Couples Counselling in Central Sheffield

Whether you call it couples therapy, relationship counselling, marital therapy or marriage guidance counselling, Sheffield Central Counselling works with couples to help them make positive changes in their relationships.

We provide couples counselling to any couples who are having difficulties in their relationship and would benefit from the support of a relationship counsellor in Sheffield to assist them in working through these issues.  We work with heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian couples, those who are married or co-habiting or not living together as well as couples who are considering separation or divorce.  You may have another significant relationship which you would like to explore, for example a mother and daughter or two siblings could also benefit from coming for counselling together.

Our central location is particularly attractive to those living or working in the city centre. We have both daytime and evening appointments available for couples counselling.

What happens in couples counselling?

At the first session the counsellor will explain more about how couples counselling works and invite each person to say what has brought them to counselling and what they hope to gain from the process.  Then key aims or goals may be agreed together as a focus for the work.

The counsellor will often encourage the couple to talk to one another about the issues they are bringing.  This enables the counsellor to observe how the couple relate to each other and give feedback about what they notice.

The counsellor seeks to understand and support each person equally and to assist the couple to make sense of what is happening in the relationship, work through their difficulties and find a way forward together.

What are the reasons people come for couples counselling?

Couples often come for counselling when the relationship is in crisis, however couples counselling can also be useful in helping you to invest in and develop your relationship, to help avoid reaching crisis point.

Some of the common issues couples come to discuss:

• Arguing all the time
• Breakdown in communication
• Difficulties with sex
• Loss of trust, for example when one person has had an affair
• Jealousy
• A sense of drifting apart
• Thinking of separation or divorce

Significant life events can be unsettling for a couple and change the dynamics in the relationship.  Counselling can help you to make sense of the changes and negotiate new ways of relating.
Examples of life events:

• Getting married or moving in together
• Birth of first baby
• Bereavement
• Redundancy
• Children leaving home
• Illness

How can couples counselling help?

Couples counselling offers a supportive and safe environment where you can begin to

• Listen to each other and understand each other better
• Communicate more effectively and in new ways
• Gain awareness of how arguments develop and escalate
• Resolve conflicts
• Negotiate new ways to relate to each other
• Rediscover the love you have for each other

Ending the relationship well

Sometimes the couple will decide following counselling that separation or divorce is the only possible course of action.  The counsellor’s role is then to assist the couple in ending the relationship as well as possible and to work through the practical and emotional issues that this brings up.

At Sheffield Central Counselling, our main aim is to help couples in Sheffield relate to each other more effectively in whatever way seems to work best for both partners.  Sheffield Central Counselling relationship counsellors work to the ethical principles of the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT).