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Why exactly do we need family counseling, or marriage counseling or couples therapy? Don’t these things come ‘naturally’ to us? Aren’t counseling and therapy something you need only when you are diagnosed with psychological disorders? Is this what you are thinking? Then you are not quite right. In your lifetime, you form various relationships. These may be through birth, such as those you have with your family members, or through social and legal bonds, like marriage or adoption. These relationships are one of the greatest sources of joy that humans ever experience. And yes, these bonds can seem effortless most of the time. But there are times when they can be sources of emotional, and even physical, stress. It is at times like these (and to preempt such times) that we need the appropriate type of relationship counseling, be it couples therapy, family counseling, or even grief counseling. Given below is a brief description of each type of counseling. Couples therapy/ Marital and Pre- marital counseling Marriage counseling need not be done only when relationships have become troubled. It can also be proactive, as in the case of pre-marital counseling. Couples therapy can help people understand each other before they are even married. It can highlight possible sources of conflict that can crop up in the future, and suggest ways to avoid these. This type of counseling becomes more essential in situations where the relationship is already troubled, and there are issues regarding communication, finances, sexuality, infidelity, parenting and substance abuse, and also in cases of divorce. Couples therapy helps people resolve these issues without bitterness, so that no partner will feel that they have had to compromise. Family counseling or therapy This can again be preventive. For instance, blended families, where there are children from previous marriages, may seek family counseling before any actual problems come up. Families, in which someone has been diagnosed with a terminal or serious illness, also need counseling, and they may seek it before the illness actually becomes serious. Family counseling can help resolve parenting issues like who has to bear what responsibilities with regard to the children. It also helps resolve conflicts between adolescent children and their parents with regard to issues related to trust and freedom. This type of counseling can also be helpful for single adults who come from troubled families, and who want to resolve their inner conflicts, as they are about to start their own nuclear families. Grief Counseling Loss and grief counseling is intimately connected to the above types of therapy and counseling, as we all have to face the loss of those we love, sometimes through death and sometimes through the breakdown of relationships, as in divorce. grief counseling can help you to grieve for your loved one, and yourself, in a manner which will help heal you so that you can move on later and form other meaningful relationships. Grief counseling could be for a single person, as when someone has lost a spouse, and has no other immediate family. Often it involves a whole family, as when a member succumbs to disease, or when it is breaking up due to divorce.
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