Therapy For Couples Who Work Together

Is Your Family Business Negatively Impacting Your Relationship?

Are you and your partner struggling to keep your business separate from your personal lives?
Have the challenges of running a business started to contaminate your relationship?
Do you want to establish healthier boundaries between your home life and work life?

Maybe the stress of trying to manage your work environment has cut into your marriage or relationship. Your business may have affected your relationship—or vice versa. When you’re at home, all you can do is argue about the business. And when you’re at work, you find yourselves clashing heads over relationship issues that should be left in the home. As a result, you may be thinking about seeing a therapist.

Your Relationship Issues Could Be Affecting Your Employees

As the boundaries between your personal and professional lives continue to blur, your employees may end up getting caught in the crosshairs of your marital issues. Perhaps you’ve been using employees as confidantes and some of them have “taken sides” in your conflict. This could create animosity between workers and make it hard to run your business peacefully.

If you want to put an end to the conflict in your business and your relationship, I encourage you to connect with me. As a therapist with a background in management, I specialize in helping couples work through the hang-ups of owning a small family business. I’m confident that I can do the same for you and your partner.

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Many Couples Struggle To Establish Healthy Boundaries Between Their Marriage And Business

Many family businesses begin peacefully, only to become messier and more turbulent over time. Why does this happen? Take, for example, a family-run business that holds meetings at the workplace once a week. Because the meetings happen at work, the couple running the business is able to keep their home life and work life separate. But let’s say that as time goes on, it becomes easier for the couple to hold meetings at home instead of at work. When this happens, the boundaries between family and business start to disintegrate.

Next thing the couple knows, they’re quarreling about payroll in front of their kids. They’re letting their employees witness the ugly side of their private lives. And then when they’re at work, they bring all the emotional baggage from home with them.

In this way, the line dividing what’s family and what’s business often gets blurry. Counseling for small family businesses can teach you and your partner how to keep the two realms separate and rejuvenate your relationship in the process.

Counseling Can Help Couples Who Work Together Improve Their Business And Their Relationship

With my background in management, I believe I am uniquely qualified to help couples navigate the stress of running a family business together. I worked in management positions for five years, first as an assistant director and then as the social services coordinator for 16 companies, so I know about techniques of management, from mission statements to empirical objectives.

At the same time, my training and experience as a therapist enable me to connect with clients on a heart-to-heart level. I want you and your partner to learn to resolve conflicts, communicate more effectively, and deepen your emotional bond. While counseling can help you become better business partners, my other goal is to help you become better romantic partners. When you improve your relationship, your business often reaps the rewards.

What To Expect In Small Family Business Counseling Sessions

In the beginning, I will have a joint session with you and your partner to explore how your relationship impacts your business and vice versa. Depending on your situation, I may hold individual sessions with each of you as well. The purpose of meeting with you separately is to understand your individual perspectives better and assure you that there’s no taking sides.

As we work together, I’ll help you and your partner define your boundaries—both marital and commercial—so that you can keep your home life separate from your work life. You’ll learn conflict resolution strategies so that your family business can operate smoothly and peacefully. Sometimes, I may have you write job descriptions for each other or collaborate on a policy manual for your company. These activities can help you understand your expectations for each other and figure out how those expectations clash.

In addition to couples counseling, you are welcome to see me for management consultation. Using my academic and practical background in the management world, I can help you and your partner navigate the logistics of running a business together. This work can be done before, during, or after counseling.

Between my business qualifications and experience as a therapist, I’m confident that I can help you and your significant other maintain healthy boundaries between home and work and strengthen your relationship or marriage. Running a family business is hard, but with the right support, I believe that both of you can thrive in your work together!

You May Have Some Questions About Counseling For Couples Who Work Together…

How long will counseling last?

It lasts as long as you want it to. If you and your partner simply want to learn some practical conflict resolution skills, therapy may be short-term. But if you want to dive a little deeper and focus on healing your relationship, it may be a more long-term commitment. I will follow your lead and let you decide what kind of treatment plan you’d like.

Won’t therapy just make us fight more?

No, it won’t. I want to help you and your partner work together as a team, both as a couple and as business partners. I’ll give you strategies for reducing hostile communication and de-escalating conflict when it arises. And if you struggle to work through your issues peacefully, individual counseling is always an option, allowing you to work on your part of the relationship.

What if my significant other doesn’t want to come?

Therapy works best when there’s equal buy-in from both partners. Even so, if your significant other is resistant to coming, you’re always welcome to work on your relationship issues in individual counseling with me. If you benefit from counseling and your partner witnesses your improvement, they may be more motivated to join you.

Become Better Business Partners And Romantic Partners

When your relationship is strong, it becomes much easier to run your business smoothly and efficiently. To learn more about my approach to counseling for couples who work together, you can call me at 504-219-1446. I do my best to answer every phone call personally!