When might relationship issues benefit from the help of a psychologist?

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A level of conflict and disagreement can happen in any close relationship and makes sense given that there are often differences between opinions, values, and belief systems within important relationships. When conflict is chronic and carries high level of stress (or other painful emotions), however, this can impact our mental and physical health in a variety of ways. Painful relationships can impact our capacity to work and function, our overall mood, our self-esteem, and sense of self.

Some of examples of common relationship issues that might be brought to therapy:

How do our Melbourne psychologists help with relationship issues?

If the relationship issue is within a couple we may recommend couples therapy where we use the Gottman method of relationship therapy.

If the relationship issue is being address in individual therapy or does not involve a couple the focus of treatment might be to:

As part of engaging in this work, your psychologist will conduct a thorough assessment of you and the relationship you are working on. Together you will then collaboratively create a treatment plan which brings together evidenced-based treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and often therapies which specialise in targeting relationships an communication such as attachment based therapies, interpersonal therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). If you and your psychologist identify that past trauma might be impacting your relationships, together you might explore a trauma processing therapy, such as Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR). By addressing the impact of the traumatic memories from the past, it may change the course of how you respond in current and future relationships.