We begin to form social and personal relationships from birth and we continue to do so over the course of our lifetime. In a lot of cases – but by no means all – we first form relationships with our parents/primary caregivers. If we have them, we next connect with our siblings and extended family. Lastly, we form and manage relationships with people outside of what might conveniently be described as familial, meaning we enter social and business circles, the size and make-up of which vary tremendously from person to person. Understandably, the type, quality and content of the relationships we choose or are chosen for us can maintain, nourish or diminish our mental health.
Relate U.K. report that 25 % of people in modern U.K. society are in ‘distressing relationships.’ By a wide margin, finance, sex, communication and attachments lead a field of ‘causes of distress and destabilisation’ within what are variously, stable, unstable, viable and nonviable relationships.
Counselling can help us objectively review our personal sentiments by gently, calmly and steadily exploring one’s established habits and attitudes to any or all of these central relational factors. Counselling will assist by shining a meditative and illuminating light on our lifetime trends and, oftentimes, our unquestioned patterns of behaviour; it causes us to look inwards and outwards and ultimately asks how these are affecting our current relationships and what is to be done.
Relationships can be complicated. Notwithstanding this complexity, through honesty, thought and empathy, these central features of everyday life can be understood within the safety of the therapeutic environment.