Welcome to my Marriage Coaching Blog. I, Jewell Powell, am a marriage coach not a marriage counselor. The term coach has expanded to every part of life: life coach, executive coach, business coach, sales coach, and marriage coach. Is a marriage coach different from a marriage counselor? Absolutely, Yes! Coaches ask the right questions to help an individual come up with their own solution. Whereas counseling provides advice and what they think you should do. A marriage coach does not give advice. You have to decide whether you want to keep your marriage. You have to decide whether you will change your situation. You are ultimately responsible for your choices and your life. A marriage coach encourages, motivates, and provides practical tools and resources to help you with every situation in your marriage. Coaching isn’t therapy! It’s a way for couples to see a positive, intentional approach to their marriage. They explore their relationship and pay attention to the areas that could use some improvement. The ultimate goal is to grow individually and together as a couple.
Counseling usually deals with a specific issue in the relationship—a problem or a wound that needs to be healed. Counseling is really best for immediate crisis situations. If you or your spouse is having trouble such as a problem with substance abuse, or spousal abuse, counseling is the way to go. If you’ve experienced infidelity and don’t know where to go from here, you can benefit from a professional counselor. If one or both of you is experiencing emotional distress—sadness, depression, anger, guilt, dissatisfaction, resentment—counseling might be a good idea. The counselor can help you sift through the problem and move through it in a healthy way. Counseling is almost always practiced by licensed therapists, and is usually short-term.
What makes a couple interested in coaching? Maybe they feel dissatisfied with the relationship. Maybe it’s a lack of direction, unhappiness, or simply a desire to grow closer together. Going through coaching can help married couples clarify their relationship. The coach helps them identify goals, provides perspective, and highlights the importance of accountability and personal responsibility.
If your marriage could use a little boost, and you’re ready to shake things up a little and move to the next level, coaching may be a good idea for you. Even though it’s not therapy, coaching can be helpful for you as a couple especially if you’re going through a rough time. It can help you gain stability and clarify your goals and your relationship in general.
No marriage is perfect, and there’s always room to grow. Coaching is great for those who may not be having problems and especially for those who may be having some challenges. We all have the choice to make a decision to change our situation for the better or get out. The easy answer is to separate and divorce. The toughest, yet most rewarding thing, is to overcome our challenges.
