Marriage Counseling Techniques

There are many marriage counseling techniques that you can bring into your everyday life to strengthen your relationship. While going to therapy is the most helpful thing, if that’s not doable now, you can try at-home practices with these tried-and-true methods for increasing intimacy. Improve your communication with reflective listening, or explore each other’s love languages. Learning conflict resolution is very important for any relationship, especially a marriage. And sometimes, exploring childhood trauma through methods like Imago therapy can help you better understand your partner. Hopefully, you can use some of these techniques to strengthen your marriage and explore deeper parts of your relationship.

Marriage Counseling Techniques to Strengthen Your Relationship

Reflective Listening

While everybody knows that it’s important to be a good listener, one of the marriage counseling techniques that is quite helpful is learning to reflectively listen. This means that as your partner is talking, you can reflect on them your understanding. Actively listen to what they’re saying, and engage back with questions or discussion. You can also practice “I” language, which means stating things from your point of view rather than as observations. For example, you might say “I feel hurt when I say that” instead of “You shouldn’t say that.”

Love Languages

Exploring your love languages is another of the marriage counseling techniques that you can easily incorporate into your relationship. The idea is that everybody has a specific way of expressing and receiving affection. It might be through words of affirmation, gifts, spending quality time, acts of service, or being physically tough. Understanding your partner’s love language can help you both better communicate your affection for one another.

Conflict Resolution

One of the main reasons why people seek out therapists is to find marriage counseling techniques for conflict resolution. Often, it’s helpful to put yourself in your partner’s shoes to try to empathize with why they are feeling the way they are. Taking some time to reflect on the bigger picture of your lives together to decide if a fight is worth dwelling on, or finding compromises that work for both are also helpful ways to resolve conflict.

Imago Therapy

Finally, one of the marriage counseling techniques that can be explored a little bit at home is the Imago therapy method. This method is based on the idea that childhood experiences can influence our decisions as adults. Together, you and your partner can explore your childhoods to deepen your understanding of one another and hopefully, bring you closer. Marriage counseling is one of the best resources for a couple to strengthen their relationship. Whether you’re going through a rough patch or are feeling confident in your marriage, a therapist can still help you better communicate with one another. However, you can also practice some marriage counseling techniques together at home like practicing reflective listening. Or explore your love languages together – you can even take a quiz online to find out what your languages are. Working on conflict resolution and exploring your childhoods can also bring you closer as a couple. Whether it’s smooth sailing or rough waters in your marriage, counseling can be hugely beneficial in giving you the tools to make your relationship last.