How Relationship Counseling Can Help You Connect After A Dating Hiatus

So you want to “get back out there.” Perhaps you’ve taken some time off from dating sites, clubs, or set-ups to focus on yourself. Maybe you were waiting for all the post-pandemic hookups to die down to see who really wanted a relationship. Or, possibly, the time simply feels right to meet someone new.

However you arrived at the desire to date, congratulations. You are taking charge of your life and meeting your own needs for community and connection. Good for you.

Of course, even as you beef up your online profiles and tap your friends for potential prospects, you know what dating is like. Thus, you realize the whole process has its perils. Dating comes with a measure of vulnerability, rejection, and emotional investment that often offers little return. In fact, that may be why you went on a dating hiatus in the first place.

So, how do you know if you’re up to it now?

Believe it or not, the key issue for many daters isn’t really finding someone to date but preparing yourself to make the process worthwhile. How can you do that? Relationship Counseling is key.

Relationship Counseling NYC: 5 Reasons Counseling Is Helpful After A Dating Hiatus

1. Relationship counseling is objective, skilled, compassionate support.

Your relationship counselor is a friend to your efforts. Without judgment, your therapist comes alongside you, listens to your relationship story, and provides objective feedback. Together, you work on improving your personal awareness, healing old hurts, and determining your wants and needs in a safe environment.

In addition, you may work together on setting relationship goals and bolstering the types of interaction and communication that make sense in the dating world. Such support can pay dividends repeatedly and are worth the emotional effort.

2. Relationship counseling can help you see what the dating world sees.

Interestingly, your relationship counselor can act as a safe, interactive “mirror.” In effect, they can help you see yourself as others see you and help you get curious about your approach to dating. Early in the process, you can work through questions like:

• Is your profile really who you are?
• How do your first interactions play out?
• What are you thinking or trying to portray when you text, chat or meet?
• Are you covering anxiety with a bit too much intensity, false confidence, aloofness, or negativity?
• What helps you relax and interact more authentically?

Essentially, counseling can afford you a clearer perspective on your habits and behaviors in the initial phases of dating relationships. Receiving some trustworthy feedback and productive strategies may make all the difference in meeting and retaining the promising connections you want.

3. Relationship counseling can help you rewrite unproductive, unhelpful self-talk.

Often, how you proceed in relationships is happening in your head, long before you connect with anyone. Relationship counseling helps you understand what you’ve been telling yourself.

If your inner dialogue is already loaded with unkind words and a sense of failure, your mental scripts may need revising. Perhaps past trauma has convinced you that people are generally insensitive or unworthy of your effort. Or, your unsuccessful dating past has you wondering whether something about you is unloveable or broken.

Counseling can help you examine your self-talk, allow yourself more compassion, and treat others with less suspicion. Eventually, a more balanced view of yourself and other people’s perceptions can bloom.

4. Relationship counseling can help you deal with unproductive relationship patterns.

Did you feel that you got stuck in most of your past dating relationships? Is there some point in the dating process that you dread or avoid, despite a real desire to find lasting love?

Examining your past relationships with a counselor can help identify how your dating life is affected now. You may find that sharing your parental attachments and former partners is a crucial part of understanding why you are attracted to certain types of people– and whether you need to make some changes.

Counseling can save you considerable time and effort. Working through your past and patterns may help you see, and avoid, unhealthy dating connections before they are formed.

5. Relationship counseling helps you consider your own interests and values.

Working with a counselor helps you mindfully determine what matters to you and what interests you. Being encouraged to stay reflective, present, and positive can help you discover new paths for self-discovery and confidence. This mindset supports optimism and a willingness to meet new people, thus expanding your pool of potential dating partners.

Relationship Counseling NYC: Get Back Out There. Just Don’t Date Alone

Love and connection are out there. You needn’t fear them or go in blind. Dating is a journey. It can be fun and exciting. It also requires some self-reflection and awareness. Get to know yourself and your needs so that you can become the kind of partner you, are seeking. Someone out there is likely looking for you too. Let us aid the process.

The Relationship Suite

With support, you can enjoy the return to dating. If you want to learn more about having a healthy connection, please Contact Us at The Relationship Suite. We help you identify and work through whatever is getting in the way of finding peace, comfort, and lasting forgiveness.

We’re a group of skilled therapists specializing in relationship counseling. We provide individual and couples therapy. To find out more about Relationship Counseling NYC CLICK HERE.

Since Covid, we have been working with couples via Online Counseling in New York, and New York City including Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, Long Island, Port Washington, Roslyn, Manhasset, South Hampton, East Hampton, and Montauk. To schedule a complimentary consultation, click HERE.

We also provide Virtual Counseling in New Jersey, Hoboken, Jersey City, Princeton, Chatham, Morris, Westfield, Union, Bergen County, Colts Neck, and Tenafly. Schedule a complimentary consultation by clicking HERE

Contact Us HERE for a complimentary consultation.