Christian Marriage Counseling

You and your spouse meet together for joint therapy sessions with a trained marriage counselor who will act as an unbiased mediator as he/she helps you pinpoint and understand the sources of your conflicts, as well as analyze both the strengths and weaknesses of your relationship.

During your first session at Rowlett Christian Counseling, your counselor will want to discuss your individual backgrounds and history, as well as the history of your relationship and the conflict(s) you are currently experiencing that have brought you to therapy, so that he/she can gain an understanding of your specific needs and be able to establish a basis for setting therapy goals.

He/she will then determine a treatment plan that best fits these needs and that will promote healing and positivity in your relationship. The degree to which you allow yourself to open up and be vulnerable and talk about the pain and insecurities you struggle with in your relationship will determine the success of your therapy experience.

Some common techniques for breaking down barriers in communication and developing healthy conflict resolution skills between you and your spouse that your counselor may use include:

• Reflective listening. Reflective listening is an exercise where you and your spouse take turns actively listening to one another. The one speaking uses “I” statements (instead of accusations) to describe his or her feelings and frustrations, and the one listening makes a conscious efforts to stay focused on what is being said and not only hear the words being spoken, but also try to understand the feelings behind them, and retain the complete message being communicated.
• Emotionally focused therapy. Emotionally focused therapy seeks to strengthen the bonds between you and your partner so as to establish a feeling of emotional safety with one another. Your counselor will help you each identify your individual emotional needs and help you meet them for one another by developing emotional awareness, compassion, and acceptance of each other.
• Narrative therapy. Narrative therapy views problems as separate from you and/or your partner, and uses externalization—describing your problems in narrative form—to distinguish this separation and remove any undermining conclusions that have gone unquestioned. The goal is to decrease conflict and increase cooperation between you and your spouse.
• Gottman method. The Gottman method is a technique designed to help you and your spouse better understand one another and learn how to manage your conflicts through positive communication rather than by becoming defensive, critical, condescending or deceptive.
• Imago relationship therapy. Imago relationship therapy emphasizes the connection between adult relationships and childhood experiences, and involves viewing the conflict between you and your spouse as the outcome of a specific circumstance rather than the cause of the disharmony. The technique aims at making you and your spouse more understanding and empathetic towards one another.
• Solution focused couples therapy. Solution focused couples therapy is a short-term, future-oriented technique that focuses on identifying your goals as a couple, and on finding solutions for how to achieve them rather than dwelling on the problems.
• Behavioral couples therapy. Behavioral couples therapy is a technique that focuses on shaping you and your spouse’s behavior towards one another by reinforcing the positive behaviors in your relationship that promote stability and satisfaction, and discouraging behaviors that foster negativity.
• Cognitive behavioral couples therapy (CBCT). CBCT teaches you and your spouse how to identify and change thought patterns that have a negative influence on your behavior.
• Religious cognitive behavioral therapy (RCBT). RCBT is a form of cognitive behavioral couples therapy that in addition to helping you and your spouse learn how to evaluate unhealthy thoughts and negative feelings towards yourself and each other and counter them with optimism and positivity, also enables you to explore your faith and relationship with God in a constructive, non-judgmental way.
• Premarital counseling. Addressing potential areas of conflict before marriage can be an important first step towards building a sound foundation for the future. At Rowlett Christian Counseling in Texas, premarital counseling is a way for you and your partner to really get to know each other and whether or not you’re on the same page as to where you stand on important issues such as managing money, dealing with in-laws, having children, and what your expectations of married life in general are, so as to prevent you and your partner from engaging in negative behavior that could lead to a breakup of your marriage should these issues arise after the knot has been tied. A trained marriage counselor in Rowlett can serve as an unbiased mediator, offering guidance on setting realistic goals, and teaching you how to resolve conflicts in a healthy and positive way.