Marriage Counselling
Are you feeling overwhelmed and disconnected in your marriage as you navigate transitions?
Marriage is a beautiful journey that also comes with challenges—especially when you’re navigating milestones and transitions like trying to conceive, pregnancy, becoming new parents, and raising young children. Each of these unique stages brings new joy and new demands and it is common for couples to struggle during this time. Based on John and Julia Gottman’s 40 years of research, one third of couples experience a decrease in marital satisfaction after becoming parents. With the support of our skilled therapists who specialize in marriage counselling, you and your partner can strengthen your relationship and partnership throughout the family building journey.
Who can benefit from marriage counselling?
Newly married
Trying to conceive and facing fertility challenges
Preparing for parenthood
Parents of newborns or young children
How can marriage counselling help?
Marriage counselling can help you and your partner to:
Learn healthier and more effective ways to communicate
Deepen emotional connection and sexual intimacy
Stop fighting about the same thing over and over again
Express frustration and disagreement without being critical
Repair after fights
Develop a parenting approach that is aligned with both of your values
Establish boundaries with extended family
Common challenges in a marriage
Managing in-laws dynamics
Navigating relationships with in-laws can be tricky with different values and expectations around traditions, money, parenting and more, especially across different cultures. This often leads to conflicts and feelings of disconnection and isolation in the relationship. Marriage counselling can help you and your partner understand each other’s feelings and needs, dive deeper into differences in culture and faith, learn to communicate effectively and respectively and establish healthy boundaries with extended families. Couples need to build a strong partnership where both of you feel heard and seen in a supportive partnership.
Navigating fertility struggles
Fertility challenges can be very stressful and mentally, emotionally and financially demanding. They can create tension and misunderstanding, leaving both partners feeling defeated and disconnected. Trying to conceive can also impact sex and intimacy as it takes away the romance of lovemaking, which instead becomes heavily timed, monitored and medicalized. You may also disagree on what type of fertility treatment or assisted reproductive technologies to try, putting further strain on the relationship.
We offer both individual fertility counselling and marriage counselling in a safe, sensitive and empathic environment to help women and their partners explore and express the roller-coaster of intense mental and emotional experiences that come with building a family. For couples who are unable to have biological children, our marriage counsellors can also help them process the grief that comes with letting go of hope.
Click here to learn more about Fertility Counselling
Coping with postpartum mood and adjusting to parenthood
The challenging period following the birth of a baby and the transition to parenthood can take a toll on your relationship. Many new parents feel like they are constantly in survival mode and feel emotionally drained and disconnected from each other. New mothers may also experience tremendous changes in their mood and body which may include symptoms of postpartum depression and anxiety. Marriage counselling can help you reconnect, communicate your needs and support each other during this major transition in your life together.
Click here to learn more about Postpartum Counselling
Understanding different parenting styles
You and your partner come from different family backgrounds and it is normal to have different opinions and expectations on parenting. Whether you’re struggling with setting boundaries, daily routines, or education, these differences in parenting style can result in conflicts and feelings of resentment and isolation. Marriage counselling provides a safe and non-judgmental space for you to share your hopes and dreams of raising your children in a healthier way. After all, the greatest gift you can give to your children is a loving relationship with your partner.
Decrease in sexual intimacy and satisfaction
Intimacy changes in a long-term relationship. Sometimes, one partner may have more desire than the other partner. With a lack of time and energy, changes in body, lack of emotional connection and shifting priorities, there is often a decrease in satisfaction with intimacy for busy parents with young children. It is important for couples to prioritize closeness and turn to each other and talk about intimacy, even if it feels awkward or uncomfortable.
Marriage counselling can provide a sensitive space to navigate your feelings and needs to reconnect with yourself and each other. You will also learn as a couple how to create self-care and rituals to help you transition to an erotic space and to be intentional about creating intimacy that focuses on pleasure.
