Does Marriage Counseling Work? Tips to Finding an Excellent Marriage Counselor
If your marriage is in trouble, you're asking yourself right now, does marriage counseling work? If you've never been to a marriage counselor before you may be a bit apprehensive at the thought of giving your personal details to a complete stranger. It's a normal feeling to feel uncomfortable at that thought. However, being uncomfortable in the office of a marriage counselor beats the heartbreak of a divorce any day.
There are several types of counselors, and that may be confusing. There are Ph.D. and Psy.D type of doctors. They have spent at least 5 years at graduate school with a minimum performance of 3,000 hours of therapy under supervisions of an experienced psychologist.
There are also counselors that carry a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work), which have been trained to apply social theory to different situations. And then there are M.A. and M.S. counselors. Most of time when going through your insurance company to find a counselor, you will find this type of counselor.
Having been through this type of counseling, I can share with you a few tips of advice to finding an excellent marriage counselor. When I asked myself the same question...Does marriage counseling really work? I had no idea where to start.
I have had my share of good and not so good counselors.
The tips I have are:
1) Find a counselor who will listen to you speak and not make any quick judgments about your situation.
2) Find one who doesn't just give you a bunch of material to read and not give you any advice. Although reading materials may be fine, they don't bring out what is on the inside, which is something that should be accomplished in your therapy sessions.
3) A good marriage counselor will know the various stages of where you are at in the separation or divorce. He or she will know if you are currently just relieved to be out of a bad situation or if you are grieving, or several other stages when you are fighting to keep the marriage in tact.
4) A good counselor will also tell you what you need to do to better yourself. If this means getting exercise or journaling, he or she will make those suggestions and they should be followed in order to provide progress and healing in the marriage.
and, finally
5) A good marriage counselor will not appear to be judgmental of one partner over the other, i.e., be a "man hater."
These tips to finding an excellent marriage counselor come first hand and experience of all of these types of counselors.
Going through problems in a marriage can be very difficult, but truly when you ask if marriage counseling works, the answer is a definite yes.
There are several types of counselors, and that may be confusing. There are Ph.D. and Psy.D type of doctors. They have spent at least 5 years at graduate school with a minimum performance of 3,000 hours of therapy under supervisions of an experienced psychologist.
There are also counselors that carry a M.S.W. (Master of Social Work), which have been trained to apply social theory to different situations. And then there are M.A. and M.S. counselors. Most of time when going through your insurance company to find a counselor, you will find this type of counselor.
Having been through this type of counseling, I can share with you a few tips of advice to finding an excellent marriage counselor. When I asked myself the same question...Does marriage counseling really work? I had no idea where to start.
I have had my share of good and not so good counselors.
The tips I have are:
1) Find a counselor who will listen to you speak and not make any quick judgments about your situation.
2) Find one who doesn't just give you a bunch of material to read and not give you any advice. Although reading materials may be fine, they don't bring out what is on the inside, which is something that should be accomplished in your therapy sessions.
3) A good marriage counselor will know the various stages of where you are at in the separation or divorce. He or she will know if you are currently just relieved to be out of a bad situation or if you are grieving, or several other stages when you are fighting to keep the marriage in tact.
4) A good counselor will also tell you what you need to do to better yourself. If this means getting exercise or journaling, he or she will make those suggestions and they should be followed in order to provide progress and healing in the marriage.
and, finally
5) A good marriage counselor will not appear to be judgmental of one partner over the other, i.e., be a "man hater."
These tips to finding an excellent marriage counselor come first hand and experience of all of these types of counselors.
Going through problems in a marriage can be very difficult, but truly when you ask if marriage counseling works, the answer is a definite yes.
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