Yes, it can, but successful marriage counseling depends on many factors including the couples’ commitment to the therapy and both partners’ openness to change. Research shows that successful couples therapy involves five basic principles:
• Changing the couples’ understanding of the relationship, for example, ending the blame game.
• Changing dysfunctional behavior, for example learning to take a time out rather than allowing conflict to escalate.
• Increasing intimacy and decreasing emotional avoidance, for example expressing important feelings and ideas to each other that may have been previously avoided due to fear of intimacy and vulnerability.
• Improved communication: learning to listen actively, empathetically, and non-critically.
• Building on the existing strengths in the relationship.
And, of course, the Four Horseman must be dealt with.
For marriage counseling to be effective, the couple must be willing to be do the sometimes challenging work of addressing the above, with the help of their therapist.
Yes, it can, but successful marriage counseling requires commitment to the therapy and an openness to change.