Relationships and communication issues

Relationships are an important part of most people’s lives. If you are in a primary relationship and want to work with your partner to resolve difficulties that you are having, you may want to seek couples’ therapy together. On the other hand, individual therapy may be more helpful for you if you answer “yes” to any of these questions:

• Have you noticed patterns in your relationship(s) over time?
• Are you dealing with problems that concern you but not your partner?
• Are you afraid that you are re-creating aspects of you parents’ relationship in some way, that you don’t like?
• Are you not in a primary relationship, but experiencing difficulties in other important relationships?
• Are you dating but never finding someone with whom you want to try to get more intimate?

Creating successful relationships is often a matter of learning about yourself, and learning appropriate skills. Knowing your tendencies and personality traits can help you honestly assess both your needs and your desires. Clear communication can be a necessary skill, yet it is something that very few people recall learning in their early lives. Gender and culture can play huge roles in influencing communication patterns as well.

Working with relationships is a core piece of how MFTs work. Individual therapy can help you to:

• Examine why the relationships you form may not be as satisfying as you would like.
• Explore why you are not finding relationships that you want.
• Resolve difficulties with emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy.
• Identify change behaviors that are undermining the success of your relationships.
• Develop skills in “fair fighting”.
• Learn why certain relationships “work" for you and others don’t.
• Find solutions and fulfillment in all your relationships.

If you want to find ways to create happier and more meaningful relationships, therapy could be helpful. If you want to explore the possibility of working together, please call me for a free telephone interview to find out more about my work and to see how it would feel to work with me. If, during that conversation or a subsequent appointment, it becomes clear that we would not work well together, or if your needs fall outside of my scope of practice, I will be happy to provide you with appropriate referrals to other qualified practitioners.

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Relationship and Communication Links:

A website hosted by the BBC including articles on many facets of conflict. How to identify your style in managing conflict, productive arguing, etc.

This website provides a list of articles devoted to communication, including guidelines for fighting, talking about sex, and taking care of yourself.

A free online test site that will give you a basic idea of your personality type. This uses the Myers-Briggs personality types, based on the work of Carl Jung.

Additional Links on this Topic