Relationship Counselling in Toronto
Shlomo Radcliffe & Associates offers relationship counselling for Toronto residents. We provide a supportive space where individuals or couples can work with a trained, professional psychotherapist or counsellor to navigate the challenges and complexities that arise in their relationships.
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Our relationships can be a place of great comfort and love, respect and growth, and serve as the centering points of our lives. They can also be the source of some of the most significant interpersonal pain, grief, frustration, and stress that we will experience in our lives, especially during major life transitions. In some cases, the problem may not be the intensity of difficulties that show up in relationships, but rather how mental or physical illness can further complicate matters. Instead, the issue is more with the intractability of relationship concerns. Even minor issues left unresolved for a long time in a long-term relationship can be a significant source of pain and frustration.
Some of the common difficulties that show up in relationships for individuals or partners include:
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Feeling misunderstood and underappreciated
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Concerns regarding the household division of labour and/or childcare
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Financial stress and spending habits
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Disagreements regarding how to spend quality and leisure time
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Feeling unsupported or disrespected or otherwise experiencing conflict with a partner’s extended family or friends
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Sexual intimacy issues, including desire differences
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Infidelity
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Feeling blamed and attacked
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Concerns regarding follow-through on commitments, personal organization, or tidiness
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Lack of romance or relationship connection
In some cases, relationship difficulties may occur when one or both partners has ADHD, which can affect mental health. The executive function difficulties that characterize ADHD can compromise an individual’s ability to manage household tasks effectively, keep commitments, stay organized and tidy, and otherwise contribute to the functioning of a household and family. Partners of those with ADHD may misattribute the individual’s behaviour as being due to not caring, being insensitive, or being lazy, even when this is far from true. These difficulties and misattributions can lead to all sorts of needless conflict, distress, and suffering for both parties.
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There need not be a specific issue to cause people to experience relationship distress. Many people find that when they are experiencing stress and/or anxiety that they are more likely to feel on edge, angry, and irritable. In these states, fights and arguments can break out ‘for nothing.’ Unfortunately, the hurt feelings and damaged relationships still follow. In all these cases, marriage and couples therapy can help.
Relationship Counselling Therapy in Toronto Doesn't Have to be a Last Resort
Many people are under the mistaken impression that couples counselling is only something to be undertaken as a final resort before taking the drastic step of pursuing separation or divorce. While couples counselling is certainly well indicated and potentially very helpful when separation or divorce is under consideration, it is also used by many couples nowhere near this stage of events. Relationship counselling can help all couples improve their communication, increase intimacy and connection, better collaboratively problem-solve, and move to an overall more positive relationship.
Couples counselling is not about ‘witch-hunting’ - trying to determine which party is more to blame for a particular problem. It is not about judging either partner or trying to determine who is more right in a given situation or dilemma. In couples or marriage therapy, the primary client is neither you nor your partner; the primary client is your relationship. Skilled couples counsellors are trained not to take sides — even with the person who reached out to them first — but rather to help both partners come together to resolve differences, feel better heard and understood, and move towards greater connection, intimacy, and relationship well-being.
When Is the Best Time to Seek Relationship Counselling Therapy in Toronto?
Sometimes, couples do not recognize when it would be helpful or recommended to seek therapy. Most couples only seek relationship therapy when some aspects of their relationship or married life become too overwhelming and they are unsuccessful in resolving big issues.
The earlier you seek therapy, the easier it is to deal with and resolve the problems before distance sets in and takes its toll. However, it is never too late to seek support. If you and your partner are considering separation, marriage and relationship counselling in Toronto can help before both of you make a final decision. Even if separation seems to be the best option, seeking therapy may still benefit both parties, as well as your children by facilitating connection within the disconnection and helping to minimize conflict, frustration, and anger. You do not have to wait for things to become critical.
How Long Should Marriage Counselling in Toronto Last
​The length of marriage counselling usually depends on the issues the couples are facing. While some couples may only require a few therapy sessions, others may need several months or longer to fully address or resolve the issues. Seeking professional guidance and advice from a licensed relationship psychotherapist in Toronto ensures that both couples are on the right track and do not end up doing more harm than good. Working on your relationship can be difficult and requires both your and your partner's commitment to working things through. However, the payoff — improved relationships, well-being, and peace — is worth it.
How Relationship Counselling Therapy in Toronto Can Help
When you start couples counselling with one of our warm and skilled psychotherapists, you and your partner will both be given the opportunity to share your relationship concerns, your goals for counselling and your hopes and wishes for your relationship. Our counsellors, trained in emotion-focused couples therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy, will ensure that each of you has a chance to be heard in session and that your individual needs, feelings, and conflict points are addressed. Even if you are not experiencing particularly significant conflict points, couples counselling can still be a way to increase connection, communication, intimacy, and the vitality of your most important relationship.
Our approach
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Helping facilitate better communication skills
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Strategy building for high conflict situations, including open or polyamorous relationship
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Activity scheduling to increase connection and intimacy
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Mediating disagreements, need conflicts, and difficult conversations
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Assisting with boundary setting and trust building
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Facilitating relationship repair
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Guiding shared values and goals exploration
Our therapists may use:
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Gottman Method
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Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
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ADHD-Informed Couples Counselling
The relationship you have with your partner can be a source of tremendous stress and hurt, impacting your relationship satisfaction and making an already stressful and chaotic life, feel overwhelming, exhausting, and painful. Yet, this same relationship, when moved to a place of calm, mutual respect, shared values, and connection and intimacy, can be one of the greatest sources of support, comfort, and peace you can find in your life.
If you're searching for ways to improve your relationship and find that place of harmony, we encourage you to seek couples therapy today. To book a session with one of our couples psychotherapists, reach out below - we’d be happy to help you look at ways to move your most important relationship in a better direction. Schedule the best relationship counselling Toronto can offer now.
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Therapists Who Provide Couples Counselling
BSW, RSW
