Relationship Counselling Services for Premarital, Marriage and Relationship Breakdown
Cultivating deep and meaningful relationships takes work
Developing relationships is a part of our everyday lives. It can be intimidating and challenging, but the rewards of establishing deep connections are incredibly fulfilling.
At Voices of Hope, we specialise in guiding individuals through various relationship stages, including pre-marital, marriage, and family dynamics. It is essential to prioritise the growth of the meaningful relationships that surround us.
Benefits of Counselling
People who maintain healthy relationships have longer lives and have fewer physical, emotional, and mental health problems. In contrast, being in a troubled relationship can have a negative impact on one’s self-esteem and ability to live life to the fullest.
There is hope for those who are struggling with their relationships. An increasing body of evidence, based on decades of couples counselling study, indicates that with adequate therapeutic help, couples can overcome marital challenges and live happy, satisfying lives together.
Closeness, communication, and commitment are the keys to genuine intimacy and marriage/relationship therapists can assist you in unlocking the doors to relationship success.
What could I talk about in a session?
If you are having trouble in any of the areas listed below, you are not alone. When problems occur in these areas, many couples seek assistance. Rest assured that all of these problems may be addressed and overcome via good marriage/relationship therapy:
- Communication difficulties
- Financial troubles
- Loss of intimacy and lack of honesty
- Loss of trust and infidelity
- Sexual troubles
- Controlling or harsh behaviour
- Blended and extended family concerns
- Perceive the relationship as one-sided
Getting Started
Relationships are as unique as the people involved. Each relationship is unique in terms of circumstances and problems, especially when diverse backgrounds, personalities, and value systems are involved. As your therapist, we will develop a constructive partnership with you. Together, we will identify critical areas for improvement and discover practical methods to assist you and your spouse to build a mutually beneficial, happy relationship.
We can assist you and your partner:
- Improve communication
- Manage conflict
- Cope with pressures
- Enhance emotional and sexual intimacy
- Reduce criticism and blaming behaviours
- Identify and develop interpersonal strengths
At Voices of Hope the relationship therapist employs evidence-based therapeutic models such as the Gottman’s Method for Couple’s Therapy Intervention and strategies like Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy (EFT-C) to assist clients in developing successful and happy relationships.
Marriage is a monumental decision that significantly impacts our lives.
Unfortunately, traditional education fails to equip us with the necessary skills for a healthy marriage. However, our Prepare/Enrich course offers a comprehensive toolkit to identify areas of improvement and potential mismatches before making this life-altering commitment. It requires dedication from both partners, but trust the process, it is achievable.
Supported by extensive evidence-based research, our relationship counselling provides a secure environment for couples to heal, be heard, and reconnect. We employ attachment-based treatment, which delves into individual attachment styles, including secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganised. By fostering secure attachment and effective communication, we empower couples to overcome challenges and establish a solid foundation for a lasting relationship.
Let’s embark on this transformative journey together! Click here to book a session today!
Relationship Methods and Models
The Gottman Method is an approach to couples therapy that includes a thorough check up of the couple’s relationship, and integrates research-based interventions based on the Sound Relationship House Theory.
The goals of The Gottman Method Couples Therapy are to disarm conflicting verbal communication, increase intimacy, respect, and affection, remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy, and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.
Please note that the duration of the couple’s therapy sessions may vary depending on the intervention. However, we will discuss this before the first session to determine our goals and the required time moving forward.
Prepare/Enrich is an evidence-based, systematic premarital assessment tool that can also be used to enhance and improve a married couple’s marital satisfaction.
The structure is as follows:
- Pre-assessment session
- Couple individually complete the online assessment
- Feedback session as they join together to share the results
There will be a follow up of six to eight sessions after the feedback session to do the additional specialised exercises in the couple’s workbook (provided) and conversations to make sure you are prepared or strengthen your marriage.
Need help with the following?
Explore strength and growth areas
Strengthen communication skills
Identify and manage major stressors
Resolve conflicts using the Ten Step Model
Develop a more balanced relationship using the Couple and Family Maps
Understand personality differences and maximise teamwork
Prepare/Enrich Counselling might be for you and your partner.
It is a very helpful framework for couples looking at premarital counselling or married couples that want to identify areas of strengthening. It is designed to cover all the major aspects of a couple’s life together that are important to discuss when preparing for marriage or when strengthening a marriage bond.
Prepare and Enrich is very reputable, highly researched, and widely used. In fact, it’s been the most widely used premarital and marriage assessment for 35 years. You can read more about this on the Prepare-Enrich website.
Certified Prepare Enrich facilitators, like Yeou-Ling will walk you through the program typically in two sessions, beginning with a pre-assessment session then you both go away to do an in-depth online assessment, and then come back for the results.
Based on you and your partner’s unique results, there should be six to eight post Prepare/Enrich follow up with couple’s counselling sessions to strengthen the couple’s relationship. With specific attention to identify strength areas and build growth areas, conflict resolution, financial management and other partner styles, habits and expectations using the assessment results and exercises from the program to ensure all the essentials are covered. Conversations will take place to make sure you are prepared for marriage or strengthen your marital satisfaction.
To book your Prepare/Enrich sessions, click here.
What relationship areas are assessed?
5 SCOPE Personality Scales
4 Couple and Family Scales – based on the circumplex model
4 Relationship Dynamic Scales
30 Customized Scales
Validity and Reliability
Based on research including over 500,000 couples, PREPARE/ENRICH has validity in that it discriminates premarital couples that get divorced from those that are happily married with about 80-85% accuracy. Reliability for the assessment is high (alpha reliability of .80 – .85).
Overall, PREPARE/ENRICH is an effective program used in therapy to improve couple relationships.