Counseling Services – Robert Murphy, Psychotherapist

Individuals

When is it time to seek a therapist for individual counseling?

Is your life not where you want it to be? Are you struggling with a relationship, career issues, or one of life’s many transitions? Are you trying to solve these problems on your own but still feeling stuck or misunderstood?

Then it’s probably time to get professional counseling.

There are times in life when we need guidance or mentoring from a professional. There is great value in talking through your problems, ideas and feelings with a psychotherapist who has the experience and expertise to understand and help you change the things you want to change; a plan to turn your life around.

What typically prompts people to call me?

Conflict associated with:

Depression
Anxiety and panic
Intimacy and sexuality
Marital issues
Compulsive and addictive behaviors
Grief and loss
Problems in the workplace
Shyness/social inhibition
Families of origin

Couples

Couples Counseling and Marital Therapy

For every couple and at every stage in the relationship – from dating to marriage and beyond – difficulties inevitably come up that are better understood and managed with the help of an experienced professional.

For over 30 years, I’ve been teaching couples more effective ways to communicate, negotiate, resolve differences, and maintain or improve their love lives — including how to keep the romance alive, and the sex mutually satisfying.

What to expect from couples counseling

Primarily, couples therapy is a dedicated place and time to explore your relationship with an objective and trained third party. This often brings immediate relief due to the fact that now, you both know that there will be a recurring time to address issues that have come up during the week as well as the ones that have built up over time.

As our work together unfolds, understanding how and why defensive reactions get triggered begins to make sense and new ways of responding are developed.

Over time, both of you begin to feel more ease and comfort communicating with each other; conflicts and frustrations, as well as deeper needs and desires can be more effectively talked about. More collaborative and constructive dialogues begin to take the place of older reactive patterns.

Premarital

A very important aspect of my work as a clinician is to ensure that couples have the support they need to enter successfully into marriage.

Premarital counseling is invaluable to a healthy start. If the two of you are thinking about marriage, now is certainly the best time to make sure you’re on the right track. At this stage in the relationship, couples often wonder whether premarital counseling is really necessary. They might ask, “If we’re this much in love and feeling this sure, would premarital counseling really be helpful?” My answer to this is a definite, “yes”! There is no better time to set the stage and ensure that you and your partner are creating a satisfying and stable future together.

Being able to identify and anticipate potential issues through premarital counseling — rather than waiting to deal with them in the moment or retrospectively — is one of the most powerful things premarital therapy provides and one of the best things you can do for your relationship.

Now is the best time to address several important concerns that will influence your lives for years to come.

Premarital counseling for couples will help:

Define and compare what marriage means to you, both individually and as a couple.
Identify ‘red flags’ – areas of weakness (some already known; others not yet known).
Address financial differences – how similar/different are you around money?
Maintain individuality AND grow

Groups

Group Psychotherapy

“People who are successful in group are successful in life.” – Louis Ormont, Ph.D.

If you are wanting help developing and maintaining more satisfying relationships with others — spouses, co-workers, friends, and family members — group therapy is probably the best way to accomplish this goal.

Over time, as group members talk about their thoughts and feelings with the other members in the group, patterns of behavior and interaction begin to emerge that echo similar situations in their lives outside group.

With the contribution of each member’s perspectives, group members learn more about what gets in the way of having satisfying relationships, and learn new ways of relating more openly and honestly.

For more information about group therapy, please go to http://bit.ly/agpagrouptherapyguide

Couples Groups

Couples groups are a rich and powerful way to learn about and improve your rimary relationship. Because it brings the two of you into the group process with other couples, the opportunities for learning and growing are exponential.

For example, you’ll see other couples struggle with very similar issues and be able to learn in ways that you probably wouldn’t if you were being confronted about them directly. Similarly, being able to see and hear others in the group interact with your partner, and your partner experiencing how others interact with you, has a strong potential for enhancing and/or transforming your relationship.

The American Group Psychotherapy Association is an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to excellence in research, theory and practice of group psychotherapy.

Virtual

There are many good reasons to consider telephone or video counseling sessions, especially when it would otherwise interrupt the quality or consistency of our work together.

For example, I have clients who are professional consultants and frequently on the road. Unable to keep consistent face-to-face appointments, the use of virtual sessions allows the work to continue.

I’ve also found it beneficial to conduct virtual sessions when unforeseen issues arise that make it too difficult to come into the office – severe weather, a babysitter who’s just canceled, a spouse or other family member who’s home sick.