Relationship counseling: couples, families, and others

We offer premarital counseling throughout the school year. Using a variety of assessment tools, couples learn more about each other and work toward growth and enrichment in their relationship.

We also incorporate aspects of each person's family history into counseling, which often helps explain why each person acts or reacts the way they do.

Areas we cover in counseling often include:

• Marriage expectations
• Personality issues
• Communication
• Conflict resolution
• Financial management
• Leisure activities
• Sexual issues/expectations
• Children and parenting
• Family and friends
• Relationship roles
• Spiritual beliefs

Marital counseling can take many forms. We see some couples who have been married for a little while and who want to enrich their relationship by working out some of their marital growing pains.

We also work with couples who feel angry, exhausted, and at their wits’ end. We create goals and help you work together to make changes that can bring greater satisfaction in marriage.

Family counseling can cover several generations, and can affect your ability to be a successful learner in the SPU community. We see everything from students with their parents and grandparents, to students with their spouse and children. Nontraditional families are also welcome.

Issues in family therapy include:

• Conflict with parents or other family members
• Issues with in-laws
• Parenting concerns
• Issues arising from living with a chronic mental/physical illness
• Family stress
• Divorce and remarriage, stepparents

Sometimes relationship counseling is needed for other types of relationships, such as dating, roommates, friendships, or coworkers. We can help in those situations, too.