Relationship Counselor or Couple's Therapist

The duty and function of a relationship counselor or couple's therapist is to listen, respect, understand and facilitate better functioning between those involved.

The basic principles for a counselor include:

Provide a confidential dialogue, which normalizes feelings

To enable each person to be heard and to hear themselves

Provide a mirror with expertise to reflect the relationship's difficulties and the potential and direction for change

Empower the relationship to take control of its own destiny and make vital decisions

Deliver relevant and appropriate information

As well as the above, the basic principles for a couples therapist also include:

To identify the repetitive, negative interaction cycle as a pattern.

To understand the source of reactive emotions that drive the pattern.

To expand and re-organize key emotional responses in the relationship.

To facilitate a shift in partners' interaction to new patterns of interaction.

To create new and positively bonding emotional events in the relationship

To foster a secure attachment between partners.

Common core principles of relationship counseling and couple's therapy are:

Respect

Empathy

Tact

Consent

Confidentiality

Accountability

Expertise

Evidence based

Certification, ongoing training and supervision

In both the practitioner evaluates the story as it is narrated, and facilitates development of realistic, practical solutions; individually at first only if this is beneficial to both, is consensual and is unlikely to cause harm, and then jointly to encourage the participants to give their best efforts at reorienting their relationship with each other.

Source: Wikipedia