Marriage guidance counsellor - recommendations wanted

[eedee]

Please does anyone have a recommendation for a local marriage guidance/couples counsellor who has an interest in helping couples with kids work through issues to stay together?

Please PM me if you know of anyone good or have had experience of someone you recommend.

Thanks very much :-)

[bodsier]

...

[fl0wer]

Dear Eedee,

lots of people are reading your post and nobody is recommending.

Sorry to say I know of couples who wasted a great deal of money [and hope] on private couple counselling. I assume that because men and women are different and because after a long time at close quarters with one other person, we know their faults as well as their virtues, some professionals find ways to capitalise.

There is Relate, even though they have a long waiting list the people who work there are very experienced, safe and thoughtful.

One tutor I had remarked that when couples go for counselling they're not talking sufficiently with each other to solve problems. His idea was, why wait for a professional to fix that for you? Bon courage!

[eedee]

Thank you. But some lovely EDF users have indeed PM'd me as I requested :-)

[fl0wer]

Ah that is reassuring. Personal recommendation, good.

All the best then.

[eedee]

Thank u :-)

[mamafeelgood]

We went through relate and it was a great experience, exactly what we needed. My one piece of advice: if you don't think the counsellor is helping actually change for someone else. Have the confidence to think maybe it's not us but they're not just good for us: it's a personal space and you need to feel comfortable with the person asking the questions.

I didn't find that it changed anything in us, but, it did make me/us look and actually listen to each other. In turn it made us realise that we were both feeling the same and we left with the tools to talk back down from an argument and forgive.

Hope it goes well, good luck!

[eedee]

Many thanks - that's heartening to hear :-)