Cary Terra, LMFT

Counseling for Bainbridge Island and the Seattle Area

Cary Terra can help you build a strong foundation for your new relationship. If you’re looking forward to an upcoming wedding, are newly engaged, or just want to ensure that a new relationship doesn’t go the way of past ones, counseling can help you.

Premarital, premarriage couples counseling with an experienced counselor can improve trust, communication skills and give your relationship great odds for success.

Here are some common topics covered with clients in new relationships:

• How to resolve childhood wounds to protect the relationship dynamic
• How to cope with in-laws, family issues and friends in healthy ways
• Argument troubleshooting and prevention
• Increasing trust and commitment
• Building and maintaining healthy boundaries
• How to talk so your partner will listen, how to listen so your partner will talk
• Problems with sex, infidelity, cheating or an affair
• Couples therapy to avoid divorce,
• Marriage counseling for people seeking divorce
• She thinks I will never change marriage counseling
• He’ll never really get it relationsihp counseling
• How to improve trust and communication

Still unsure? Call Cary Terra, Seattle counsellor, for a free, 10-minute phone consultation to determine if new relationship therapy is right for you. Here are some tips:

• Seek help on the early side. Did you know that the average couple waits 6 years before seeking counseling for marital problems? Too long! Learn to communicate early.
• Censor yourself. Research shows that couples who avoid saying every critical thought when discussing difficult topics are the happiest. Reign in your criticism to protect your relationshp.
• Accepting influence. Did you know that a relationship can succeed only to the extent that the husband can accept influence from his wife? Research shows that women are already practiced at accepting influence from men. Yet until men can do the same, relationships are weakened.
• Maintain your high standards. Research shows that happy couples keep high standards for each other - even as newlyweds! If Accepting hurtful behavior from one another simply does not work. This is not the area to compromise standards.
• Learn to argue. That’s right! Couples who are happiest learn how to argue – by exiting the argument and repairing it before it gets out of control. These are real skills that you can learn – and the success can be noted almost immediately.
• Focus on the positive. A good relationship must have a high level of positivity. Constructive communication is vital. This comes from working to maintain optimism by noting the positive.

Cary Terra, LMFT
Seattle Therapist
Bainbridge Island Therapist