Couple therapy is an intervention that aims to help unblock conflicts and promote fluidity and personal/ couple gratification by promoting the (re)discovery of the potential of the "we" in deep respect and love for each individual's "I." 
 
When should you seek couples therapy? 
 
Couples therapy is recommended when the marital relationship is experiencing conflicts that the partners are unable to manage, causing significant disruptions in many areas of their lives and harming the couple's well-being and quality of life. 
 
Among the most common reasons that lead a couple to seek the help of a therapist are: infidelity, recurrent anger, excessive jealousy, problems in their sex life, different perspectives on raising their children, negative involvement of the family of origin... Often, the phases of change in the life cycle (birth of a child, children leaving home...) can be phases that bring great reorganisations that can generate tensions and conflicts that the couple has difficulty dealing with, and can be an important time to seek help for the couple. The prospect of separation may also be the target of intervention, whether to analyse whether it is actually the best option, or are being dragged by unresolved conflicts that have the potential to be looked at from different perspectives and eventually dismantled; or, to make it easier for both of them, with respect for themselves and for the other, integrate the phase of change, and manage it in the most constructive way, both personally and in their relationshipship with the children.  
 
The sooner a couple seeks help for situations they believe they are unable to handle, the faster and easier the issues are reorganised and the couple develops new communication patterns capable of enhancing their well-being and quality of life. 
 
Family therapy aims to improve the fluidity of constructive communication channels in the group so that it becomes an organising nucleus that improves the well-being and development of each of its members. 
Its primary goal is to assist the family in establishing or reestablishing harmonious, respectful, and healthy relationships among its members. 
 
The most common family dysfunctions are family crises related to psychopathological situations in which it is important to work on the relational system of the person with the symptom, such as in cases of anorexia, alcoholism, suicide, among others, and parent-child problems in adolescence. . 
 
"Whether with the goal of improving family relationships or treating a family member through changes in these relationships, the family therapist fulfils the role of dialogue architect in a context in which clients and therapist actively participate in the analysis of the historical scenario and present, the elaboration of the plan of changes, and the subsequent transformations." 
 
Carla Abranches, Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist