– Protecting Your Marriage During the Holiday Season

Last Updated on December 8, 2013 by Chris Roberts

MARRIAGE COUNSELING CAN BE QUITE HELPFUL DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN NASHVILLE

In an ideal world, marriage counseling offices in Nashville, TN should be void and vacant during the holiday season.  After all, the holidays are about celebrations and play and spending quality time with family.  The holidays are supposed to be relaxing and rejuvenating, along with a strong dose of creative imagination and childhood play.  We cook and eat large, satisfying quantities of food.  We make lists of all our wishes, and as parents, fulfill the wishes of all our little ones.  We tell grand stories of a fat man and his elves in the North Pole who spend their entire lives fashioning gifts for good little boys and girls.  We put elves on shelves and come up with cunning schemes for mischief and delight.  This…this is how it is supposed to be.

Perhaps somewhere in the world, marriage counseling rooms are empty and marriages are happy and healthy during these holiday seasons.  But often, this is not the reality.  As much as the holidays are filled with joy and excitement, they are also filled with tension and pressure and unmet expectations. No relationship experiences as much of this tension and pressure than marriages.  A husband will become a Father, a Parent, and a child all at once, and all usually culminating on one day.  A wife will become a Mother, a Lover, and a child all at once…and all on that same day.  As parents of little ones return their families of origin, and are dunked into the reality of being a child to their parents and at the same time, being parents to their children, the relationship of husband to wife usually becomes the most strained.  As noted above, it shouldn’t be this way…but it usually is.

Marriage counseling can also serve some of its grandest purposes, if a couple is willing to spend a few sessions meeting with an experienced marriage counselor to talk about the upcoming season and its potential pitfalls.  With all of the planning for gifts and food and travel and outfits, sometimes the marriage itself gets the least of the planning energy.  Marriage partners need to sit down and walk through how they are going to relate to each other during this extremely busy time of the year.  Marriage partners need to take the time to understand each other’s fears, and hopes, and dreams, and plans during this hectic season.  Marriage partners need to reflect on previous year’s successes and failures, and figure out ways to enhance the successes and minimize the failures.

Marriage counseling in Nashville, TN is prepared to do just that for couples who are willing to spend some hours intentionally working on this time of year.  Oftentimes, just thinking about previous year’s experiences can be fraught with frustration and anger as old wounds and disappointments are revisited.  A marriage counselor can be a great mediator to help keep each person’s emotions in check, while allowing them to accurately describe where expectations were met and where they were missed.  The old adage is true, that if we don’t learn from the past- we are doomed to repeat it.

If you are looking for marriage counseling in Nashville, Tennessee for just a simple tune-up for the holidays, then Chris Roberts at Two Trees Counseling Nashville could be a good fit for you.  Chris Roberts is a marriage counselor in Nashville with experience working with couples and helping them through difficult and frustrating situations.