After careful assessment of each couple’s needs, treatment is practical, focused on learning new skills and communication strategies and is generally short-term.

Issues Addressed:

• Communications Skills – Partners are taught how to clearly and assertively communicate important thoughts, feelings and needs in a way that defuses conflict. An important focus is learning to actively listen to each other.
• Anger Management – If anger expression is an issue, partners learn to quickly identify anger arousal and to defuse the situation effectively. For further information see section on My Anger Advisor.
• Boundary Setting – Each partner is encouraged to set clear boundaries for the behaviors they expect from their partners and also behaviors that are unwanted or unacceptable. This is particularly important if hostile or abusive words or actions have begun to occur. This work is based on Dr. Nay’s book Overcoming Anger in Your Relationship (Guilford Press, 2010).
• Resolving Differences – Often differences emerge in ideas or solutions to life problems or child-rearing. Couples learn to mutually problem-solve collaborative solutions in a way that minimizes conflict and leads to successful decision-making.
• Defusing Conflict – From Dr. Nay’s book Taking Charge of Anger (Guilford Press, 2004), couples learn ten powerful strategies to quickly defuse and halt conflict and interrupt anger and arguments. These strategies are practical, easy to learn and immediately effective.
• Crafting Vision Statements & Setting Goals – It is important to identify what each partner’s goals are as to couple and individual friendships, hobbies, intellectual stimulation, finances/saving, relationships with extended family, use of free-time to name a few. Each partner is encouraged to develop a “vision statement” as to how he or she would like the relationship to be in the immediate and long-term future. Then the couple reconciles these visions into a joint vision statement that guides decisions.