How Can Coaching Help Couples Resolve Conflict

Every couple deals with conflicts in their relationship. Even the healthiest couples argue and disagree. But how you work through those disagreements can either strengthen or weaken your relationship. 

If you feel like conflict is tearing down the connection you have with your partner, coaching can help. 

Relationship coaching is designed to improve communication and make it easier to resolve conflicts in healthy, effective ways. So, whether your conflicts are escalating or you just want to communicate your needs, wants, and opinions more clearly, it could be time to consider how coaching could help. 

Let’s take a closer look at what you can expect from coaching, so you can determine if it’s the right move for your relationship. 

Better Communication

Conflict often arises when communication is strained. Maybe you’re used to brushing things under the rug. Or, maybe you’re the kind of person who keeps their ideas, needs and wants to themselves. 

You might even try to push down things that upset you about your relationship. But emotions will always come to the surface at some point. If you aren’t communicating with your partner regularly, you’re more likely to end up in multiple disagreements and constantly struggle with conflict. 

Coaching can teach you healthy communication skills. You’ll learn to be an active listener, which is one of the most important parts of effective communication. Everyone wants to feel heard and understood, and active listening is the best way to accomplish that. 

When you foster better communication skills, you’ll be able to dig deeper into your relationship and develop a greater understanding of your partner (and vice versa). Learning to communicate effectively will help you realize you’re on the same team and probably want the same things. You just might have different ways of talking about it. 

De-Escalating Conflicts

Better communication skills are a great way to keep conflicts from spiraling out of control. 

But coaching can help you take things one step further. You’ll learn to resolve conflicts quickly rather than letting them “sit” and worsen. Instead of brushing things under the rug, you’ll learn how to address negative issues and work through them together. 

Coaching can help to foster more tremendous respect and empathy within your relationship. Leading with respect makes you less likely to attack your partner using extremes or generalities. You’ll be reminded that you’re a united front, even when it doesn’t feel like it. 

Learning how to argue effectively and de-escalate conflicts will make your relationship more resilient. You might find that you won’t argue as often about the “little things” that used to get on your nerves. Rather, you’ll have meaningful disagreements that you can use to strengthen your relationship. 

Identifying Areas of Improvement

In addition to helping with conflict resolution, coaching will help you see which areas of your relationship need work. It’s not always easy to see those things independently, especially if you’ve been stuck in negative patterns for a while. 

Consistent conflict in your relationship could damage your emotional connection. It could create rifts in your partnership that don’t necessarily need to exist and patterns that could be stopped if you were able to communicate more effectively. 

Don’t assume you must wait until your relationship is on the rocks to reach out to a couples coach. Learning to be an active listener, express your emotions in healthy ways, and argue for a stronger relationship are all skills that can keep conflict at bay. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of couples coaching feel free to contact us soon.