What Are The Goals of Couples Therapy?
The goals of couples therapy vary for each individual and couple. Goals are developed collaboratively with your therapist, with the most direction coming from you and your partner’s needs, desires, and hopes for the relationship.
In this article, you’ll learn about some common couples therapy goals and how a therapist can help you choose and meet your goals. We’ll also explore the importance of goal-setting based on your unique relationship to help you and your partner find success in couples therapy.
What is couples therapy?
Couples therapy allows couples to work with a licensed therapist to overcome challenges in a relationship for more joy with and appreciation of each other. Couples therapy can offer the support you need to understand, identify, and heal for a healthy relationship.
During couples therapy, your therapist will help you and your partner address your relationship, observing and discussing how each of you shows up and experiences your relationship. When I work with couples, we create a plan and develop strategies for significantly improved communication and deeper interpersonal understanding for both of you as individuals and together as a couple.
The Goals of Couples Therapy
Couples therapy goals depend on your specific needs and desires. Couples can be deeply nuanced, so it’s vital to develop goals that will help you and your partner grow together for greater ease and sustained harmony in your relationship.
Some couples have a primary goal they want to work towards, while others have multiple goals for couples therapy. It’s also not uncommon to set new goals over time as you evolve together and individually.
While there is a wide range of goals you might work towards, common goals of couples therapy include:
Developing productive communication
Navigating challenging family dynamics
Improving intimacy
Identifying the root cause of behavior patterns
Managing anxiety and/or depression
Healing psychological and emotional wounds
Overcoming individual differences
Learning how to cope with financial stressors
Handling parenting challenges
Goal Setting in Couples Therapy
When I work with couples, I am an active participant in the goal-setting process – empowering you, as individuals and as a couple, to recognize the strengths you already possess. Strength-based goals for couples therapy allow for productivity, fulfillment, and overall well-being. Whereas overly focusing on struggles and deficits can undermine the potential for successful couples therapy
Sometimes, you may struggle to recognize your capabilities when goal-setting. In such cases, I help you bring those capabilities to conscious awareness. This awareness offers clarity so you can understand and embrace your skills and work towards a thriving relationship with each other.
My Goals as a Couples Therapist
As a clinical psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist, my goals for couples and relationship therapy are to:
Increase each of your capacities for critical thinking about your own mental patterns, feelings, and behaviors, ultimately teaching you how to do this for yourselves
Apply my expertise to your current communication patterns, helping you make sense of your differing perspectives on the nature of “the problem”
Bridge your paths toward mutual understanding and validation
Create a new, unified language that leaves each person feeling seen, heard, validated, and hopeful about the future
When you genuinely participate in couples therapy, it can transform your perspective on yourself and each other.
Goals of Couples Therapy: Conclusion
Ultimately, the goal of couples therapy is to improve the functioning of your relationship and for each of you to feel more satisfied and fulfilled. Possible outcomes include:
You stay together and enjoy a significantly improved relationship
Your relationship was doing well and starts to be even better
You decide to consciously uncouple and move forward in a new way
You each gain clarity on relationship uncertainty and find healthier ways to live in this “gray area”
If you’re interested in exploring couples therapy, schedule your free 15-minute consultation.