What is Relationship Coaching?
How Relationship Coaching Can Help You + Your Relationship
Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash
Have you ever struggled with communicating something important to your partner? And when you finally did share this internal desire, expectation, frustration, or pain with them, you did so poorly? In a way that ruffled their feathers, caused them to get defensive, and essentially stop listening to what you were trying to say? Or what if you didn’t put much thought into how you shared your frustration, you just wanted it out there so you and your partner could address it? And in doing so, you blurted it out, blamed and/or shamed your partner for their inability to support in your time of need?
We’ve all been there. We’ve all poorly communicated with our partner before. We’ve shouted, cried, lashed out, manipulated, talked down to, criticized, blamed, shamed, given our partner the silent treatment, and shown our partner contempt, resentment, and disrespect. Many of us didn’t set out with the goal to treat our partner in this manner. In fact, treating your partner this way was what you were probably hoping to avoid.
But effectively communicating in healthy, kind, and loving ways is a skill that many of us were not taught when growing up. Healthy communication wasn’t modeled for many of us. And so, how are we supposed to learn any differently? We often treat our partners the way we see our parents, friends, aunts and uncles, and couples in movies or TV shows treat each other. Which can be incredibly damaging and unhealthy.
This is where Relationship Coaching can come in and help your relationship. Even three months of relationship coaching can make a big difference - if you are ready for coaching and are willing to take the action steps, practice the skills and tools learned in sessions, and implement your new-found knowledge and skills consistently into your relationship.
Working with a Relationship Coach like myself can bring you greater happiness personally and with your partner. You may experience more affection, love, tenderness, honesty, and open communication with your partner as a result of working with a Relationship Coach. Relationship Coaching can help you nurture your relationship into a happier, healthier, more loving and secure relationship with your partner. If you think working with a Relationship Coach can help your relationship right now, book a Discovery Call with me to learn more about how Relationship Coaching can positively impact your relationship!
If you’re still on the fence about Relationship Coaching, let me tell you more about it. Relationship Coaching is often misconstrued. Many people don’t realize that it’s different from therapy or what those differences are. So let me explain.
The purpose of coaching usually has to do with an individual or couple’s performance improvement such as learning, growth, taking forward action (moving from the present into the future), or developing further in a specific area of your life. The purpose of therapy is to heal and to move from a dysfunctional state to a functional state (often moving from the past into the present). Therapists help clients become aware and help them heal from the past in order to move forward in the present to a more functional state and allows clients to explore common questions such as “why are we here?” whereas coaching explores the future and “where are we going?”
Here are some key differences in the relationship between a coach and a client and a therapist and a client:
Coach and Client Relationship Traits:
The Coach and Client are partners
The Client is the expert on the Client, as such, the Coach doesn’t have the answers - the Client does
The Client is looking for a support system, not an authority figure
The Client is usually in a functional state but wants to move forward and work through blocks
Coaches don’t give advice
Therapist and Client Relationship Traits:
The Therapist is the authority. Therapists make diagnosis and are the experts in an area that the Client is seeking help and healing with
Therapists study disorders and understands them in depth
Therapists give advice
The Client is typically in a dysfunctional state and is working to move towards a functional state
As you can see, there is a big difference between a Coach and a Therapist. Now, how can I help you as a Relationship Coach? Well, I help couples and individuals who are struggling with their relationships to explore areas for growth, create deeper awareness with the couple or individual, learn new skills and tools that can greatly benefit the relationship, and how to communicate with their partners in healthy, effective ways.
I work with couples and individuals who are seeking help with their relationships. In coaching, we explore individual awareness, accountability, and responsibility, regardless of if I’m coaching you as an individual or as a couple. So yes, you can schedule a Discovery Call with me, even if your partner is not ready or willing to work with a Relationship Coach just yet.
The Benefits of Working with a Relationship Coach
There are many benefits of working with a Relationship Coach. Relationship Coaches can help couples work through current or long-standing issues and conversations, learn how to better communicate with each, explore planning for the future, learn how to share expectations, desires, dreams, ideals, goals, frustrations, struggles, and resentments with your partner. Relationship Coaches can help bring your relationship to a place of greater happiness, love, joy, acceptance, peace, stability, honesty, trust, and communication.
These are only a few of the benefits of hiring a Relationship Coach. Each couple is different and will experience different benefits. But if you’re ready to hire a Relationship Coach, I invite you to schedule a Discovery Call with me! And if you don’t think you’re ready yet, you can join my email list to stay up to date for future retreats, workshops, and digital courses that may help you!
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Thumbnail Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash
