How Can Therapy Help Me?

Learn what counseling can do to improve your life, relationships, and view of the world.

Therapy is an option that many people turn to when they want their lives and relationships to improve. They go to regular therapy sessions with a licensed therapist because they want to feel better about things that challenge them today. If you’re having a hard time moving forward with your life because of a childhood trauma, substance abuse problem, marital affair, mental health disorder, or for most any other reason, attending individual or couple’s therapy could help.

Here are some ways therapy can help you:

• By offering support if you’re not getting any. Your therapist will become someone you trust with your most sensitive issues. They’ll provide you with a safe place to open up about your feelings and the struggles that are interfering with your life so you can process your issues.
• By teaching you how to effectively communicate with other people so you’re less stressed and better able to take care of your needs. You’ll learn the importance of speaking your truth, and listening in a way that’ll help you understand other people better. You’ll learn what they feel and need, and you’ll be able to explain your needs with care and courage.
• By providing you with tools that you can use in place of unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms. Rather than turning to addictions, you’ll have other resources available such as CBT and DBT to help you navigate difficult terrain. Instead of being destructive, you’ll find constructive ways forward.
• By allowing you to work together with your partner or family to resolve issues that affect everyone. When you heal the individual, you start the process of healing your partners and families, too.

Strengthen the bond you have with yourself and the people closest to you. By opening up to a professional who is trained to help you move past challenges in your life, you accomplish several things. You get very good at asking for help when you need it. You no longer bottle up your feelings because you know that sharing you need assistance is far easier than going at it alone.

Learn more

The post How Can Therapy Help Me? appeared first on Heart-Centered Counselors.

source http://heartcenteredcounselors.com/how-can-therapy-help-me/

Three Great Couples Counseling Exercises

See for yourself the type of progress you’ll make in therapy.

Couples counselors often provide valuable insight that helps couples come to their own conclusions as to why their relationships need work. Exercises are sometimes used in therapy settings because they allow couples to actively participate together to come up with solutions that meet each other’s needs. Instead of giving ‘homework,’ engaging in work during couples counseling sessions initiates the type of response that is needed for healing to begin.

Three examples of great couples counseling exercises are described below.

The Gottman Method

For over 40 years, this nine-step process has been helping create healthier relationships. Couples counselors explore the steps with the couple. That way each idea is given the attention it deserves in context of helping the relationship.

The steps are:

• Building Love Maps.
• Sharing Admiration and Fondness for the Other Person.
• Stating Individual Needs.
• Choosing a Perspective That is Positive.
• Managing Conflict Instead of Rushing to Resolve It.
• Sharing Values, Hopes, and Dreams as They Pertain to Your Life.
• Sharing the Vision You Have for Your Future.
• Building Trust in One Another.
• Showing That You Believe in the Relationship and Commitment You’ve Made to One Another.

Thousands of couples have made progress in their relationships because of this exercise.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

Since the 1980s, EFT has been used in couples counseling. It consists of three steps. They are responding emotionally in different ways by expanding and reorganizing, creating tighter bonds between partners, and taking personal stances, repositioning them, and creating new interactions. This exercise has had a success rate of 90% in the past, making it an important tool for counselors.

Narrative Therapy Exercises

This counseling exercise allows both parties to narrate the story of their relationship as they experience it. They get to write about the things that bother them and possible solutions that could improve their partnership. A very simple approach to a complex subject, narrative therapy exercises are a go-to for therapists because they are very effective. People who have trouble speaking their mind often have an easier time putting words on paper.

Heart-Centered Counselors provides you with exercises, instruction, and a supportive environment to talk about your issues as a couple. If you haven’t looked into couples counseling yet, now might be the time to do so. You and your partner will benefit physically, mentally, and emotionally from the support our trained and experienced counselors provide. Don’t suffer in silence. We’re here to help.

The post Three Great Couples Counseling Exercises appeared first on Heart-Centered Counselors.

source http://heartcenteredcounselors.com/three-great-couples-counseling-exercises/