Healthy marital relationships are essential to a happy life and, sometimes, you have to go through a lot to make them work.
You may not be on the same page as your partner when it comes to household chores and responsibilities. Or, you may have a busy lifestyle that restricts you from having a well-built connection with your spouse.
To overcome such issues, spiritual marriage counseling can help you establish a stronger emotional bond with your partner.
Want to skip right to the suggestions for spiritual marriage therapists? Here are our 2 recommended therapy solutions:
Spiritual marriage counseling services
Below, we’ve looked at two services you can use to find a spiritual marriage counselor, near you or online.
1. ReGain
ReGain
- Online relationship therapy platform
- Both for individuals or couples seeking therapy for relationship or marital issues
- Pricing: starting at $60/week
PROS
- Counselors specialized in relationship counseling
- Unlimited messaging and 24/7 access to your counselor
- Easy to use, secure and private platform
- Owned and operated by BetterHelp - ensuring the high quality services
CONS
- Clunky website and a lot of start-up questions
- Cannot provide mental health diagnoses or prescribe medication
- Does not work with any insurance providers
ReGain is an online mental health platform focused on relationship therapy, that can connect you with a qualified spiritual marriage counselor.
All of the therapists on ReGain are professional psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, or licensed professional counselors. Each of them has a Master’s Degree or a Doctoral Degree in their field.
There is a huge number of counselors on the platform, many of whom practice spiritual counseling. You can find a counselor who shares your religion, if desired.
When you sign up to ReGain, you’ll be asked to fill out a questionnaire. For example, they might ask about the issues you’re looking to solve, and whether or not you’ll be seeking help alone, or with your husband or wife.
You’ll also be asked about your relationship status, what your goals from counseling are, whether you live together with your partner, and what you’re looking for in a marriage counselor.
You can specify that you’re looking for someone who can provide spiritual marriage counseling, and ReGain will match you with the right therapist for your specific needs.
Once you’re matched with a relationship counselor, you and your counselor can message each other and set up a session. At this stage, you can invite your partner, if you’d like them to join.
Typically, you’ll have one video session per week, using the ReGain website or mobile app. You’ll also have the ability to message your counselor in between sessions, allowing you to discuss anything that comes up during the course of the week.
2. Holistic Therapies Directory
Holistic Therapies Directory
- Directory to find holistic professionals and holistic businesses
- Mostly US based but has therapists based in other countries
- Filters by different holistic therapy categories and practices
Unlike ReGain, this website is an online counselor directory, instead of a counseling platform. Rather than offering a therapy service as a complete package, this website allows you to find and contact a holistic or spiritual counselor in person or online.
You can start by using the website to search for holistic therapists by specialty or location. After this, you can compare holistic therapists by viewing their services, qualifications, reviews (if available), and full profiles of each holistic therapist. Then, you can contact the counselor that you think will be a great fit for you and/or your partner.
The therapies offered include a range of established spiritual psychotherapy treatments such as mindfulness, yoga, and hypnotherapy, as well as psychotherapy. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to filter by couples counselors specifically, so you will need to do a bit of searching to find the right therapist on this platform.
Another downside: there aren’t a huge number of counselors listed on the Holistic Therapies Directory. Depending on where you live, it might be difficult to find a spiritual marriage counselor near you.
What is spiritual marriage counseling?
Spiritual marriage counseling is a non-denominational, supportive form of therapy focused on the clients’ values and belief systems. It’s designed to support your spiritual development, both as individuals and as a couple.
Spiritual couples counseling aims to strengthen bonds between couples, improve communication, resolve unhappiness, resentment, and trauma/shock, and assist in the growth of your relationship.
How spirituality is used in marriage counseling
In today’s society, a large number of individuals and families, whether they are part of any religion or not, understand the importance of our spiritual health.
In other words, emotional and physical problems you experience may lie in spiritual imbalances or disturbances. In this case, it can be helpful for professional counselors to reflect on their clients’ spiritual belief systems, to better understand the issues that they’re facing.
In this respect, studies are investigating the role of spirituality in marital relationships. For partners, religious belief systems and practices were related to high matrimonial contentment and a lower risk of divorce. Also, research shows that couples’ religious tendencies can help them build up stronger bonds, reducing conflict in a relationship.
Issues solved by spiritual marriage counselors
There are a number of different issues that spiritual marriage counseling can help you and your husband or wife to overcome.
Resolving interfaith marital issues
Until recently, marriage between individuals of different religions has been highly controversial in many cultures. Parents have historically discouraged their children from marrying people of other faiths, in some religions.
However, the declining boundaries between religious groups in recent times are reducing the prevalence of these orthodox ideas. This is why there has been an increase in the popularity of interfaith marriages in recent decades.
Yet, issues can sometimes arise for interfaith couples, as different religious beliefs can potentially complicate the relationship and make for potential conflicts. For example, if your faith requires more regular time commitment than your partner’s, this may cause disagreements about the amount of time you’re spending away from household responsibilities.
Reduces negative thoughts
Negative thoughts about yourself and/or your partner can disrupt your marriage. When you experience these types of thoughts, you are more inclined to worry excessively about the future, and you may internally punish yourself for mistakes you perceive to have made in the past. It is quite difficult to be satisfied with yourself and even with your partner when your mind is filled up with these types of negative thoughts.
Spiritual counseling provides an insight into your inner thoughts, and makes you more aware of your true feelings. After going through a process of self-realization, this type of counseling can help you to gradually overcome negative thoughts, especially when they have been shown to be unhealthy.
Keeps you committed to your values, even in hard times
Often, a couple may fall apart during hard times, because such difficulties can make you lose sight of the basic values of a relationship. This is why people sometimes become agitated towards their partner while facing struggles in their life.
Spiritual counseling can keep you committed to relationship values such as trust, affection, intimacy, and sharing thoughts and feelings with each other. These counseling sessions can make you more mindful of your behaviors and interactions with your partner.
Components of spiritual marriage counseling
This type of treatment uses holistic psychotherapy in its approach to couples counseling. Practitioners work under the belief that therapy is only helpful when it repairs the body and the mind.
Spiritual counseling promotes healing through several different facets:
- Healing of the mind
- Healing of the body
- Healing of the spirit
- Healing of relationships, including past and present connections
Spiritual marriage counselors support relationships of all types, including open relationships.
How to find the right spiritual marriage counselor
The bond between you and your spiritual marriage counselor has a significant impact on the results that you will get from the counseling sessions.
Thus, it is essential to find the right spiritual counselor for you and your partner. The following points can be helpful in finding the right person to help with your marriage.
Qualifications and experience
It is crucial to check each therapist’s education and experience when searching for a spiritual marriage counselor. If you’re looking into an online directory, you can also directly ask the counselor about their experience and education.
It is recommended to get counseling sessions from a licensed and accredited spiritual counselor, who has significant experience helping married couples improve their relationship.
Type of therapy provided
There are many different types of holistic and spiritual therapies provided by different counselors. For example, some counselors focus on specific religions, while others provide broader spiritual counseling.
Also, some counselors focus specifically on couples counseling or relationship therapy, which is very important if seeking help with your marriage. However, you don’t necessarily have to see a Licensed Marriage and Family Counselor if there are none available near you.
Availability
When trying to find a marriage counselor, you need to find someone who will work with your schedule. This is especially important if seeking counseling together as a couple.
For example, if you or your significant other work long hours, you may need to find an online counselor, who will meet with you over a video call outside of business hours.
Change your therapist at a later date, if necessary
While searching for a spiritual counselor online, try to use such platforms where you can easily and freely change your therapist if the need arises. This allows you to seek the right counselor for you, instead of attending sessions from a counselor that you’ve found isn’t a good fit.
Likewise, if getting in-person counseling, don’t be afraid to change to a different counselor, if you or your partner is not feeling a strong connection. It’s important that you are speaking with someone you feel comfortable opening up to, otherwise your counseling sessions are less likely to be effective.
Benefits of spiritual marriage counseling
There are a number of benefits of spiritual marriage counseling for couples.
Provides spiritual context to issues you may be facing
There are a massive number of potential issues you could be facing in your marriage, from roles and responsibilities, to bedroom issues, to the workload that comes with having a new child.
Spiritual counselors can help to provide a wider context, and lend their spiritual understanding to the resolution of these issues. For example, if you’re a Christian, they might relay teachings from the Bible that pertain to the problems you’re facing.
Deals with conflicting needs and desires
You may have many different relationship needs, such as the need for love, acceptance, closeness, friendship, passion, loyalty, trust, and intimacy.
When your partner does not or cannot meet your needs in different areas, a counselor can help you to work through this issue. Depending on the issue, you may want to attend counseling sessions alone, with your partner, or both (introducing your partner after the first few sessions).
Helps with inner growth and the demands of relationship
Each of us has our individual goals, especially relating to our career, children (or future children), and social aspirations. However, at the same time, you will have significant responsibilities in a relationship, which can get in the way of your individual goals.
Spiritual counseling for couples can help to increase levels of empathy for one another’s personal goals. It can also help you to work through roles and responsibilities in the relationship, helping to help you simultaneously work towards your individual and combined aspirations in life.
Conclusion
If things don’t feel right in your marriage, this is a sign that it’s time to have an open and honest look at your relationship. Communication is so important to healthy marriages, yet it is often difficult to get right, which is where counselors can lend a helping hand.
If you’re searching for supervision and support for your marriage, ReGain is a renowned online platform that provides spiritual counseling over the internet. However, if you’re more interested in in-person therapy, the Holistic Therapies Directory provides a list of spiritual counselors available near you.
Still not sure how to find the right counselor? Feel free to leave a comment, and we’ll respond as soon as possible.
