Couples Counseling
Couples or relationship counseling continues to be a real challenge especially because many couples are waiting for marriage until they get their careers or lives established. The number of couples who choose to live together rather than get married continues to increase to around 50%. Unfortunately, couples who cohabitate have more than an 80% failure rate. A study done in Sweden after they passed a trial marriage law found that couples who lived together before marriage had an increased divorced rate of 250% and they did not experience any of the benefits normally experienced in marriage. Another problem with cohabitation is that there are no established expectations concerning the relationship, one or more maybe feeling guilt for having pre-marital sex and there is not even a guarantee you partner will come home tonight!
A relationship counselor meets with the couple weekly until the relationship is stabilized, they have clear rules or boundaries for the relationship, the major issues are resolved and the relationship improves. We even have a wonderful dating analogy to guarantee a stable dating relationship. We also offer a Prepare-Enrich test you can take online for only $35 that will help you identify growth areas needing specific therapy. Because of the extremely high failure rate of cohabiting couples, couples counseling is critical for the success of most of these relationships.
Couples Counseling Cost
Most clients usually are able to pay for relationship counseling with their health insurance. If they do not have insurance they may qualify for our self-pay sliding scale. The fee is $165 for the first initial interview session due to the additional analysis involved. Additional 45 minute sessions are $125 and 60 minute sessions are $145 for a state licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. professional counselor or social worker. If money is a major issue you may apply for a sliding scale, referral to a lower-cost pastoral counselor or a free supervised student counselor. However, you should realize that the long-term emotional cost of a failed relationship will usually exceed any amount of money expended on therapy.
Couples Counseling Prognosis.
Because of the many variables involved the outcome of relationship counseling is hard to predict, but in cases where the couple is willing to do what is suggested and stay in treatment long enough for things to be resolved, most couples can recover from these difficulties and remain together. Although we seldom recommend separation except in cases of domestic violence and abuse, if the couple chooses to separate, the therapist will do everything possible to help the clients through this difficult emotional time.