Love is easy; marriage is work—and that is expected. Disagreements and arguments are a healthy and inevitable part of being in a relationship. What is really important is how you argue. Fighting using a win-lose model to resolve disagreements erodes relationships and often leads to the blame game, causing both partners to feel angry and resentful. This is when you start to create a destructive pattern.
Dr. Schrag is an experienced marital therapist who will help couples better understand what they are feeling and why they are fighting. In the process, he teaches them a variety of techniques and communication tools to resolve conflict in a manner that increases mutual feelings of affection, closeness, and respect. With improved communication, couples are more apt to listen with love and care. They soften to each other and are better able to access the positive feelings that originally brought them together.
What A Marital Therapist Can Offer
Many people fear they will be blamed for the problems in their relationship if they choose to go to marital therapy, but relationships are not about blame. Rather than concentrating on the actions of one person, your martial therapist will remain neutral, shifting the focus away from what you did versus what your spouse did, to what you are doing together. What’s causing you to fall out of step with one another? Where is the disconnect?
In Martial Therapy You Will Learn How To:
- Disagree productively
- Decrease emotional avoidance
- Communicate effectively
- Address difficult issues so both people are heard
- Improve intimacy
- Learn skills to communicate effectively
- Understand and change unproductive interaction cycles
As you learn to nurture your relationship and become better listeners, communicators, and partners, your marital therapist will guide and support you both. Dr. Schrag maintains complete control over each session, guiding couples through constructive conversations and encouraging them slow down and really listen to each other with beginners’ ears so that both spouses feel heard. The goal is to increase positive interactions and to strengthen and sustain your bond as a couple.
Making the First Step To Help Your Marriage with Couples Counseling
Don’t wait until things becomes so bad that the integrity of the marriage is at stake. If you feel couples counseling may be worth it for you and your relationship, all it takes is the willingness to pick up the phone or walk through the door of our Katonah office for a commitment-free consultation. Addressing problems early on before things get too far out of control can make all the difference in finding hope once again.
To schedule your first martial therapy or couples counseling session in Katonah, NY with Dr. Schrag, call 914-232-8000 today.
Marital Therapy Orientation
Dr. Jonah Schrag is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Marriage Counselor in Westchester County, NY with over 30 years of experience. His approach to marital therapy is most influenced by the theories and practice of Sue Johnson’s Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Salvador Minuchin’s Structural Family and his years of teaching the skill training PAIRS course to couples.