Austin Marriage Counselor
Carolyn C. Martin, MS, LPC, LMFT
5808 Balcones Dr, Ste 201
Austin, Texas 78731
512-795-0402
For daily reminders of how to have a better marriage, follow me on Twitter
Your Counselor's Approach to Marriage and Couples Counseling
There are many theories of how relationships and marriage should work. Theories come from personal experience with relationships and marriage, from an educational background, from idealist beliefs, or from research. My marriage/relationship counseling approach comes from research. In fact, my approach comes from the 40 years of research done by John Gottman, Ph.D. By studying all kinds of marriages, both happy and unhappy, Dr. Gottman has analyzed what makes people want to stay together and what makes them report they are happy in their relatioship or marriage. His research also predicts who will most likely divorce.
Dr. Gottman's research dispels many myths about what makes a happy relationships and marriage and what predicts the end of a relationship or divorce. If you're having relationship or marital problems or if your relationship or marriage is fairly OK but it's not as good as you would like it to be, you've probably come to some conclusions about why you're not as happy in your relationship or marriage as you would like. And, you might be fairly sure of what makes people happy in relationships and marriage.
Let's try a few simple True/False questions and see how versed you are in relationship or marital satisfaction:
- In happy stable relationship/marriages, couples work hard at avoiding conflict.
- The second highest predictor for ending of a relationship/divorce is affairs.
- Complaining in a relationship/marriage is bad for the relationship/marriage.
- Couples need to learn to have a high tolerance for negativity once they committ to each other or marry.
- A happy, stable relationship/marriage is characterized by both partners working hard at maintaining the feelings of being in love.
- The highest predictor for the end of a relationship/divorce is unresolved conflict.
How did you do? Did you guess that most of these are True? Guess again. Every one of them is false.
In marriage/relationship counseling at Mariposa Psychotherapy Services you can learn how to make your relationship/marriage last.
- You can find out if you're doing the two most important things couples do to feel relationship/marital satisfaction.
- You can find out if you're doing the two most corrosive things you can do to the relationship/marriage.
- You can learn what predicts the end of a relationship/divorce and how to avoid those things.
- You can learn what can heal past hurts.
- You can learn how to build a bright future for your relationship/marriage.
If you would like a sneak peak at what you will be learning at Mariposa Psychotherapy Associates, see John Gottman's research and intervention information at www.gottman.com. Dr. Gottman has been researching relationships/marriage for over 30 years. The information you will learn isn't pop psychology, TV/radio psychology or planetary psychology (women aren't from Venus and men aren't from Mars). What you will learn comes from THE most reliable research ever done in the area of relationships/marriage.
You can reach Carolyn C. Martin, M.S., L.P.C., L.M.F.T. at 512-795-0402. Carolyn is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is located at 5808 Balcones Dr, Ste 201, Austin, Texas 78731
Or, you can email her at carolyn@mariposapsychotherapy.com.
Find ideas about how to make your relationship or marriage the best it can be on my blog Austin Marriage Counseling.
4/2/2013
Four Advanced Skills for Marital Communication
In Dr. John Gottman's research, he found that happy, stable couples do the following 4 things in order to keep conflicts from escalating and to have clear communication.
1. They used a "softened start up." The first 3 minutes of a conflict will determine how well the discussion will proceed. If problems are raised with criticism, the discussion tends to every quickly go downhill and relationship satisfaction decreases.
See more on my blog
| Other Places You Can Find Carolyn Martin | |
|---|---|