Trust, Communication, Commitment, Love, Passion, Sex, Respect, Friendship, Conflict Resolution, Collaboration… a couple in distress may have deficits in at least some of these areas. A successful relationship is one in which each member of the couple has — or works on developing — skill in each of these areas.
The main task of relationship work from our perspective is to unite two fully-functioning, independent individuals within an interdependent partnership. Thus, we prefer to think about counseling the “individual in relationship.”
How that is accomplished can look many different ways. Sometimes, we must first connect each person with his or her individuality and “voice”. Sometimes, we coach the individual voices to be in synch – more often in harmony than in unison.