Relationship distress is one of the most frequently encountered and disturbing human problems. Everyone who is in a relationship experiences difficulties, but for some, these troubles reach the point that partners become profoundly disappointed and upset about their relationship and may even come to question whether they want to continue to remain together. Relationship distress is very unsettling and the ways relationship problems often progress make it easy for things to go from bad to worse. However, in most situations, this flow in a negative direction can be altered. Most relationship can return to being satisfying. Sometimes people can make these changes on their own, but frequently help from a couple’s therapist is needed.
Couples can decide to see a therapist for multiple reasons such as problems with communication, intimacy, sex or infidelity. Often these issues are symptoms of more general unrecognized patterns of behaviour. For example, in an international community such as Phnom Penh, there are many cross cultural relationships. Different people from different cultures have different ideas of marriage, roles of men and women, sex, conflict resolution, raising children, etc. Understanding these differences can help couples resolve many of the difficulties that are occurring in their relationship.
We also offer pre-marital counselling to help people prepare for the change that marriage brings to their relationship. The average couple waits six years before seeking help for marital problems (and keep in mind, half of all marriages that end do so in the first seven years). Counselling can help you learn the skills that will improve your ability to communicate through conflict, and deepen intimacy and your connection with your partner.
Family Therapy
Family Therapists help family members find constructive ways to help each other. They work in ways that acknowledge the contexts of people’s families and other relationships, sharing and respecting individuals’ different perspectives, beliefs, views and stories, and exploring possible ways forward. Family Therapists thus not only support change with individuals but also in their relationships in the family and beyond, so children, young people, adults and/or those important to them are supported in continued recovery. Family therapy views a person’s symptoms as taking place in the larger context of the family. Just as a particular department in a business organization may suffer because of the problems in another department, a person with depression may be responding to larger family issues. For example, a depressed adolescent’s symptoms may be related to her parents’ marital problems.