Couples Counseling is a form of therapy where you meet with a relationship counselor who will help you make the most of your relationship by setting goals, identifying your deep desires, helping you recognize and become accountable for the way you may contribute to negative patterns in your relationship, learn new skills to turn a difficult or average relationship into your dream relationship.  

During Couples Counseling you will meet with your relationship counselor together with your spouse or partner.  In Relationship Counseling, you can work with your relationships counselor on your own without your partner or spouse present

This depends on your current situation.  If your spouse or partner is willing to join you in therapy and you are both willing to work towards listening to each other, becoming accountable and learning new skills then Couples Counseling can be very beneficial.  If your spouse or partner is unable or unwilling to attend couples counseling you can still make major changes in your relationship in Relationship Counseling. 

At Restoring Minds Counseling, I like to use a hybrid approach where some sessions are together as couples and some sessions are individual.  The individual sessions give each person a chance to work on processing the way they approach the relationship and learn better ways to express themselves, become accountable for any ways they contribute to negative patterns in the relationship and to work on family of origin issues, past relationship struggles, or any other concerns that may be better explored on your own. The couples sessions are focused on practicing the skills learned in individual Relationship Counseling, progress being made, shared goals and dreams and expressing desires and concerns with each other.

‍Couples Counseling is for people who are actively in a relationship: married, partnered, or dating in which both people are willing and motivated to work on the relationship together. It can also be for divorced couples working on coparenting, couples who are split up but want to see if they can make their relationship work or couples who are dating or engaged.  Relationship Counseling can be for anyone who wants to improve their relationships, process struggling relationships, process past relationships, work on choosing healthy partners, and who want to learn healthy and positive patterns in relationships. Relationship counseling can also be for single individuals, divorced individuals, co-parenting struggles, people who  want to learn healthy family dynamics, work dynamics or other social relationships struggles.