Relationship Counselling

Relationship Therapy North (formerly Relate Cross Pennine) offers counselling to help
individuals and couples navigate relationship challenges. Our Relate trained therapists can help with common issues such as:

Conflict resolution for couples or co-parents.
Exploring co-parenting relationships
Communication difficulties
Trust issues
Intimacy concerns
Life transitions
Becoming a Parent
Financial stress
Infertility Problems
Cultural or religious differences
Health-related issues
Pre-Marriage Concerns
Loss and grief
Exploring separation and divorce.
Cheating and infidelity
Reunions
Family dynamics

Often couples find it hard to talk openly and honestly with each other without getting into destructive or repetitive arguments. Working with a relationship counsellor helps couples to move on from negative or hostile patterns of behaviour and to develop much more positive and sympathetic ways of communicating with each other. This improved communication then makes it possible for the relationship to become happier, more intimate and more fulfilling - leading in turn to improvements in the mood and mental wellbeing of both partners.

Couple therapy can also have benefits such as:

a more stable family life
self-discovery
an improved sexual relationship
reduced jealousy
increased confidence

The process involves working together with one of our highly trained counsellors to explore and gain an understanding of how the difficulties in your relationship arose. Once you have gained this greater understanding, it is then possible for you to decide what changes you want to make and how to achieve them.

Relationship Therapy North provides a safe, non-judgmental space for open communication and finding mutual understanding.

Seeking help early is the ideal but if you are worried about your relationship please give us a call and let us help you make things better before they get worse.

Relationship Therapy North also supports individuals through separation or divorce. Our goal is to facilitate positive change in our clients' lives and relationships.

Case Study

S is a 60 year old heterosexual woman who requested counselling because she was having difficulties in her communication with her partner of 3 years and she feared the relationship was at risk of breaking down and this was impacting her mood.

We began to explore the couples communication patterns and S's experiences in previous intimate relationships. It became apparent that S had been very much affected by a previous 12 year relationship, which had elements of coercive control, and by her difficult childhood. Her childhood experiences had contributed to her life-long struggle with anxiety which she had tried to manage by means of various self help strategies.

Counsellor comments:

"One strand of the counselling sessions was to explore more deeply the origins of the anxiety and look at some different strategies to manage this. Secondly, by exploring with S her expectations of intimate partner relationships and her disappointment that these have not been fulfilled in this current relationship, she has been able to recognise many
positive aspects to the relationship that she has not experienced in previous intimate relationships. I shared with S my curiosity about some of her partners communication patterns and behaviours that she had described and told S that I wondered if he had some autistic spectrum condition(ASC) tendencies. She told me that friends had suggested this to her previously."

S went away and did some research on the subject, undertaking an online course, and said that this helped her to understand her partners needs and thinking patterns better. We have explored together the advantages and disadvantages of having an intimate relationship with a partner with ASC tendencies. This has helped her to have more realistic expectations of their relationship, value it more, and believe that it is sustainable.