Are you an Ottawa-area couple experiencing issues in your relationship or marriage? If so, you may be wondering at what point you should participate in relationship counseling or marriage counselling in Ottawa. Sometimes, relationships disintegrate slowly over time, and couples come in for relationship counselling when the relationship has turned sour. Other times, a specific issue can impact a relationship, causing you to seek immediate assistance. Below are some specific issues that relationship counseling or marriage counselling in Ottawa can help you deal with:
Infidelity – If you have issues of infidelity in your relationship, it is highly recommended that you seek relationship counseling or marriage counselling in Ottawa. A relationship or marriage therapist can guide you as you work through the reasons for infidelity, the trust issues that are created by infidelity, and can ultimately help the two of you decide whether, and how, you want to work through the affair.
Addiction – A person can become addicted to drugs, alcohol, or other substances. But you can also become addicted to gambling, video games, and various other activities. No matter what the addiction is, if one partner is suffering from addiction, it will put stress and strain on a relationship. If you are dealing with an addiction in your relationship, relationship counseling or marriage counselling can help you work through the issues of the addiction and how it is affecting your partnership.
Life Changes – Major life changes, including moving to a new area, having a baby, career changes, unemployment, a decline in health, a death in the family or retirement, can have a significant impact on a couple. Lack of communication around expectations and roles during a change can negatively affect any couple, even if the change is a positive one such as a new baby, getting married or a promotion. If you are an Ottawa-area couple that is going through any major life change, you may benefit from relationship counseling or marriage counselling. Counselling will allow you and your partner to set realistic expectations around the change, open the lines of communication, and help you transition to a new stage in your life together.
Financial Issues – When a relationship first develops, the last thing a couple want to talk about is money and finances. However, as things get more serious and you start sharing expenses and merging or maybe not merging your bank accounts, it can become apparent that the two of you may not see eye to eye when it comes to how you manage money. Navigating around financial issues can be difficult, as we all attribute different meanings to money, our beliefs and habits about saving or spending money. Relationship counseling or marriage counselling in Ottawa can help each of you to understand your partner values and opinions about money and to come to a better understanding that can improve your financial outlook as a couple and bring you closer together.
The Love is Gone – Has your relationship grown stale? Sometimes when you have been in a relationship or married for many years, when one of you travels a lot of work or after the birth of your children, it’s easy to feel that you’ve fallen out of love, or that you are no longer lovers but more like roommates. When you feel this way, going to relationship counseling or marriage counselling in Ottawa can help you to reflect on what is going on in your relationship, why you are with each other, and can give you strategies for freshening up the relationship and bringing romance back into your life together.
Relationships and marriages can be full of love and joy and they can also be full of hard times and hard lessons that no one can ever prepare you for. And it is through working through the hard difficult times and experiences that you learn how to be a stronger loving couple together. Call us at family-therapy and see how we can help you and your partner develop the relationship or marriage you want.