INDIVIDUAL THERAPY FOR RELATIONAL TRAUMA AND INTERPERSONAL PROBLEMS

Are you struggling with problems in a relationship or interpersonal communication?

Have you experienced relational trauma?

Have you worked in a toxic workplace?

You may have tried convincing or forcing them, but that doesn’t typically work.

If it’s your partner or parent, you may feel like they will never change, so you have to avoid them or possibly end the relationship.

If it’s someone at work, it can be even trickier.

You don’t want to go to HR. You may feel like you must leave your job.

Those might not be your only options.

Most people think of individual therapy as only for helping you with problems that relate solely to you.

Although you can’t control another person’s behavior, what can you control?

You can control what you say and do.

Often, a therapist may recommend couples therapy or family therapy as the first-line treatment. Yet when that’s not possible or until then, individual therapy for relationships can be a helpful option.

Thousands of pages of research from a Harvard study found that close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives.

“Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. ”

— Harvard University

What Can I Learn from Individual Therapy for Relationships?

Individual therapy can be a powerful way for you to learn and master communication and behavioral skills that can help you learn how to:

Communicate more effectively and authentically
Have a more authentic relationship with self – dropping the mask and mastering self-compassion
Handle conflict with confidence
Regulate your emotions and co-regulate someone else’s
Reinforce the behaviors you want to see, not the ones you don’t
Set healthy boundaries
Have more compassion for yourself and others

“Being right is highly overrated in a relationship with someone you love.”

— Dr. J

What Kinds of Relationships Can Benefit from Individual Therapy for Relationships?

Individual therapy for relationships can help you learn how to navigate these types of relationships more effectively:

Dating or romantic relationships
Marriage
Parent-child relationships
Relationship with parents, siblings, or extended family
Relationship with friends

What Relationship Transitions or Role Strains Could Benefit from Individual Therapy for Relationships?

Individual therapy can also help with these relationship transitions:

Support through divorce
Transitioning to marriage
Becoming a parent
Transitioning to independence as a young adult

Individual therapy can also help with role strains:

Caring for an aging parent while raising children
Managing work and parenting
Managing work and marriage
Managing employees while struggling with burnout, anxiety, or other problems

Support through divorce
Transitioning to marriage
Becoming a parent
Transitioning to independence as a young adult

Major Topics Covered In Individual Therapy for Relationships

Identifying your core values and needs in relationships
Becoming more present in relationships. Identifying hooks that get you caught in focusing on who is right or wrong and not what is workable and practicing present-moment awareness.
Relationship patterns and attachment learning or conditioning By learning and understanding some of your past behavioral programming, you can start to turn down the volume on others’ voices and turn up the volume on your own.
Your strengths and any areas of vulnerability.
Difficult emotions that come up in relationships, especially emotions like anger, fear, and the “master” emotion–shame
Difficult thoughts that come up for you like self-judgements and self-criticisms or rules and reasons that keep you stuck (e.g., “I can’t ask for X because I’m too needy” or “If you show people what matters to you, they will stomp all over it.”)
Unhelpful behaviors that may hold you back in relationships
Enhancing your compassion and self-compassion skills
Effective decision-making in relationships, such as when and how to assert your breeds, when to end a relationship, etc.

Potential Benefits of Individual Therapy for Relationships

Some possible benefits of individual therapy for relationships include:

Feeling more confident in how your actions can improve your relationships without waiting for the other person to change
Enjoying better relationships with family, friends, colleagues, employees, and supervisors
Feeling more confident and less guilty about asserting your needs and limits
Better equipped to set healthy boundaries at work and in life
Being able to delegate and negotiate more effectively
Saying no to people whose behaviors have become toxic for you

“We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as were meant to be. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache…The absence of love and belonging will always lead to suffering.”

— Brene Brown

Frequently Asked Questions

If I do individual therapy for relationships, would it mean we don’t need couples therapy?

Individual therapy for relationships can help you take action when your partner might not be willing to go to couples therapy or can’t because of work or scheduling. You can work on some things in advance.

However, it’s important to note that individual therapy is not a substitute for couples therapy. If couples therapy is recommended by your therapist, then it might mean discussing with your therapist how you can use communication skills to talk more effectively with your partner or take other actions consistent with your values.

Your therapist might use a measure like the Couples Satisfaction Index. If those measures aren’t showing progress, then couples therapy would likely continue to be the first-line recommendation.

If I work on parenting, would that mean that I don’t need to take my child to therapy?

It depends.

Most evidence-based treatments, especially for younger children, such as parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) require both parent and child involvement.

With Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions or SPACE (a parent-only therapy for children and teens with anxiety and OCD), the therapy can be just as effective without the child as individual therapy is with the child.

However, if the child DOES want to go to therapy, then both could be helpful.

Often with teens and young adults, parenting is recommended as an adjunct to the child or adult child’s therapy.

>>If you’re looking for parenting help, please check out our parenting page.

OUR APPROACH TO INDIVIDUAL THERAPY FOR RELATIONSHIPS

We understand how hard it can be to be a busy working professional.

We have expertise in helping busy professionals work on their relationships.

When working with people who are experiencing difficulties in relationships, our therapists use evidence-based treatments such as:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
SPACE

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

At Momentum Psychology, skilled team of therapists understand how important relationship satisfaction is to our day-to-day lives.

We utilize evidence-based treatment methods that include ACT, DBT, CBT, and Trauma-Informed Practices.

We currently offer individual therapy for relationships in North Carolina and all PSYPACT states including, but not limited to North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia.

If you are ready to take control of your life and build Momentum moving forward to a bright future, follow the steps below to get started.

Get to know more about our skilled team of therapists here.
Fill out our convenient online contact form.
Schedule an intake appointment with one of our psychologists here.
Begin the journey to regaining control of your life

OTHER SERVICES OFFERED BY MOMENTUM PSYCHOLOGY

As an online or virtual therapy practice, our mission is to offer a variety of online therapy services to help you focus on your needs. We take the stress out of getting the treatment you deserve with our flexible, convenient, and easy-to-use therapy and assessment services. We offer online therapy in several states including North Carolina, Alabama, Colorado, Washington DC, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennesee, Texas, Virginia, and Utah, and all PSYPACT states, and we new states added to our list on a regular basis.

We specialize in working with high-performing professionals, executives, lawyers, entrepreneurs, physicians and other healthcare professionals, creatives, athletes, and students (college, graduate, and professional programs). We will soon be offering for high-achieving teens who want and are a good fit for online or virtual therapy. Our therapists are all doctoral-level psychologists. Depending on the therapist you see, we can offer help with stress and burnout, anxiety, trauma and PTSD, ADHD, and depression as well as vicarious trauma, life transitions, and relationship problems. Learn more about the cost of online therapy on our investment page. Getting the best therapist for your needs no matter where you live and being able to fit it into your busy schedule might be the secret. Online therapy may be the answer you’ve been looking for! We use evidence-based treatment methods including ACT, DBT, RO-DBT, CBT, ERP, and trauma-informed therapies.

Please contact our office and request an appointment to hear about the many ways we can help you thrive and be successful in work and life, and hopefully all the way around.

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