Inside a couple therapy session

Before making the painful decision to break up, many couples decide to go the route of ‘couple’s therapy’ in an attempt to ‘save’ their relationship. However, not everyone knows what it is, what kind of impact it has and how the various meetings in front of experts are conducted. So let’s take a look at some useful information that can help couples understand how couples therapy sessions work in the studio.

Couple’s sessions structure

It is a path intended for many reasons: not only for couples with serious relational problems in progress, but also for partners who get along well but wish to discover the ‘secrets’ of a good relationship, to improve communication, understand how to deal with everyday problems and prevent conflict. Communication is in fact the key to a happy relationship, and this is precisely the aim of couples therapy: to confront the two partners with their respective ‘shortcomings’, understand where they are going wrong and try to restore the balance. The key to rediscovering happiness with your partner is this: engaging in couple’s therapy helps you to gain a new awareness of your own behaviour through regular sessions that highlight how your relationship is progressing. Couple’s sessions are structured in meetings of varying length (about one hour) held individually (one partner separately from the other) or jointly (both partners together). The intensity of the sessions is also variable: they can be weekly or fortnightly, depending on the degree of conflict and the situation. In front of the specialist, the couple’s history is told (to understand what changes in their lives have led to the onset of conflict), and the therapist then proposes therapy (if he or she considers it necessary), giving indications on the methods, times and costs.

After the first two or three sessions, the couple’s actual journey begins, with sessions that may end with the specialist’s point of view and the assignment of “tasks” for the home, so as to “re-accustom” the couple to managing their union. The aim of therapy is therefore to analyse the conflicts between the partners, understand their nature, decontextualise them and provide solutions to resolve the problems, so as to recognise the misconceptions of each partner, detect behaviours that the two could adopt to promote harmony in the couple and understand how to ‘accept interpersonal differences.