What is Couple’s Coaching?
Couple’s coaching is a safe and non-judgmental space where couples can communicate openly and honestly with each other. The aim is to help them shift their habitual patterns of relationship dynamics and develop healthier and more effective ways of relating to each other.
First, we establish a platform of trust, an environment that is inclusive and neutral. An environment where both partners feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, feelings, and concerns without fear of being criticized or judged. This involves actively listening, validating experiences, and helping them understand each other's perspectives.
Another key aspect of couple’s coaching is together creating tools to help couples develop greater self-awareness and personal growth. This can involve helping couples identify their core values, understand their emotional triggers, and develop communication skills that enable them to express themselves more clearly and effectively.
Ultimately, the goal is to help couples align their goals, share their value systems, find agreements, and deepen their connection through conscious and present communication. By doing so, strengthening the relationship and empowering the couple to work together towards a more fulfilling, happy relationship and satisfying partnership.
What Happens in Our Coaching?
The first session with a couple as a coach typically involves an exploratory conversation where questions are asked to understand what is bringing the couple into coaching, what they hope to achieve, and how they’ll share the responsibility. Questions such as:
What is the atmosphere you want to create as a couple?
What are the values you want to live by as a couple?
How do you want to behave with each other when things get difficult?
What would help you flourish as a couple?
What will you each commit to for one another?
How would you know you have what you’d like to create?
Once we have a clear understanding of the couple's alliance goals, we move on to the next step, which involves each partner taking valid and reliable assessments.
These assessments identify each person's style - style of relating and communicating, especially during a conflict, and emotional intelligence – emotional and social functioning and well-being. The results of these assessments are then reviewed with the couple, with a focus on understanding how each person's strengths and growth needs can be applied in the context of their relationship.
The remaining coaching sessions typically focus on exploring the beliefs, mindsets, and behaviors that may be serving or hindering the couple's relationship. This involves examining patterns of behavior and communication that may be contributing to their challenges, and working together to identify small steps that can be taken to develop healthier and more effective relationship dynamics.
Throughout this process, the couple will have the opportunity to evaluate and tweak their approach to find a balance that feels nourishing, empowering, and aligned with their values as individuals and as a couple.
What’s the Difference Between Coaching and Therapy?
Overall, while coaching and therapy may share some similarities, they differ in their focus, goals, and methods. Coaching is geared towards helping couples achieve specific outcomes and developing new skills and behaviors, while therapy is aimed at addressing underlying psychological or emotional issues.
Coaching is an evidence-based, time-limited and focused on the here and now and the future. The past is brought into focus to understand the origin of a mindset, belief, or behavior to determine if it is needed now as it was needed then. The person is then in choice – to hold onto or let go and create something new together.
Traditional therapy tends focuses more on the past, attempting to resolve long standing issues and often an open-ended process.
Both have their merits. It simply depends on which approach best suits the couple’s needs.
What is the Time frame and Cost of a Couple’s Coaching Engagement?
A Couple’s Coaching Engagement is ten (10) fifty-minute (50) sessions. Typically, we start with weekly sessions, then move to biweekly sessions to allow for more practice time.
The cost is $2500 for the ten (10) sessions, which includes the cost of the assessments.
Should you wish to continue with monthly sessions post the ten (10) sessions for extra support and accountability, the fee for those sessions are billed hourly.
The sessions are held virtually.