Marriage counseling can unlock great relationships – Therapist

Marriage therapist Odeneho Dinpa says investing time and effort in understanding how a marriage can thrive is one of the best things for a fruitful relationship.

His statement comes on the back of the latest report by onlinedivorce.com which states that Ghana recorded almost four thousand divorces in 2019. This figure is considerably higher than most average rates seen in the past.

Speaking to GhanaWeb, Odeneho Dinpa expressed the need for partners to devote themselves to counseling as it can unlock great relationships.

He said happily married couples live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives than either divorcees or those who are unhappily married.

“Research by Lois Verbrugge and James House of the University of Michigan found that an unhappy marriage can increase your chances of getting sick by roughly 35 percent and even shorten your life by an average of four to eight years”, he stated.

Therapist Dinpa emphasized how counselors use different tools and methods to evaluate “the health of a relationship, which then highlights the areas that the couple needs to work on.

“A qualified marriage therapist can provide guidance on skills such as understanding one another’s needs, fostering friendship, resolving conflict, nurturing affection for one another, and creating a fulfilling life together. Counselors use a combination of evidence-based tools to help couples improve the quality of their relationship”.

“Learning the necessary skills and tools to have a healthy relationship in the 21st century is important,” says Dinpa.

Though it might involve an intense journey of unlearning destructive habits and learning new, more effective ones, it is well worth the effort, he noted.

Odeneho Dinpa also advised couples to enroll in relationship counseling sessions as early as possible to avoid the build-up of negative emotions and experiences.