Featuring Dr. Mary Ross, PhD, RPsych
Duration: 2 minutes, 18 seconds

People will come to a psychologist for all sorts of relationship problems.

A couple will come, a mother and daughter might come, a whole family might come because obviously relationships can involve a lot of conflict, differences, problems; all sorts of things.

So one of the things that I think that a psychologist can provide first and foremost is a safe place where people can come and hopefully share what's really going on for them. And the psychologist is there to mediate in case things get a little heated, or in case people are actually afraid to share some of what they're thinking or feeling or are concened about.

In the couples realm it can be to deal with all sorts of things, just the plain miscommunications that happen, misunderstandings, all of that. Unfortunately, couples also come sometimes to decide whether to get divorced or not.

And it's not uncommon for someone to come because they've already decided they want to get divorced, and they don't know how to bring that up or deal with that with their partner.

Relationship counseling can sometimes help kind of people figure out what the best course of action is and also sometimes how to share the information with their partner. And if the decision is a separation or a divorce, how to help the couple work out the best way to go about it in the most amicable way possible. You know, people often times figure that they need marriage counseling right off the bat, and they'll find a psychologist, they'll ask around. Sometimes people go to their GP and share some of the problems that are going on and then the GP might refer on to a psychologist for relationship counseling.

There's all sorts of things that a psychologist can do in terms of bringing, helping the couple lay the things out on the table safely, bring things to awareness, help them figure out what patterns of thinking or ways of coping are going wrong for them, different ways to change their behavior. So if you're haivng problems in your relationship, it's a very good idea to either talk to your GP or contact a psychologist.

Presenter: Dr. Mary Ross, Psychologist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Psychologist