Oak Park, IL Marriage Counseling. I help couples
restore selfless loving in marriage! Pathway is here, aiming to give
hope! This has been my focus for 20 years.
Here, your marital hopes might be addressed with an approach
called Skills in Selflessness. This approach does not focus on spouses
repeatedly complaining to the therapist about the difficulties. Rather, the
approach aims to teach spouses new ways of thinking about and talking with
each other. When spouses feel more confident that what matters to them
matters also to their spouse, they might feel more free to risk emotional
connection with each other. With greater emotional connection, the couple
may then more readily address difficulties. Gaining skills in demonstrating
care for one's spouse, in ways that feel like care to the spouse, can be a
gift that keeps on giving. "If you show me that you care about my feelings,
then I feel like you care about me."
In an informal survey of couples who attended 3 or more marital
sessions at Pathway, 77 percent reported an increase in warm feelings for
each other.
Other approaches also may be offered at Pathway, depending upon the approach
preferred by the couple and upon the specifics of their situation. These may
include a problem-solving approach, conflict resolution, or Emotionally
Focused Therapy. An initial assessment during the first visit to Pathway may
help a couple decide upon the desired approach.
Many counseling providers offer marriage counseling. One key to consider, however, is this: what is the specialty of the provider? Some counselors who "specialize" in dozens of areas may not in fact have as much experience in a given specialty as one who focuses on a handful of areas. While the outcomes of counseling cannot ever be guaranteed, a likelihood of desired outcomes exists more when one selects a true specialist. Even a brief look at this website shows that a good amount of this site is devoted to marriage counseling. In fact, at Pathway, here is a true specialization: I help couples restore selfless loving in marriage!
Really, it can be extremely painful to keep trying to make one's marriage better. It can feel grueling to keep following the mantra, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Yet, I LOVE trying to help marrieds try again, IN A NEW WAY!! Sometimes, just identifying clearly what new thing to do can help restore hope. And I'd like to help you restore hope!
As all good counselors should do, Pathway will refer elsewhere some people with situations or issues (including some relational ones) that are not in Pathway's areas of expertise.
If your marriage issues are heavy, like a ship in a storm, I pray you could have the testimony of one person who said that God through Pathway "literally saved our marriage."
Don't go on without a marriage tune-up! Whether the issues are light or heavy, I look forward to hearing from you, and trying my best to be helpful.
- James
As all good counselors should do, Pathway will refer elsewhere some people
with situations or issues that are not in Pathway's areas of expertise.