creating tangible issues in your current relationship, we can begin the process of finding a solution. Systemic couples therapy allows couples to explore the difficulties they are experiencing in their relationship in the context in which they occur.

Traditionally couples wait until very late in the game to seek intervention and guidance for their difficulties by which point, one or both may have decided to call it quits. For this reason Couples therapy can be particularly useful prior to getting married, prior to starting a family or during the process of getting divorced.

Conscious coupling

Planning for your wedding means more than deciding on the location and flowers. Planning for your wedding means planning how to share your life harmoniously with another person. It means going through the potential areas of conflict, and finding a way to communicate with each other so that when issues and frustrations arise, you have an agreed common language for discussion that can support and sustain harmony and respect.

In the realm of the church couples were given this support for premarital education by their priest or rabbi. In the modern world, where divorce is on the rise, more and more couples are seeking premarital education from other sources. As a result these couples experience higher levels of marital satisfaction with significantly fewer ending in acrimony and divorce.

A skilled and experienced therapist like Zita can help you build a solid foundation for your future together. She can also help you find out what you should discuss with your future partner before walking down the aisle, jumping the broom or tying a civilised knot.

What are the benefits of pre - marriage couples therapy?

You will learn how to talk so that the other will listen and listen so the other will talk. You will learn communication skills that will last a lifetime. It can be challenging to raise uncomfortable issues with your partner we all have things we feel ashamed of or would rather another person did not know about us. For many, to say and do nothing seems like an easier solution. In reality the easier solution is to find a solution. It is so important to be able to express yourself, to be able to discuss even simple things in a non-confrontational way. The added benefit is that it will bring a positive outcome in other areas of your life that you may not have anticipated.

Conscious uncoupling

When a couple have decided that their relationship is over, life can seem devastating and raw. They are making the choice to break up the most important relationship in their lives. It never happens without pain and grief, whatever the circumstances, even if everyone agrees it is for the best.

If there are children involved, it is so much better for them to have parents who are able to communicate kindly and respectfully with each other and who are still able to honour and value each other. Everyone benefits.

Life Therapy with Zita for couples offers the opportunity to address the root cause of problems, gain new insights, deeper understanding and an experience of healing and peaceful solutions.

For more information contact Zita.