Why seek therapy together, as a couple?

In our relationships, we allow ourselves to be intimate with our partner, we accept to share parts of ourselves that we would not express, expose to, or experience with any other person, and which reflect our innermost being. This shared intimacy both soothes and energizes us.

When intimacy in a relationship is lost, the couple faces a crisis situation. Crises are a regular occurrence in couples’ lives. These critical periods may be due to physical, socio-economic or psychological changes and can damage a relationship. However, a crisis is actually a wake-up call telling partners to seek coherence and meaning in their relationship and to bounce back instead of giving in to boredom or withdrawing from the situation. Couples therapy, where both partners can be involved, provides a time and a space to pause, observe and optimally manage these difficult transitions in a relationship.

Gestalt therapy heightens our awareness of the ‘here and now’ and the unspoken words in a situation so that both partners may acknowledge and genuinely take into account their differences, in terms of the individual feelings, emotions and approaches of each partner that are being played out in their relationship. The way partners manage these dissimilarities is actually much more important than the dissimilarities themselves, as explored in couples therapy.