Marriage Counselling in Calgary

Marriage counselling can be very successful for couples struggling with a large variety of issues.

Terry Penner has been offering marriage counselling for Calgary couples for more than 35 years and has helped countless couples to successfully recover their marriage — and their connection. For new couples (blinded by love!) it is often difficult to imagine how a strong relationship could ever require marriage counselling. However, long-lasting relationships, and successful marriages, definitely require a strong commitment and the perseverance to persist through tough times. The courage to ask for help and seek advice from an experienced marriage counsellor is often the turning point in a relationship. It certainly doesn't mean that the relationship is over, often it is truly the beginning of a much stronger connection between partners.

Terry Penner has become very familiar with issues such as infidelity, lack of passion in a relationship, boredom, poor communication, and several other common relationships "snags". In a perfect world, we would all move smoothly through life with one perfect partner — a partner who always knows exactly what we need — and always comes through. Real life doesn't always paint the same picture so we frustrate our partners and often get frustrated in return. Surprisingly to many couples, even one or two sessions with an experienced marital counsellor can really shed some light on the issues.

Feel free to ask a few preliminary questions of Terry in order to help you make your decision.

Marriage Counsellor for Calgary Couples

Couples of all ages and at any stage of relationships can run into struggles. Working with an experienced marriage counsellor can help to open up communication, leading to a more effective starting point for getting things back on track. Whether the issues are focused around intimacy, children, finances, in-laws, or any other factor, a simple process of getting all of the information on the table (specifically honest information) is where things must begin. It can be very difficult for couples to really open up to each other, especially in situations where feelings can be hurt, or have been hurt already. The safe, neutral environment offered by using a marriage counsellor can be a significant factor in turning things around in your marriage.

Oftentimes, couples do not want to admit to family and friends that they are having problems. Furthermore, it can be tough to discuss difficult situations without the risk of one or both partners being judged. So everything stays bottled up beneath the surface and lingers, waiting to get out. This isn't healthy for anyone and truly cannot help to solve the issues within the relationship. Terry Penner has been offering relationship counselling in Calgary for long enough to have had some familiarity already with your situation.

Contact Terry Penner Today and get your marriage back on track!

Who Needs Relationship Counselling?

Couples fight for a lot of reasons. Sometimes there are valid reasons to become upset and have your feelings hurt. Other times we overreact and take it out on anyone and anything that stands in our path! Unfortunately for our spouses, they are often in that path, and we damage relationships without any possible upside. The choice to come in for relationship counselling shows a strong commitment to your relationship, and an ability to put yourself (as an individual) to the side in order to help the relationship. There is commonly a resistance to "giving in" or "budging" within our relationships, as we are all individuals as well. However, the choice to truly commit to another person brings with it a guarantee of some challenging times. Even the best relationships experience some turbulence from time to time, and relationship counselling can "settle the air" and help to calm things down. Possibly even get things back to "how it used to be".

Relationship counselling can be very effective in most relationships at one point or another. However, some of the common situations that we work with are:

1. 1. Newly Wed Couples — early fighting and problems immediately following the wedding. This isn't as unusual as you may think, and this doesn't mean you made a mistake! Newly Weds often fight, and similar to couples who have been together for decades, the fights usually come down to poor communication. One to five sessions with Terry Penner is often an excellent platform for new couples to learn how to communicate with their spouse. Frequently couples will comment that they have rarely fought in the past, or "something changed", and relationship counselling can often enlighten both partners on what seems to have changed — whether or not it actually has!
   2. Couples Experiencing Intimacy Issues — it is extremely common for the sparks and flames of a new relationship to simmer down, sometimes simmering a little bit too far. Additionally, after the passion has subsided and couples start to "settle in" to each other, it can be very difficult to rekindle the intimacy that both partners initially experienced. This is a very common relationship problem and can lead to a large variety of subsequent issues. If one partner (or both partners) do not feel desired by one another, this can lead to resentment, hurt feelings, and in some cases infidelity. Needless to say, if infidelity hits, relationships reach a brand new level of significant challenges. Not necessarily impossible to overcome, but certainly more difficult. A more successful strategy, whenever possible, is to get couples back on track with why they fell in love in the first place — and help to re-spark the fire.
   3. Couples Dealing with Infidelity (Unfaithful Spouses) — perhaps one of the most difficult situations to overcome in a marriage is that of an unfaithful spouse. The mix of emotions in these situations is overwhelming for most people, and the simple notion of forgiveness seems very far out of reach. Anger, resentment, jealousy and deeply hurt feelings all come together at once creating incredible amounts of emotional pain. Spouses may be unfaithful to their partners for a variety of reasons. But whatever the reason may be, the act of cheating can be either a permanently damaging blow to a relationship or the starting point of improving the relationship. Frequently couples dealing with an affair will feel like they have hit "rock bottom" in their relationship, and at that point open up to new possibilities — with or without each other. Terry Penner has helped dozens of Calgary couples to recover their marriages after an affair, and can surely provide valuable insight to help you move on with your lives — either together or peacefully moving on to new relationships.

For a more in-depth look at issues that we deal with in our Couples Counselling.

While this provides examples of some common scenarios that we help couples to overcome, there are other situations which can benefit from counselling as well. Whatever your situation may be, chances are very good that Terry Penner can help you work through it as a couple. If you are interested in learning more about marriage counselling or relationship counselling please Contact Terry Penner Today to discuss some options.