Finding the Right Marriage Therapist for You and Your Spouse There are several licensed professionals working nowadays as marriage therapists, but it doesn’t mean they possess the right educational and training backgrounds to work with married couples. Fact is, less than 15% of all licensed therapists in the country are working in a profession in which they have to complete coursework or get supervised clinical experience in marriage therapy. Hence, when looking for a marriage therapist, make sure you to consider the following: Marriage Therapy Background and Training As we earlier pointed out, a therapist should have completed coursework or supervised clinical experience in marriage therapy. Don’t entrust your marriage to someone who only developed his “expertise” from marital therapy books or workshops. Dedicated Practice
The Beginner’s Guide to Therapies
A person may work as a therapist without having specific expertise in marital therapy. You need to find out how much of your prospect’s practice is actually dedicated to couples. It’s smart to avoid a therapist who mostly does individual therapy.
Where To Start with Options and More
Personal Perspective of Marriage People go to a marriage therapist to save their marriage. Hence, before choosing a therapist, you want to ask what their personal views on marriage and marital problems are. Also ask them what their approach will be if half the couple wants to end the union and the other half wants to continue it. Note that therapists are human beings and are bound to consciously or unconsciously have biases for their own personal beliefs. Thus, someone who has a neutral position on marriage, doesn’t believe in it or simply wants to be “of help to people” is probably not the best person to give you marital therapy. Success Rate There are a few questions you have to ask a marital therapist to know if they are effective or not. For instance, of the couples they have counseled, how many managed to remain together while continuing to work out their issues? How many actually separated in the course of the therapy? What percent has not improved? Lastly, ask the therapist what to them makes the difference in the said outcomes. If they claim 100% of their clients actually stayed in their marriages, or that their success as a marital therapist is not measured by how many couples they’ve helped stay together, that is a problem. Furthermore, an effective therapist will: > not just sit and listen to you and your partner fight during a session, but will butt in with advice on how to communicate better; > want to have sessions with both spouses together rather than individually; > always be fair to both spouses, never taking anyone’s side; and > never make direct suggestions for you to remain together or get a divorce (this goes against therapists’ code of ethics). If you are currently in therapy, do continue to assess the quality of help you are getting. And if you feel that the sessions are somehow short of your expectations, you always have the option to see another therapist.