How to Find Good Marriage Counseling Near Me

Marriage counseling can help strengthen your marriage, help you and your spouse resolve problems, and help ensure that your marriage lasts for many long and happy years - hopefully your whole life. If you want to find a marriage counselor, it’s important that you find one who is: 1) good at what they do and 2) located near you so that you and your spouse don’t have to drive too far to reach your counseling sessions. The following guide will help you find a good marriage counselor near you.

How to look for a Marriage Counselor near You

The first thing you need to do is conduct a simple Internet search for marriage counselors who are located near your home. Once you do this, check out which counselors have an online presence - you’ll want to look for reviews or some type of feedback that you can read so that you can get an idea of what other people have said about them.

If you feel comfortable doing so, ask trusted friends or family who have entered marriage counseling about their personal experiences and if they can recommend someone.

What to Look for in a Marriage Counselor

Whether you can find reviews or personal feedback or not, it’s important to have a good grasp on what to look for in a marriage counselor; in other words, what makes them "good"?

The first thing you need to look for is someone that meets the needs of you and your spouse. For instance, if you are having a married problem related to something specific - such as substance abuse, anger problems, financial differences, conflict resolution problems, and so on - then the counselor should have experience working with these types of conflicts.

You should also look for a marriage counselor with a counseling style that you and your spouse feel comfortable with; you will actually need to see the counselor to get a feel for this one, but it’s an important step as good counseling needs to be counseling that you and your spouse are willing to embrace.

Another thing to look for in a marriage counselor is availability. For instance, are they available for regular sessions on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis? Is there a possibility to get extra emergency sessions in case you need their services and advice more quickly than a normal scheduled session? The more you know about their availability, the better.

Marriage Counselor Specialties

You may or may not need a marriage counselor with specialties. This will depend on the reason that you and your spouse are seeking marriage counseling in the first place.

Some of the most common marriage counselor specialties include:

• Substance abuse problems

• Gambling and other addictive behavior

• Marital infidelity

• Lack of conflict resolution

• Sex or intimacy conflicts

• Communication troubles

• Reconciliation attempts before divorce

These are just a few of the most popular types of marriage counseling specialties.

Marriage counselors can also offer broader types of counseling that don’t necessarily touch on specific niches but are instead intended to help you and your spouse improve your marriage as a whole.  If you feel like you are in need of marriage counseling, follow these tips on how to find a good counselor near you.