When most people hear the term marriage counseling, they tend to think only of counseling sessions for couples who are in some kind of crisis. Many believe that the benefits of marriage counseling are not similar to the benefits of individual counseling, that it is only for couples who are in danger of breaking up.

The truth is, couples counseling, while very good with traumatic situations, is the kind of talk therapy that helps couples understand themselves while also learning about their partners. Many couples have turned to a licensed marriage and family therapist to guide them through different moments in their lives and have found that they spend typically 20 to 40% less than if they had gone to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Marriage counseling can help you resolve matters.

While some matters might very well be teetering on the brink of becoming deal breakers for your marriage, not all of them have to be. Sometimes, things like finances, communication, intimacy, and scheduling can present problems that any couple would need help dealing with.

Often, when you are in a situation, you might not be able to see the solutions to the problems you face. When you have a counselor working with you, that counselor might be able to see where the problems are, offering you objective ways to approach solving them. The same principles can be found in individual counseling, and now they are used to help couples understand one another.

It can help you as you move forward.

When it comes to marriage counseling–or individual counseling, for that matter–one of the great benefits is that it can help you learn what you have done in the past and how to avoid doing the same things in the future. That is, of course, if the things you have been doing are causing trouble.

If the things you do are helpful, you want to know that so you can do more fo those things. When you apply marriage counseling to your relationship, you can learn how to move forward in positive directions.

It is a safe place in which to open up about your feelings.

Many times, couples get to a place where they do not feel safe to express to each other how they truly feel because of many different factors. Some fear violence, but many simply fear they will not be heard and understood.

Just as is the case with individual counseling, marriage counseling gives you the opportunity to talk about what is on your mind in a safe space. A place with a referee, if you will. That referee isn’t there to keep score but to help each of you feel free to talk about things openly, with some rules in place.

Issues like affairs can be very complicated situations. An average affair lasts for about two years, so by the time a couple finally gets to talk about it openly, there could be serious trauma that might have to be weeded through.

One or more people in a couple might be fighting other issues like depression. Women are 70% more likely than men to suffer from depression, but men certainly can and do struggle with it. Figuring out the reason behind behavior can be just as important as discovering the behavior itself.