“What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Mark 10:9 ESV
The counselors here at Carrollton Christian Counseling understand that the marriage vows we make to God and each other aren’t always easy to uphold. When you and your spouse start feeling like your marriage is filled with more of the worse than the better, speaking with a qualified counselor may help. Keep reading below to discover how Christian marriage counseling could help improve your relationship.
Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(469) 300-4248
Marriage counseling is counseling that focuses on improving the overall relationship and day-to-day functioning of married couples. Even when God is at the center of your relationship, most people still find that marriage is complicated and difficult, and sometimes couples can get stuck. Marriage counseling is a resource for couples who feel unable to get themselves unstuck from cycles of conflict, mistrust, miscommunications, intimacy issues, and more.
In marriage counseling, couples typically meet with a counselor to speak about their relationship concerns, learn more about themselves as individuals and as a couple, and find new ways of communicating and resolving conflict. This type of counseling differs from couples therapy because marriage counseling tends to focus on the here-and-now. The idea isn’t to get bogged down reexamining the past but rather to improve the couple’s relationship in the present.
While the best Christian marriage counselors follow all mainstream, researched, and scientifically supported therapeutic best practices, they do so from a Christ-centered worldview. This means that when you see a qualified Carrollton Christian counselor, the counsel you receive will be grounded in faith and biblical understanding. This counseling will seek to address your mind, your body, and your redeemed soul.
Christian marriage counselors operate from the belief that marriage is a covenant relationship, ordained and governed by God, and is always redeemable with His intervention. While holding space for the whole range of human emotion and frailty, a good Christian counselor will do everything possible to guide you back to the saving love of Christ. Their goal is to help couples become iron sharpening iron instead of focusing on the specks in each other’s eyes.
Every marriage is different, just as every person is unique, and, as such, there is a wide variety of reasons for couples to seek marriage counseling. The Christian counselors in Carrollton, TX, can help couples address some of the issues discussed below.
Communication Difficulties
If you and your spouse feel like you are constanty talking past each other, misunderstanding each other, or are failing to communicate your needs effectively, marriage counseling may help. Communication problems also include difficulties expressing or receiving love, frequent conflict, or striking low blows in moments of anger or frustration.
Breaches of Trust or Trust Issues
If trust in your marriage has been broken or strained, it’s likely time to see a marriage counselor. Issues like infidelity, secret-keeping, and lying all affect the trust and security you feel in your relationship. You may also experience difficulties trusting your partner due to your family history, past relationships, or unresolved trauma.
Financial Stress and Conflict
Money is one of those topics you aren’t supposed to bring up in polite company, but it can significantly impact a marriage. Whether you and your partner disagree on how to handle the finances, are lashing out at each other due to financial stress, or feel unable to be fully transparent with one another about spending, it may be time to talk things through with the help of a counselor.
Intimacy Issues
Intimacy within marriage is so much more than just physical closeness and sex. For a marriage to remain healthy, a couple must cultivate emotional, spiritual, and, yes, physical intimacy. Conflicts will inevitably arise if you or your partner feel that those needs for intimacy aren’t being met.
Navigating Major Life Transitions
Sometimes life gets hard, and it helps to talk things through with a supportive third party. Couples may need help navigating significant changes in circumstances such as becoming new parents, taking care of aging relatives, a major relocation, retirement, or other big change to your family structure.
Avoiding Divorce
The Bible is clear about God’s original design for marriage: it’s supposed to last a lifetime. Yet, in His infinite wisdom and grace, He foresaw how deeply selfish and unrepentant the human heart would sometimes become and allowed a provision to be made for our imperfection. Still, divorce is never easy, nor should it be. It’s the splitting apart of what was brought together by God.
Marriage counseling exists to help couples repair damaged relationships. Therefore, it’s often very effective in assisting couples to remain married even when the connection has been neglected, violated, or otherwise gone wrong. If it seems like your marriage is headed right down the path to divorce, pull over and ask for help. With the aid of a good counselor and the Lord, no person or marriage is irredeemable.
If you are wondering, “When is the right time for marriage counseling?” the answer is that it’s always the right time. Whether you want to get ahead of issues before they become significant problems in your marriage or your relationship is in crisis, there is no wrong time to start working with a Carrollton Christian counselor. Getting to work on bettering your marriage is always a worthwhile endeavor.
Working with a marriage counselor is a great way to improve every aspect of your marriage. Simply speaking honestly and openly about what you need from your partner, your goals for the future, or the ways your relationship is currently not working for you, can lead to positive changes in your married life. A qualified Christian counselor’s supportive, wise counsel can help you do the following.
Gain a Deeper Understanding of Your Spouse
Through speaking together and sharing your hearts, counseling can help you and your spouse understand and appreciate each other more deeply. Your counselor may even use personality inventories or love language tests to help you learn more about yourself and your partner. Most of all, you’ll work on seeing each other through the lens of God’s unconditional love for you both.
Learn to Communicate More Effectively
Some of the most practical, easily applied skills you’ll learn in marriage counseling are centered around communicating effectively and learning to listen to your spouse. If you and your partner have different communication styles, it can be challenging to make yourself heard. This may lead to frustration, resentment, and even anger. Learning to speak to one another with kindness and respect and listen to each other with love and compassion can lead to considerable changes in your whole relationship.
Talk Through Issues in a Safe, Supportive Space
If your relationship is in crisis, if trust has been broken, or if there are safety concerns, counseling sessions can provide a safe space to speak honestly and openly about the hurts, dysfunction, failings, and frustrations that led to this point. Your counselor can act as a mediator, a facilitator, or a supportive listener and offer suggestions and observations to help you and your spouse as you speak to each other.
Rebuild or Deepen Your Trust and Intimacy
By working with your counselor to address breaches of trust, issues from the past, and anything else that may be impacting your ability to trust your spouse or to be trustworthy in return, you will be able to build a new, more open relationship. As trust grows, there is more room for connection and intimacy. It will take work from you and your spouse, but trust can be repaired.
Build a More Christ-Centered Marriage than You’ve Had Before
In Christ, selfishness and pride fall away, and we can relate to ourselves and each other with greater love, compassion, and grace than ever before. Whether Christ has always been a part of your relationship or not, placing Him at the center of your individual lives and your marriage only invites a more profound love for each other. With Him, your marriage can only be strengthened. As it says in Ecclesiastes 4:12, “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (ESV)
With Carrollton Christian Counseling, you get trustworthy, qualified counselors who will guide you based on both therapeutic best practices and the Word of God. Here, your counselor will pray with you, affirm your faith, and remind you of the end goal to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor, or spouse, as yourself. If you think your marriage could benefit from counseling, contact us today and set up your first session.
Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(469) 300-4248