Please note, while the scenarios are real, the names and identifying information have been changed to protect my clients’ identities.
Affairs : Max and Erica
I regularly see couples after an affair. ‘That’s the end of them!” you might say. And, yes, an affair can signal the gasping breaths of a relationship that’s dying but it can also signal to the couple that their relationship needs attention and it can herald the start of a new relationship … together.
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A Relationship Ends / Gaslighting
I have been working on the ending of a relationship with a woman, Kate, whose teenage daughter suggested to her that her own father was showing elements of ‘gaslighting’ towards her mother. Gaslighting is a relatively new term for emotionally controlling behaviour in a relationship.
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Sacha’s Marriage
I previously met with Sacha and her husband, both in their twenties, about 5 yrs ago. He was obviously unwell with disturbing mental health problems, was hospitalised soon after and struggled with these disorders. She then came alone and continued to work with me off and on throughout but especially over the last two years when we worked online because she had taken a new job in Scandinavia and he remained in the UK within the mental health service. They were effectively separated with little contact made by him.
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The Shock of Sexual Addiction
Over many months I worked with a couple following discovery of what at first seemed to be an affair but which, during the ensuing counselling, emerged as a sexual addiction acted out both online and with sex workers.
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Separation: David & Debbie
Couple work isn’t about helping a couple to go back to what they were before the crisis or before the years of relationship neglect – whatever brought them to counselling. It’s about building something new.
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Can we stay together? Geoff & Gill
It’s tough when a couple don’t want to separate but neither can they seem to be together. They really wanted to like each other; Gill still wanted the closer retirement she’d imagined and Geoff said he wanted this too.
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