Catholic Marriage Counseling Calabasas CA
Bill Moran’s Catholic marriage counseling Calabasas seeks to help couples restore what they once had. Let's face it; most couples spend a fortune of time and money on the wedding day. At the same time, they often give little thought to the future, believing instead that life will be perfect. After all, they found the ideal partner. In reality, all couples will struggle throughout their marriage; it is inevitable. Therefore having challenges is not the problem. The problem becomes how to resolve them successfully. A Catholic perspective on marriage can be more helpful than other approaches because it recognizes the spiritual union.
Catholic Marriage and Therapist View
The Catholic perspective of marriage is a sacramental bond that reflects the trinitarian love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As Bishop Fulton puts it in his book Three to Get Married,
"Once the spirit of Divine Love enters marriage as it does at the altar, there is no magic faith introduced that the partner is absolutely perfect. But there is introduced the idea that the partner have been given by God until death and therefore is worthy of love for Christ's sake always"
With this in mind, the Catholic idea of complementarity is worth noting, a timeless truth. Pope St. John Paul II wrote extensively about marital unions and that the complementarity between men and women was not merely physical. It was a more profound phenomenon that affected our social, political, and economic relationships. In the psychology of human interpersonal attraction, complementarity is a well-recognized phenomenon where individuals are attracted to partners with different but complementary traits to their own.
This view starkly contrasts many modern ideas that focus on the equality of human dignity and personality, ability, and talent. The Bohns 2013 study found that "complementary self-regulatory orientations predicted greater relationship well-being specifically for couples with higher goal congruence. We theorize that under these circumstances, complementary strategic preferences allow for a division of labor that allows each couple member to take on their preferred strategic role during joint goal pursuit, leading to greater overall satisfaction with the relationship."
It's Never Too Late for Marriage Counseling
Studies have shown that many couples begin to experience problems long before seeking help. Minor issues left unaddressed will typically surface when couples face a stressful time. Suppressing those feelings rather than dealing with them as they come often results in situations that are more difficult to handle. This is why I recommend that couples seek help sooner than later.
How Our Calabasas Catholic Marriage Counseling Helps
I draw on contemporary psychology and the latest research, practical wisdom from the experiences of married couples, and the beauty of the Catholic Church's teachings on marriage and family life to give you the best foundation on which to build a successful marriage. In the Catholic view, the two become one. Regretfully, most couples never fully realize what it means to become one with another. The top three benefits of Catholic marriage therapy are:
- Recognizes the spiritual union
- Views marriage as permanent
- Helps spouses learn to make sacrifices
Depending on the nature of the problem and the desire of each individual, couples can decide to address their issues individually or together as a couple.
Reference
Bohns, V. K., Lucas, G. M., Molden, D. C., Finkel, E. J., Coolsen, M. K., Kumashiro, M., . . . Higgins, E. T. (2013). Opposites fit: Regulatory focus complementarity and relationship well-being. Social Cognition, 31(1), 1-14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/soco.2013.31.1.1