Any relationship can come under strain from time to time. Married couples and long-term partners can experience intense periods of arguing, conflict and distrust brought on by any number of reasons. Even couples who have been together for years can suddenly find themselves always at each other’s throats or unable to effectively communicate what they need from their partner. Sometimes stressful life circumstances cause emotional outbursts and periods of fighting and frustration. In other couples unresolved issues and differences can suddenly emerge and lead to confrontation, and some long-term partners simply never learn to manage conflict well.

Problems with your marriage don’t always look like constant arguing and fighting. Increased avoidance of confrontation can be just as damaging to a relationship as the couple drift further apart and resentments build up over a long period of time.

Dysfunctional patterns of interaction within a marriage can include:

Demand and withdrawal: one partner tries to get the other to change their behaviour, causing them to shut down and withdraw from interaction. The more one partner withdraws, the more demands are placed and the couple continue to drift apart.

Attacking: where one partner’s need for change is interpreted as a personal attack. The attacked partner then responds in kind by pointing out things that the other partner has done wrong, leading to both partners feeling hurt without anything being resolved.

Labelling and over-generalising: where partners see specific issues that are wrong and over-generalise them to being characteristic of their partner as a whole. This leads to viewing the relationship and each other as more flawed than they really are.

Different sexual needs: which can creating hurt feelings and frustrations when one or both partner’s needs are not met.

Frequent arguments, or repeated arguments about the same topic, indicating an inability to communicate effectively and move on from problems. Such problems can lead to deep feelings of hurt and unresolved anger.

Couples can easily find themselves in the situation where they no longer see any good in their relationship and no longer desire to remain together. Given how important your partner is in your emotional wellbeing, a difficult relationship can cause all kinds of problems from increased stress and anxiety to depression. We offer effective and evidence based marriage counselling and our couples’ therapy has proven effective in restoring harmony to relationships after years of discord.

We can Help You Re-connect with Your Partner Through Effective Relationship Counselling. At KM Therapies we have years of experience in repairing relationships and helping restore trust and effective communication to couples who find themselves fighting all the time. Our marriage counselling is ideal for married partners and long-term couples who need to re-connect and resolve long standing issues. The first step as part of our expert relationship assessment is to provide you and your partner with ways of effectively communicating with each other.

We can show you how to resolve conflicts and overcome difficulties without resorting to fighting. By listening to your partner’s view of your relationship you will come to understand their needs more clearly, and our marriage counsellors give you both a safe environment to express your needs and dissatisfactions. Once a better pattern of communication has been established, we can start to look at the underlying differences and disagreements which are causing you to drift apart.

By working with your partner instead of against them, and under the guidance of our highly experienced marriage counsellors you can begin to resolve long-standing disputes and work towards creating a supporting, trusting relationship. You can re-discover your love for one another by stripping away the layers of resentment and distrust.

We can help you re-connect and give you the tools to manage argument and conflict so that you are prepared to face whatever the future brings.