Long Island
Relationship Counseling
What are
Relationship Difficulties?
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As humans, we naturally desire to form relationships with those around us. Spouses, partners, family members, even friends – our lives are often built upon our relationships and can thrive when they are strong.
Yet as important as it is to cultivate relationships, maintaining them can have its challenges. Ongoing issues can create problems that threaten the trust, communication, and love that makes relationships fulfilling, such as:
- Lack of communication
- Differing perspectives on finances, children, and other matters
- Feelings of disrespect or misunderstanding
- Changing feelings
- Mistrust after infidelity
Relationship counseling focuses on resolving issues and building stronger relationships. Long Island Psychology helps couples, individuals, and families nurture lasting and enjoyable relationships. We have counseling options for every stage of a relationship, including:
- Couples Counseling
- Pre-Marital Counseling
- Marriage Counseling
- Divorce Counseling
- Mediation Counseling
- Infidelity Counseling
Even those not currently in a relationship can benefit from relationship counseling. Whether you are coping with a recently ended relationship or want to improve your future connections, we offer individual relationship counseling for:
Our individualized and non-judgmental approach can repair a faltering relationship or make an exciting one better. Whatever challenges you are experiencing in your marriage or partnership, we can help you work through them.
Our offices are based in Roslyn Heights, Garden City, NY and Rockville Centre, NY. In addition, we offer remote therapy over phone or video chat to any New York patient so that you can get the relationship support you need at your convenience. Schedule an appointment or find out more by calling 516-732-0273 or sending us a message through our contact form.
The Relationship Difficulties Toolbox
Our Approach to
Therapy
Relationship counseling encompasses innumerable challenges that can make navigating romantic and familial connections difficult. At Long Island Psychology, our therapists – led by Dr. Marc Shulman – work with you to understand your specific concerns and determine the right forms of treatment.
We prioritize creating a space free of judgement, where both partners can feel heard and understood. Only from this basis can we effectively work together to build lasting relationships.
Since relationships include the perspectives of multiple people by definition, each one requires a different approach. As psychotherapists, we will select the approach that best suits your relationship, often focusing on ways to:
- Consider how each person’s history and patterns impact the overall relationship dynamics
- Address the root of specific problems experienced by those in the relationship
- Determine how expectations, wants, and needs are misunderstood or miscommunicated
- Create an open space where we can build skills for improving effective listening and conflict resolution
- Give voice to each person’s perspective through assertiveness and establishing boundaries
- Encourage patience and compassion while learning to forgive yourself and others
- Assess how maladaptive behaviors impact or result from relationships
We treat your unique relationship as just that: unique, and then determine how to work through it based on who you are and where you are in your relationship.
Treatment
May Include:
We base the treatments we use around the specifics of your relationship. This often means combining several dualities or strategies to address relationship issues from multiple perspectives. We will also evolve treatment as your personal relationship grows and changes over the course of therapy. A few of the treatments we may use include:
- Proven therapy modalities like Complementary Dynamic Experiential Learning, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Gottman Method, Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Structural Family Therapy, and Bowenian Family Therapy
- Meetings with both members of the couple or entire family and independent sessions to further break down issues and concerns that may be affecting the relationship as a whole
- Homework and tasks between appointments to help build on skills of trust, communication, openness, and more
- Further treatment recommendations that are individualized to your relationship including the types of issues, how long they have been going on, the age of family members, other mental health or medical disorders, and how ready members of the relationship are to seek improvement
If you are familiar with the various types of treatment styles or are interested in learning more about specific ones, we are happy to discuss the various approaches we use. We are trained in many approaches and can help you determine what will work best for your relationship.
What Benefits Can Relationship Counseling
Offer You?
Many people come to couples counseling as a last resort for a relationship that feels as if it is about to fail. Others feel that their relationship or marriage isn’t providing the happiness they would like. In many cases, psychotherapy can help save relationships.
But there are also those looking for assistance ending a relationship in a civil manner, a peaceful reconciliation after the end of a relationship, ways to further improve a good relationship, or help to discover more about themselves. Relationship counseling can provide:
- Improved connections and deeper relationships with those closest to you
- Open communication and enduring trust with a partner
- Conflict resolution skills to help you navigate future challenges
- Better understanding of yourself as an individual
- Emotional understanding of your own emotions and your partner’s
- Ability to set boundaries for yourself and others in interpersonal relationships
Counseling is not a one-step fix for every relationship. It can, however, help you find clarity and start on a path forward. In the end, our goal is to help people in and out of relationships find happiness in their connections with others.
Your Role In
The Process
Relationship therapy is most beneficial when both people or all family members are interested in understanding issues and making improvements. In circumstances where trust or communication has broken down, this can often be stressful. Yet being ready for therapy often means:
- Readiness to express vulnerability and take risks with your partner
- Openness to the ideas and perspectives of others
- Ability to confront past experiences and emotions
- Effort for completing small homework assignments and tasks outside of sessions
- Compassion for the other person in your life
Any relationship can be strengthened and those that are struggling can often be rebuilt. It only requires that those involved be willing to put in the necessary effort and focus on their personal growth so the overall relationship thrives.
Get Started
For individual relationship counseling and couples counseling, the Long Island Psychology offices are conveniently located in Garden City, Roslyn Heights, and Rockville Centre, NY. TeleHealth also allows us to schedule phone or video appointments so that you and your partner or family can get the help you need from anywhere in New York state. Call us at (516) 732-0273 to start the process.
Specific Types of
Relationship Counseling
Individual Relationship Counseling:
Couples Therapy:
Relevant Blog Posts
Contact Long Island Psychology Today
If you have any questions about individual, group, or couples therapy (marriage counseling) or about working with a psychologist/therapist please do not hesitate to call.
With offices in Garden City, Rockville Centre, and Roslyn Heights, NY, we’re available for anyone that needs help on Long Island and in Nassau County.
