Case
Study 1
Read the story of a real client who attended couple therapy and succeeded in resolving their differences.
A Couple Brought Back Together
How Aaman and Esita Worked Towards a Healthier and Happier Future Together
Aaman and Esita (Not the real names), a couple in their early 30s, came to couples therapy with Mohammed Al Zoubi, the relationship counsellor at the Glowing Minds, after they decided to end the marriage.
The couple, married for 6 years, decided to part ways when their relationship was on the verge of a breakdown. Olivia felt she was doing everything to keep the relationship going while managing her demanding job, but felt Jack took her for granted. On the other hand, Jack felt stressed, isolated and neglected and often found himself lacking the motivation to do the things he felt Olivia nagged him to do.
Gradually, the small disagreements started escalating into full-blown fights. They had difficulty communicating and made negative perceptions of each other’s behaviours. The intimacy between the two reduced dramatically. As the bitterness and anger grew by the day, they stopped communicating and started living as roommates rather than as a couple, thus leading to separation shortly thereafter.
They came into counselling after 3 months of separation, wanting to give their relationship a last chance. In therapy, it became clear that John and Olivia were not tending to their individual needs and communicating what they wanted from each other.
The couple had a total of six sessions, with two individual sessions and four couple sessions within 3.5 months. The opening session focused on stabilising the relationship and providing them with basic relationship communication skills. They were given homework to build positive regard toward each other. In the later sessions, the counsellor helped them identify their insecurities about the relationship.
The individual sessions were focused on personal issues that were affecting the relationship. Each of them learned stress and anxiety coping mechanisms and worked on how to give space to their internal thoughts.
The homework allowed the couple to work on listening to each other in a way that validated each other’s feelings. It was visible that they were working out their differences in a respectful and non-defensive way.
Since the couple had positive regard for each other and were committed to counselling, they were successful in making their relationship a safe and comforting place by the end of 6 sessions.
