Maybe your relationship isn’t everything it used to be. If you try to talk to your partner about it, they get angry, or refuse to discuss it because they think you’re trying to blame them. Or perhaps they are always trying to tell you how you need to be different. Sometimes you aren’t sure if the problem is you or them. Whatever the discussion is about (money, relatives, sex, children, work…) somehow it isn’t possible to have a sensible conversation. Maybe you feel lonely in this relationship.
I specialise in relationship therapy. I can help get things back on track.
I particularly work with people who are having relationship difficulties such as:
- difficulties with communications
- arguments or conflict
- an affair or infidelity
- disagreements over parenting, over money, over in-laws...
- arguments about nothing!
- disagreements over sex, or different levels of sexual desire.
Please check my "Contact, Availability, and Charges" page and contact me if you have relationship problems like these. (I am based in Surbiton, convenient for Kingston upon Thames, Thames Ditton, Raynes Park, and Wimbledon.) We can set up a first session to understand what is going on. If after the first session, you decide not to proceed, I will not mind, and will happily refund the cost of that session. You have to find a counsellor that's right for you. Most of my work is on Zoom, but I do have some face to face sessions on Sundays in Surbiton.
Please feel free to contact me.
Talking to a couples counsellor
Talking to a couple counsellor, also known as relationship therapy or marriage guidance, can help to get your conversation going again. It can be a relief to each be able to express your point of view safely. A relationship counsellor will be non-judgemental and will not be trying to decide which of a couple is right, or who wins the argument. Very often, one of the couple is more keen to do counselling than the other. This is normal. Again, please feel free to discuss it with me if this concerns you.
I do not generally think of my clients in terms of having something wrong with them, but rather in terms of having got into a bad pattern of interaction. I often use the approach of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT for couples). EFT for couples is rated by the Society of Clinical Psychology as having "strong research support", the highest grade.
If you are having problems, it is much better to address them sooner rather than later.
I also offer individual work with men.
See my "About" page for more about my approach.
Latest blog post - Compatibility and Difference?
When a couple first get together, they often notice all the things they have in common. They focus on how they are like each other. They become a single unit.
Then maybe after a year or a few years, they start to notice they have differences. They start to recover their individuality from the coupleness. This is healthy. It's a strength in a couple to have separate opinions, thoughts, feelings, approaches. But sometimes people panic, they think something must be going wrong that they are no longer "fused" together. Actually this is the basis for a long-lasting relationship, to respect each other's different ideas opinions and feelings.
In terms of "incompatibility", the one that most springs to my mind is the difference between a morning person and an evening person. If one partner wants to be early to bed and early to rise, and the other is a night owl, this can be challenging for their sexual connection. And it's not easy to change. But with goodwill, even this can be navigated.
If one of you is vegetarian and the other not, or one likes rom-coms and the other likes action movies, or one likes beach holidays and the other likes skiing holidays, or whatever, this is not incompatibility, this is something to celebrate. As long as you don't take it personally!
If this is difficult, I can help steer you through it.
You can find more short notes like this on my Blog page.
Can you change?
Here's a good article about making real change from Psyche Magazine.
https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-save-a-romantic-relationship-thats-on-the-brink
It explains that there is no point re-hashing the "surface" problem in the relationship (e.g. money, parenting, the dishwasher, in-laws). What's needed is to fix how you discuss it. Are you able to talk constructively? And this will require both parties to be willing to try behaving differently. Notice how you are breaking the guidelines in the article. For example, stonewalling, mind-reading (telling your partner what they think) or cross-complaining. It's worth a read.
Again, I'm happy to talk it through with you in couple therapy sessions if you need help with this. We can talk about how you communicate, rather than about the right way to load the dishwasher.
To men
Masculinity today is a puzzle: how are you supposed to be these days? Strong? Or emotional? Should you show your feelings? How can you be "emotionally supportive" in a masculine way?
Have you perhaps looked at men’s web sites, or the book “No More Mr Nice Guy”?
As I am a man, I am aware of these issues. I understand the problems that men face in relationships. As a couples counsellor I can help you with them, without trying to push you into a feminine way of dealing with them. Men and women often tend to have different ways of dealing with emotions and relationships.
Other sources of support for couples
Many good books on marriage and relationship problems are available - I particularly recommend those published by RELATE on topics such as infidelity.
Internet Forums - there are quite a number of free marriage guidance forums and discussion groups on the internet where visitors advise each other about their relationship problems such as affairs and arguments. I recommend caution with these. Generally the people providing online advice are not trained marriage counsellors - they are other people having problems, so they often have quite a negative view, and urge people towards separation. Some forums advise almost everyone to divorce! Beware of this. Most relationship problems can be improved, if the partners want to. Most couples who think about divorce but don't, are glad later that they stayed together.
Please go to the "Contact and availability" page to get in touch with me
