Couples Therapy Philadelphia
Reconnect, Communicate, and Love Better Together with Couples Therapy at The Therapy Gal—your trusted partner for personalized healing and growth.
How to fix a relationship
Life’s a roller coaster, and love is no different. An intimate relationship, no matter what it looks like, is bound to have its ups and downs. This is a natural and normal part of life. But when the downs feel a little more down, turning to couples counseling can help you smooth the ride out a little, strengthening your relationship and creating the love of your life.
What is Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy (also called couples counseling, marriage counseling, or relationship counseling) focuses on improving the relationship between two or more people. It makes no judgments about relationships and can be used widely through all shapes and sizes of relationships. This includes monogamous, polyamorous, LGBTQIA+, interracial, age difference, and other relationships.
Improving the relationship can include addressing things like recurring conflicts, feelings of disconnection, affairs, issues related to sex, or issues that come from external stressors.
Couples Therapy vs. Marriage Counseling: Are they the same thing?
Yes. Although each couples counselor has a different focus and specialty, the terms “couples therapy,” “relationship counseling,” “marriage counseling,” and other varieties of those are used interchangeably, meaning basically the same thing.
Goals of Couples Therapy
Improve Understanding and Empathy
The major goal of couples therapy is to improve the relationship between you and your partner or partners. To do this, there’s a focus on enhancing empathetic understanding, including the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and comprehend their feelings. Your couples therapist at The Therapy Gal will guide you through ways to increase effective communication, providing opportunities for mutual growth and understanding.
Make You Better Apart and Together
A relationship requires a minimum of two people, and each person is equally responsible for how the relationship functions.
This means that your relationship and how it works are important to couples therapy and who you are individually. In couples counseling, you’ll learn ways to feel better together and apart so that you can elevate your relationship and entire life.
Ease Tension in Relationship
All relationships have sources of tension and troubles; that’s a normal part of life and being together. But when these tensions stack up and become too much to deal with together, it’s important to find ways to ease them and deal with them better.
What are some of the most common relationship problems?
- Money
- Fair distribution of housework and other chores
- Children and Parenting
- Infidelity (emotional or physical)
- Physical Intimacy Issues
- Extended family obligations and issues
- Frequent arguing
- Careers
- Sleeping habits
- Substance use
- Past relationships
- Unhealthy behavioral patterns
Do we need marriage counseling?
Sometimes the prospect of going to couples therapy is an obvious solution. Maybe your relationship has gotten us to such a bad place that the only hope is for you and your partner to work together with a couples therapist to regain your happiness.
Other times, going to couples therapy isn’t such an obvious solution. Addressing relationship issues early and often, BEFORE they become overwhelming, is a terrific way to make sure you’re on a path to the most loving relationship possible.
Ask yourself if these statements ring true for you or your partner:
- Everything my partner does seems to annoy me.
- I don’t even know this person anymore.
- Our sex life has changed or declined.
- I think (or know) they’re having or had an affair.
- I don’t know how to talk to them, listen to them, or make them listen.
- I feel like we just exist in the same space as near strangers.
- It feels like there’s no way we can resolve our differences.
- We’ve been experiencing intimacy issues.
- One or both of us has considered an affair
- We stay together for the kids.
- We’re just going through the motions.
- We must work through something that’s happened, such as a life event or affair.
- We don’t see eye to eye on one or many issues (including everything from finances, raising children, social engagements, work, and more)
Is Couples Therapy Just for Married Couples?
Not even a little. Couples therapy is meant as a way to reconnect, revive, and rework your relationship with an intimate partner. This can be any kind of close relationship, no matter what level of commitment or legality you’ve reached. What matters is that you have true and deep feelings for the other person and want to make the relationship work happily.
What to Expect from Couples Therapy
Gottman Method
The Gottman Method is a common form of couples counseling that focuses on identifying problem areas and working to find better ways to deal with them. This is frequently related to building healthy coping and problem-solving skills while opening and strengthening lines of communication. Its goal is to boost the quality of friendship with your partner while increasing intimacy of all kinds.
Talking About the Hard Stuff
This might seem to go without saying, but you’ll need to talk about potentially uncomfortable things during couples counseling. Couples therapy seeks to understand and alleviate your problems like any kind of therapy. To do that, your couples therapist needs to know what they are and get to the root of them by asking compassionate probing questions.
For example, suppose you’re in couples counseling to discuss infidelity, chore disparity, unhealthy behavioral patterns, or other sensitive issues. In that case, you’ll be given compassion and respect above all else but will still have to talk about the issue and accept help for it honestly.
The couples therapists at The Therapy Gal are here to help!
We know that your relationship and any difficulties you might be experiencing in it are a sore spot. This is a person you care deeply about, share life with, and are struggling with in that relationship. However, when coupled (pardon the pun) with the stigma erroneously associated with therapy, especially couples therapy, finding your way to a couples counseling office might seem scary, awful, or just plain unappealing.
As couples therapists, we intimately understand how talking about this intimate relationship is daunting. We approach all our clients with empathy, kindness, and understanding. We don’t see you as a problem to be fixed or solved, and we certainly don’t see your relationship as a battle we can referee to tell you which spouse is correct.
We see ourselves as compassionate listeners here to give you and your partner the tools to communicate and love better. We utilize the Gottman Method to help identify problem areas and help you discover problem-solving tools you can use in every facet of your life.
We pride ourselves on our ability to put ourselves in our client’s shoes and teach them how to do that in turn. You will never find judgment or condemnation behind our couples therapy office door, but instead understanding and gentle acceptance.
We offer an accepting and growth-oriented environment for relationships across the spectrum, including LGBTQIA+, interracial, age difference, blended families, monogamous, and other kinds of relationships. You’re at home and accepted with the couples therapists at The Therapy Gal.
Find Your couples therapist in Philadelphia, PA, NJ, or Online
Couples therapy has an unfair stigma attached to it that we at The Therapy Gal are looking to dispel. We believe in the integrity and importance of a healthy, happy relationship, and we’re here to help you and your partner create the relationship of your dreams, no matter what it looks like. For more information, book an appointment with your Philadelphia couples therapy and New Jersey couples therapy experts at The Therapy Gal.
Frequently Asked Questions about Couples Therapy (NJ / PA / Online)
My partner doesn’t want to go to couples therapy.
This is a common question for a lot of people. We understand that couple’s therapy requires both partners to want to change and grow. With that being said, if this is the case for you, we recommend starting out therapy on your own. Our therapists are all systemically trained, which allows them to see you as a part of your entire system. Even if your partner never attends a session, you would be able to gain valuable relationship skills that might help change the cycle at home.
Can marriage counseling hurt a marriage?
Sometimes when we open Pandora’s box, it can feel overwhelming and exhausting. This is especially true for couples who tend to bottle everything up. However, as trained couples therapists, we make sure to mediate and control the setting so that conversations do not escalate. Once you receive the tools to have structured conversations around conflict, you will notice how easy and important it is to communicate with your partner about issues you might have.
We’re honestly doing well, so we’re not sure we need couple’s therapy
Chances are that if you’re here, a part of you is curious what couples therapy might offer you. As stated before, couple’s therapy is not only for couples who are facing hard times. This is why we offer relationship check-ups for couples who are happy where they are, and want to make sure they stay that way.
What are the benefits of couples therapy?
Couples therapy can help improve communication skills, increase understanding of each other, enhance empathy and intimacy, and work on reconnecting with your partner. Additionally, couples therapy can help both you and your partner form better insight into your patterns of behavior, and work to strengthen your relationship overall.
What are some common issues that couples therapy can help?
Couples come in for a variety of reasons. Some include: communication problems, infidelity or trust issues, conflicts and arguments, differences in parenting styles, sexual difficulties, or struggling with making major life decisions (such as having children or moving). Couples therapy can also provide a safe space to explore feelings around separation or divorce.
How often should you go to couples therapy?
Couples therapy is tailored to meet the couple’s needs. Once the therapist meets with you, they will be able to recommend the course of treatment and how often you will be requested to meet. It is impossible to tell off the bat how many specific sessions the couple will need.
Can you go to couples therapy alone?
Typically, you will both need to be present in session together. However, there will be times when your therapist may suggest for one partner to attend alone. Meeting separately is typically recommended in order for the therapist to get to know each partner individually.
Do you offer couples therapy in Philadelphia?
Yes! Our office is located in center city at 255 S 17th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Do you offer couples therapy in New Jersey?
Yes! We offer couples therapy in New Jersey with therapists that will be able to see you online.
Do you offer online couples therapy?
Yes! We offer online couples therapy as long as you live in PA or NJ.