• Vaughan Relationship Centre: Counselling to Empower.

MARRIAGE & COUPLES COUNSELLING TORONTO

Because it’s time to build a stronger connection.

We’ll find a way to help you.

Many couples who come to us have struggled for years having the same argument over and over again, feeling the same dissatisfaction and experiencing the same loneliness in their partnership. It can be difficult to change well-established patterns after such a long time of shaping them. If you are struggling with your relationship, don’t feel connected to your partner, or if either of your trust has been broken, reach out to us today for couples therapy. Research shows that in any relationship it takes five positive interactions to outweigh a single negative experience. Let us work with you to start creating those positives again.

Communication

You might feel like it is impossible to get your partner or spouse to hear or understand you genuinely. The fear of causing an argument or getting shut down when trying to express your feelings is more common than you think. Most couples find themselves having the same argument over and over again. Sometimes the content is different or the trigger varies, but the argument at its core is the same. This becomes a negative dance that happens in the relationship, but we can help you find your healthy rhythm again.

younger couple

Most of our clients begin feeling relief from the distance and pain in their relationship by learning new tools in counselling. In our sessions, we will look at this negative cycle and help you understand how it happens and how to prevent it from happening on a regular basis. By drawing awareness of both partners’ own emotional experiences, we will guide you to restoring genuine empathy, understanding, and closeness between you.

older couple

As experienced couples therapists, we support you to actively engage with each other in an emotionally safe way. Sharing deeper feelings with each other in an atmosphere of empathy and shared vulnerability deepens intimacy while promoting mature interdependence and healing process. This will ultimately help improve communication and connection in your relationship.

Contact us to set up your first appointment and find new ways for you and your partner to better communicate and connect.

Sex Therapy

Sex therapy is simply the act of discussing any issues regarding sexuality in a therapeutic environment. Many couples don’t know how to tackle these issues themselves, as these are serious topics which need to be discussed, understood, and acted upon in the appropriate manner in order to find solutions. Sexuality is a vital part of any healthy relationship — ignoring any issues in this department can be harmful to the parties involved.

There are many reasons why our clients seek aid with issues surrounding their sexuality. Possible causes for sexual disparities between partners are almost too numerous to count, but some may include worries about judgment or self-judgment regarding sexual desires, reduced pleasure, differences in sexual needs/desires between partners, difficulties with arousal, performance anxiety or performance issues, and more. Oftentimes, issues regarding sexual intimacy in relationships stem from problems not related to sex in any way but connected to the emotional connection between partners.

We highly recommend that you speak to your physician prior to booking your first appointment. Discuss your concerns with them to ensure that there are no underlying health issues connected to your sexual concerns.

Contact us to set up your first couples therapy appointment and bring your issues surrounding sexuality to light.

Broken Trust (Betrayals or Affairs)

When there has been a betrayal of trust, an affair or infidelity, it can be a devastating time for the couple. Very often the injured partner finds themselves in the dilemma of whether they want to stay or leave the relationship. You might struggle with thinking, “I always said, if this happened to me I would never stay”, but finding yourself wanting to work it out. This is a confusing place to be and a good place to seek help.

The partner who did the betrayal or committed infidelity is usually remorseful and wants to repair the relationship, but is unsure how. In our counselling sessions, we will discuss the impact the affair or the betrayal had on the relationship and look at what was happening in the relationship that led to this place. We will also look at the interactional cycle between the two of you that was happening currently and prior to the betrayal or infidelity and find a way to repair that to prevent further betrayals.

We recognize that not all betrayals are related to affairs.  We can support you with any type of broken trust that you have experienced in your relationship.

Contact us to set up your first appointment and learn new tools to repair your relationship.

Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. – Christopher Reeve

Marriage Counselling

Whether your marriage is suffering due to poor communication, family-related interference, infidelity, substance abuse issues, or anything in-between, we strive to support you in finding resolutions. A stable marriage is built on love and trust, and perhaps something has happened to make it difficult to do either. We can help both of you re-identify what’s valuable and unique about your relationship – moving past hurt and frustration and towards reconnecting and repairing the marriage together. You and your partner will be given equal consideration throughout our counselling sessions.

Relationship Counselling for Individuals

Every relationship is built on the efforts of two individuals, who work together to maintain it and grow collectively. However, sometimes we need to take the time away from our significant other to piece together how to best move forward, free of emotional distraction and stress. By taking the time to discuss the relationship from your perspective with one of our knowledgeable specialists, you can learn how to strengthen bonds and develop an even more intimate and personal relationship with that special someone.

When one partner feels that counselling would be beneficial but the other is reluctant, the willing partner can attend on their own and learn how to make improvements on their end.  Your partner may be willing to attend later as they see you making changes to improve your relationship.

Our goal with couples therapy for one is the same as if both partners were there. We will listen to you and your story, try to help you gain a different perspective, and help you communicate in a way your partner is likely to hear you.

The power of solo therapy

happy older couple

As one person learns to stop acting in anger or withdrawing and to give forth radically more positive energy – more affection, appreciation, playfulness, insight, and willingness to listen and apologize for mistakes – both spouses will begin to feel better. In turn, feeling better builds patience for handling problems in a more respectful way and it builds a new basis of trust to open up to each other fully again.

happy young couple

As experienced couples therapists, we support you to actively engage with each other in an emotionally safe way. Sharing deeper feelings with each other in an atmosphere of empathy and shared vulnerability deepens intimacy while promoting mature interdependence and healing process. This will ultimately help improve communication and connection in your relationship.

What to Expect

The first and subsequent couples therapy sessions will last 75 minutes. 

At some point, your therapist will meet with you and your partner individually. These sessions are 60 minutes. 

At the first meeting you will provide us with a history of your situation and allow you to express your goals for therapy and your relationship. 

In our discussion, we will support you in understanding your interactional cycle that is creating difficulties in your relationship.  Most couples find themselves in a negative loop or cycle and struggle to manage it.  This is normal! 

When you are close to a situation, it can be difficult to navigate, and an outside observer can support you in developing tools to get out of it. Our goal is to support you, so you don’t need us as much or not at all. 

 

Emotionally Focused Therapy

We utilize a method known as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) when assisting couples in need of professional guidance. This has been proven to have a higher success rate with couples than other forms of therapy. EFT views emotion as the key to understanding how we experience ourselves and our relationships, as well as how our interactions with one another and ourselves have positive and negative impacts. It enables for a stronger development of closeness and an effective means of building intimacy through a more delicate and thoughtful understanding the inner workings of our minds and emotions.

The practice of applying EFT to treating our clients enables for a more organic and efficient means of mending wounds in relationships. It helps to encourage more consistent and open communication, honesty, and a mutual level of respect for one another through the exploration of the feelings and emotions of each person in a relationship. This can be utilized to recover from instances of broken trust in some cases, with the guilty half of the relationship gaining a deeper understanding of their emotional impact on their significant other and acting on that guilt to heal any wounds before the relationship is frayed further. In fact, this can strengthen such bonds in certain circumstances.

During the first session, which is seventy-five minutes, we’ll sit down and get to know the two of you to gain a better understanding of the problems plaguing your relationship and your individual stances on it being repaired. We’ll also chat with you about the reasoning behind your reaching out to us and whether or not you have both considered continued counselling sessions as a means of mending any damage. If continued therapy with our knowledgeable specialists is agreed upon, then we’ll move on towards individual sessions for each person in the relationship. This allows for us to separately get to know each of you and gain a better sense of what the underlying issues in your relationship are. We’ll then move back into couples sessions and begin to attentively and carefully piece together how to recover and strength your relationship with one another.

Some are uncomfortable with turning to a stranger for relationship therapy, no matter how professional and certified they may be. This is why we work on the basis of getting to know you politely, respectfully, and with your integrity and self-esteem in mind at all times. Our clients don’t think of us as a service provider, but a group of highly knowledgeable concerned therapist who are helping to guide them back onto the right path. Our mission is to provide each of you that very same experience.

Get In Touch

Contact us to set up your first appointment and learn new tools to repair your relationship.

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