Creative CoupleWork is not the same as Marriage Guidance, but we may be able to save your marriage!
Traditionally, relationship counselling fell under the umbrella of Marriage Guidance, or marital counselling, and the field is still dominated by organisations whose origins were to save marriages, give marital advice, and help married couples manage their relationship better.
At the heart of marriage counselling was the notion that if couples learned to communicate better and develop more give-and-take, then marital problems would go away. Despite these good intentions, couples regularly come to us after this approach has failed.
For CreativeCoupleWorkers, learning to communicate well is important, yet we know that if couples try to avoid the conflict that an intimate relationship inevitably brings, opportunities for growth are missed and stagnation sets in. CreativeCoupleWorkers recognise conflict as and advance harbinger of New Life.
At the heart of marriage counselling was the notion that if couples learned to communicate better and develop more give-and-take, then marital problems would go away. Despite these good intentions, couples regularly come to us after this approach has failed.
For CreativeCoupleWorkers, learning to communicate well is important, yet we know that if couples try to avoid the conflict that an intimate relationship inevitably brings, opportunities for growth are missed and stagnation sets in. CreativeCoupleWorkers recognise conflict as and advance harbinger of New Life.
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Psychoanalytic Marital therapy attempts covers deeper, unconscious issues, and is a step in the right direction. However, even those who have received marital counselling from the most prodigious institutes have told us tales of interminable marriage therapy resulting in very little change.
Perhaps this is because psychoanalysis, despite excellent scholarship and powerful methods, doesn’t really have a model of health, let alone CreativeCoupleWork’s notion of intimate relationship as a vehicle for transformation.
Similarly, practitioners trained in individual counselling often find that, even though in theory they felt competent to offer marriage counselling, they are ill equipped for dealing with ‘live’ marital conflict, and how couples’ issues impact on them personally during sessions.
Being a couple is both enriching and demanding. Our therapists - unlike most marriage counsellors - are trained from the inside out to examine their own history and skill in relationships.
Getting to grips with what surfaces in a couple means daring to look in the Mirror of Self-reflection to see what has been disowned; it involves an understanding of gender polarities, being able to tolerate the cycles of life and death in relationships, untangling the psychic threads we find ourselves enmeshed in, and tracking how the wish to love can turn into a battle of power.
This is a big and worthy job, and CreativeCoupleWork has the breadth needed. To learn more about our vision of relationships see the following pages and read our book “Sex, Love and the Dangers of Intimacy”.
Perhaps this is because psychoanalysis, despite excellent scholarship and powerful methods, doesn’t really have a model of health, let alone CreativeCoupleWork’s notion of intimate relationship as a vehicle for transformation.
Similarly, practitioners trained in individual counselling often find that, even though in theory they felt competent to offer marriage counselling, they are ill equipped for dealing with ‘live’ marital conflict, and how couples’ issues impact on them personally during sessions.
Being a couple is both enriching and demanding. Our therapists - unlike most marriage counsellors - are trained from the inside out to examine their own history and skill in relationships.
Getting to grips with what surfaces in a couple means daring to look in the Mirror of Self-reflection to see what has been disowned; it involves an understanding of gender polarities, being able to tolerate the cycles of life and death in relationships, untangling the psychic threads we find ourselves enmeshed in, and tracking how the wish to love can turn into a battle of power.
This is a big and worthy job, and CreativeCoupleWork has the breadth needed. To learn more about our vision of relationships see the following pages and read our book “Sex, Love and the Dangers of Intimacy”.
