Couples coaching is especially helpful to premarital couples who are beginning to plan their life together. Coaching allows these couples to take an inventory of the strengths and weaknesses in their relationship and identifies sources of conflict which, if not addressed adequately, may lead to longer term problems. It also gives these couples a chance to reflect on what brought them together in the first place and what dreams they have for the future.
Marriage is challenging and complex. The stage of a marriage— where the family is in the life cycle — new parents, the teen age years, empty nesters — all impact how a marriage functions. Coaching can help marital couples[ link to article on The Weekly Summit] develop the necessary skills and resilience to function optimally at each life stage and to address the varying psychological and interpersonal tasks associated with each stage.
Long term marriages in which partners have been together for many years, sometimes experience periods of stagnation in which one or both partners feels restless. Coaching can help long term marital partners become more aware of what might be leading to a sense of boredom or a lack of fulfillment and it can help couples develop new strategies for building increased emotional satisfaction.
Marriages often undergo dramatic changes which require necessary shifts and accommodations when one partner becomes ill, loses a job, returns to school or when the family faces relocation. These can present pivotal points in a marriage and coaching can help marital couples face these life transitions while still maintaining the integrity of their relationship.
Sexual intimacy is an important part of building and maintaining a healthy relationship. Couples often struggle with sex in their relationship whether it’s because one partner is less interested in sex than the other, or because behavior outside the bedroom is impacting feelings of closeness or safety. Sex is a language. It is a way of communicating ones feelings of closeness, caring, attraction and love for a partner. Coaching can help address stumbling blocks or barriers to having a healthy and satisfying sex life.
Infidelity often creates a crisis in the life of a marriage. Extramarital affairs are usually symptoms of deeper problems in a marriage. Coaching can help couples identify what patterns of behavior or individual needs and deficits might have led to the infidelity. Coaching can also help couples work on healing their relationship and take steps to restore trust.
Couples coaching is extremely helpful to marital couples who’ve decided to divorce. It can help them think through the various changes they will face as the divorce becomes final. Issues of custody, visitation and financial responsibilities are all important to examine in light of the decision to divorce.
If there are young children in the picture, couples coaching can help divorcing couples work out their differences without placing their children in the middle of their conflicts and it can also help parents learn how to best help their children cope with loss and adapt to changing circumstances.