Couples Counseling 101
/When thinking about marriages and long-term relationships, they can feel overwhelming, especially with an estimated 50% of marriages leading to divorce. Knowing that marriage and relationship has its challenges, it is important to know where to turn for help when things get challenging. Couples counseling can be a great option to strengthen your relationship with your partner. This type of therapy looks beyond the individual and focuses on building up your relationship. There are many types of issues that can come up as a couple. Some common issues which present in marriage counseling include parenting, compromising, extended family, infidelity, and intimacy to name a few. Couples counseling can also be used as prevention and preparation on how to handle conflict and challenges before they arise. Couples counseling provides a safe and neutral space to heal, work through, and discuss these challenges in the relationship.
Potential Benefits to Couples Counseling:
● Improved communication
● Increased understanding of each other
● Conflict resolution
● Understanding between the couple
● Improved trust in the relationship
● Working as a team versus opponents
● Healthy coping during arguments
● Better intimacy and connection
What to Expect with Couples Counseling:
The first two to three sessions center around assessing and understanding the couple. The counselor will review key goals for the couple, relationship history, family history, and communication styles. This provides insight for the foundations of how the couple functions together. The rest of the sessions continue to work on ways to improve the way the couple listens and talks to each other. The couple will gain skills to better understand and work with one another. Since therapy sessions for couples counseling occur once a week or a couple times a month, the counselor will provide tasks to practice outside of therapy to continue to improve the relationship. This may include intentional time together, communication exercises, scheduling collaborations, etc. Since the client in the session is the relationship, the counselor supports what is best for the relationship, not one individual over another.
Assessment Option for Couples Counseling:
Couples counseling can improve individuals in a romantic relationship, engaged or married. One tool that can be used to increase knowledge and awareness around the relationship is an assessment called SYMBIS (Save Your Marriage Before It Starts). This assessment provides foundational information about communication styles, personality, family history, values, and key issues. The assessment can be used for an engaged couple preparing for marriage or a married couple. After reviewing this assessment with a SYMBIS counselor, the information can be a framework to spark and guide conversation around difficult topics. At The Counseling Collective, we have two Certified SYMBIS Assessment Facilitators who can provide and interpret the assessment. SYMBIS results are typically reviewed over a minimum of six sessions with the couple to provide in depth reflection and application of the results.
Cost of Couples Counseling:
One difference in marriage counseling can be the insurance help towards the cost of sessions. Most insurances do not cover couples counseling, since the main problem is relationship challenges and not a mental health diagnosis. In order to bill insurance, an identified client needs to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder. The sessions then need to focus on the individual with the mental health challenges and how the partner can support them. Since most couples therapy sessions are not related to these types issues, it is unethical for our practice to bill insurance for couples therapy. Additionally, we then have more flexibility with what we do in couples sessions since insurance is not involved. The focus of sessions can then be on the true needs of the couple.
Alternative payment options include health savings accounts (HSA), or flexible savings accounts (FSA). There is also an option to submit to insurance after sessions for potential reimbursement, but this would need to be verified with your insurance on your own. For individuals who are concerned about the rate, we offer reduced rate sessions with our pre-licensed therapists.
With any investment, it is important to consider the potential benefit. Knowing you can invest in your partner and your relationship can be rewarding and develop a stronger partnership.
The mental health therapists at our office offer counseling for a variety of issues including trauma using EMDR, depression, anxiety, grief, and couples counseling. We work with teens, adults, and couples. We also offer online counseling services which can be great for people with busy schedules or for people who live in parts of Pennsylvania with limited counseling options. You can check out our website to see the full list of counseling services that we offer. Or, Request An Appointment here.