**All Counseling Sessions Are Conducted With Secure Online Video Conferencing **

It’s Never Too Late To Work Together to Improve Your Relationship

Intimate relationships can also be tense relationships.

It is unfortunately very common for you to be experiencing drama, tension, and possibly disappointment in your most intimate relationship. An experienced therapist will not be surprised by your story and can be a source of stability and neutrality for the two of you. We have learned from counseling couples for over 22 years that peace and satisfaction are possible when you are open to change, especially when you work together.

You may need a guide to improve your relationship.

Couples counseling can introduce you to a set of skills that you need to reduce tension, communicate better, build trust, and feel more intimate with each other. It is difficult to ask for help with something personal and intimate, but sometimes that is what you need, and seeking help is better than losing what you desire for yourselves.

It is good for your immune system to be married, and handle stress well.

It is generally good for your health to be married, but the stress you experience when there is constant tension can lead to health problems. When your body is put in a state of high tension day after day and year after year, the effects can be harsh. The body takes a beating. If your marriage is in trouble why not learn to raise the alarm and try to solve your problems and reduce tension?

Treatment helps couples with any type of relationship; remarried, married, nearly married, never married, or unmarried.

If you are a couple, you are experiencing the complexity of intimacy and may benefit from counseling. If you are serious enough to be working on your relationship, you are married emotionally, whether you are legally, or not.

Marriage is a surprisingly complicated contract, and it is fair to be held accountable.

There are two of you, and you entered your joint experience with separate expectations and needs. Part of the art of staying a couple is to get comfortable with the fact that there are two of you with valid emotions, needs, and feelings. This contract gives you the expectation that marriage is an exclusive relationship and that needs for connection, affection and sex will be met within the relationship. When these expectations and needs are not met within the relationship, the marriage becomes very vulnerable. If the contract feels broken, or the familiar kindnesses have gone away, you may need to check on your relationship with a counselor, in neutral territory.

Don’t delay. Learn how to reduce tension and get your needs met through genuine intimacy.

Every day, couples take charge of their lives in a new way and take the step into a counselor’s office to talk about themselves, and find that it is safe, supportive and useful to share the experience together. We start a conversation together, try to understand what has been happening, and then make plans for working together. The counseling itself is an important shared experience that can enhance intimacy.

Small changes, like showing appreciation and kindness, make a big difference.

The changes you need to make may not be as major as you think. The “climate” of a relationship can be changed by starting conversations in a different way, or catching yourself when you know you are about to add to the amount of tension. It is evident from our work as therapists that when a couple is determined to stay together, when one person’s behavior changes, the other person’s behavior changes too. Staying focused on behaviors that make the two of you feel closer, rather than a power struggle in which each tries to prove that they are right, is one of the keys to a successful marriage. Without help, the little or big hurtful things that are said and done can harm the fabric of a marriage.

You can learn to speak and listen in a softer, kinder way. Couples react badly to conflict and need new skills.

You will be asked to communicate differently with your partner, be more aware of the effect you are having on each other, and consider the choices you are making when you communicate. Researchers have found that couples suffer if there are more negative messages than positive ones. We respond badly if we don’t feel appreciated, or keep hearing negatives. It is important to communicate differently. Statements about your partner tend to raise tension, while statements about yourself are safer. You will be asked to be honest about your own reactions to stressful tense moments, and try out new approaches so you can avoid conflict more effectively. Once you begin doing this, you’ll find your partner will respond differently, too. Soon you’ll find that you can resolve conflicts more easily and find them far less frightening. It is a learning process that is healthy, positive, and part of your personal growth.

We Teach Our Clients How to:

Understand and comfort and work with your partner even when you are upset or disagree.
Discuss events that have put your relationship at risk.
Listen to your partner.
Tell your partner what you want instead of expecting your partner to know.
Be thoughtful, curious, and concerned about your partner
Stand your ground when it matters.
Give support for your partner’s goals.
Show affection.

Consider Investing in a Long Session of Couples Counseling.

Meet for a half-day or a full day. Dive in and focus on your relationship in a serious way. Learn more about how to change. Give your partnership the intense work it deserves. Appointments – Fridays or weekends – half day or full day.

Mr. Schwab will help you take advantage of health insurance by issuing a receipt that can be used to make out-of-network claims

Take the first step towards a better relationship.

Pick up the phone and call 610.513.1634.

Locations Served:

Larry Schwab sees clients virtually and is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and Delaware.  Most of his clients live in and around Wilmington Delaware and Delaware County PA.