Couples often receive marriage or couples counselling when they face problems in their relationships.
This process is often stopped when the couple has resolved their issues successfully and is able to move on with their relationship.
Here are a few signs to know when you should stop marriage counselling.
1. Goals are met-
Marriage counselling often comes to an end when the couple has achieved their set goals and the termination process has been completed. Termination in counselling is the concluding stage of your marriage counselling journey and it marks the end of the program and the start of practicing what you have learned from all your sessions. Termination is important, as without this the counselling process cannot come to an end.
After this, the couple might occasionally come to check in with their therapist and let them know how things are coming along.
2. Learnt to deal with problems-
If couples have learnt to deal with their relationship issues in healthy ways outside of therapy too, then there may not be a need for them to seek regular professional help. In such cases, regular marriage counselling may come to an end.
3. Being honest with your therapist-
It is important that both partners who come for marriage counselling be honest with their therapist about the process and everything that works or does not work for them. It is also essential that they ask their therapist the right kinds of questions related to termination or anything else to be completely clear.
After this, if everything goes well, then there is no need to continue marriage counselling.
4. No progress-
Many times, couples may feel that there is no progress in the relationship from either side. In such cases, there is no point in continuing with marriage counselling. Instead of this, there might be something else which could help the couple resolve issues in their relationship, which they must try.
5. Client-Counsellor mismatch-
The client and counsellor are often not right for each other because of many reasons. Hence, a counsellor may fail to establish a rapport or therapeutic alliance with their client. If this happens, marriage counselling should be terminated immediately and the client must look for another counsellor who is a good fit.
If the relationship between the two has not been established at the beginning itself, there is no point in continuing the process further.
6. Lack of expertise-
A counsellor may fail to exhibit the kind of expertise that may be required for a particular problem. If this happens, it might be a good idea to stop marriage counselling.
If a client wants to speak to the counsellor about a particular problem for which the latter does not have enough knowledge or expertise, it might pose as a huge problem for both partners in the relationship.
To summarize, stopping to go for marriage counselling for any reason signifies the end of the process and the start of practicing what it takes to make the relationship work. In other words, it is like a closing chapter and new beginnings for couples.
At the end of it, everything depends on the two partners in the relationship and how they make things work for them.
