Addiction is known for negatively impacting on your health. But it also affects your relationships with friends, family and your significant other. This is why it’s crucial to repair these relationships while in recovery.

Substance abuse affects the communication within your relationship, creates a lack of trust, and can hurt your finances. Over time, these issues can worsen and result in the breakdown of the relationship.

Couples counseling is a proactive way to save your relationship and get through your addiction as a couple.

Let’s look into how couples counseling can help during addiction recovery.

What Does Couples Counseling Involve? 

Couples counseling is the treatment of two people in a relationship by a trained therapist. Sessions tend to last for one hour and are attended by both people. Sessions can run once a week for a few months or more.

Couples counseling starts by meeting with a therapist to discuss your goals and reasons for wanting counseling. It gives you a safe space to communicate with your partner about sensitive and difficult topics. You’ll also receive feedback from your therapist on how to work through issues that have been causing problems—in this case, addiction.

How Couples Counseling Helps with Addiction 

Addiction problems can often exacerbate as a result of underlying relationship issues. Difficult childhood issues that were never dealt with, relationship issues, the loss of a loved one or job stress, can result in one partner abusing drugs or alcohol to cope. The other partner may view the addiction as the issue, rather than the relationship problems that already existed.

During couples counseling for addiction, there are actually three recoveries taking place. Each person heals along with the relationship itself. Addiction affects both people in the relationship, even if only one person was addicted.

When one person undergoes addiction treatment, many assume that the troubles that plagued the relationship will disappear. Unfortunately, this is often not the case and couples find themselves having the same arguments even when the substance abuse has ended.

For both partners to truly heal from the lasting effects of addiction, the underlying problems of the relationship must also be addressed.

The Benefits of Repairing Relationships While in Recovery 

Your relationship will not heal itself after substance abuse ends. You must take the steps to address the underlying problems with your partner and to work through the damage caused by addiction.

Couples counseling will enable you to pinpoint the issues in your relationship that are a direct result of addiction. These include financial or legal problems that were the result of using, or health problems related to drug or alcohol abuse.

Ignoring these will have lasting effects that can eventually result in the dissolution of your relationship.

Seeking Counseling

If you’ve taken the steps toward addiction treatment, it’s also important to repair your relationships while in recovery. Couples therapy is an effective complement to  individual counseling and substance abuse programs.

Are you ready to take the next steps toward improving your relationship? Contact us today to find out how we can help.