Marriage and Couples Counseling
Our Marriage and Family Therapists value the sacrament of marriage and family life. Couples counseling aids in restoring, healing, and helping relationships thrive. We Are Now Accepting New Couples Clients Via In-Person and TeleTherapy in Texas.
Marriage and Couples
The decision to go to marriage/couples counseling can be difficult. It means that a couple must admit that something is not working or needs to be examined. Our therapy recognizes the weight of this decision and we will affirm your desire and efforts toward healing your relationship.
Couples counseling typically involves conversations about skills to help with communication as well as addressing the emotional pain and difficulties that a couple has endured. Counseling can be an effective first step of growth for any couple.
Couples counseling can also be preventative and assist a couple in building deep roots that can weather the expected storms to come.
Our Counseling Approaches
Imago Relationship Therapy
Developed by: Dr. Harville Hendrix & Dr. Helen Kelly Le Hunt in 1980
The goal of Imago Relationship Therapy is to transform conflict into opportunities for connection and growth.
Imago uses the Couples Dialogue to restructure communication into an effective tool that increases understanding and connection. Couples are encouraged to a Relationship Vision Statement to stay focused as they learn new skills and explore their relationship and themselves as individuals, including the real reasons we choose our partners.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
Formulated by Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenberg in the 1980s based on attachment science
The goals of EFCT are to re-organize emotional responses, change relationship patterns, and encourage a secure bond between partners.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Developed by: Drs John and Julie Gottman
The Gottman Method of Couples Therapy is a structured approach to couples counseling, starting with an assessment and integrating research based interventions. Gottman Method starts with teaching new skills before increasing intimacy and developing a shared meaning.
The goals of Gottman Method Couples Therapy include disarming verbal conflict, increase intimacy and respect, and increase empathy and understanding.
Discernment Counseling
Developed by Dr. Bill Dohtery
Discernment Counseling is a process for clarifying if a couple wants to end their relationship or commit to work through their relationship concerns together.
The goal of Discernment Counseling is to understand how the relationship got to this point what what each partner needs to be motivated to continue in the relationship or to be confident in the decision to end the relationship. We take this discernment seriously and realize there are situations where separation is the best decision.
We also provide support through the annulment process.
How to Prepare:
When couple's get into cycles that are no longer working, it is important to remember that both people influence and contribute to that cycle.
Be prepared to acknowledge your limitations as well as your partner’s. It takes openness, patience, and vulnerability to heal and strengthen a relationship.
Know that our expert therapists are here to guide and support you along the way.
What to Expect:
Couples sessions are scheduled at 75 minutes. The first initial session will be a joint couples session where the therapist can get to know you as a couple, assess your goals for counseling, and get to know your story as a couple.
After the initial session, your therapist will likely want to see both partners individually for one session.
Subsequent couples sessions will be working sessions in which your therapist will help you as a couple learn to work through issues, develop better communication skills, and work towards the relationship you both want.
Results:
Results are dependent on you as a couple.
When both partners are invested and are open and honest, progress occurs quickest.
Relationships take work inside and outside the counseling room.
You need to put as much (or more) effort into your relationship as it took to arrive at the current status. Research shows that most issues take an average of x months of consistent counseling, where x is the number of years the problems existed.
Our hope is to restore and strengthen the marital bond and fight for the marriage as the Church teaches us.
Mount Tabor's therapists are experts in couples counseling, and they will work with you to get you to a healthy, happy, and fulfilling place.