Games for couples in therapy

The kiss is just long enough to be passionate while also acting as a distraction from the busyness of the day. Write down three things your partner could do weekly that would make you happy. The lists may not be something your partner can do every day, but a reminder of things they can manage to do once a week to help build trust and communication. You might remember icebreakers from summer camp or work seminars, but this go-to conversation-starting game may help reinvigorate your relationship and teach you something new about your partner.

Reintroduce yourself to your partner by setting time to discuss icebreaker questions that dig beneath the surface. A study found that shared music preferences create stronger social bonds. Reading can allow you to share an experience together at your own pace. Initiating long-held eye contact with your partner may help you two feel a stronger connection.

Prolonged eye contact can help you recognize emotions, build trust , and increase intimacy. Gratitude has many benefits , including boosting well-being for yourself and your relationship. A study found that sharing gratitude with your partner increases oxytocin, a hormone that helps calm you and decrease stress. Penn Medicine reports that hugging can also lower resting blood pressure and regulate sleep patterns. Find a couples therapy workbook in a book store or online and take time each week to go through assigned activities with your partner.

Sue Johnson. If distraction and a feeling of absenteeism is infiltrating your relationship, experiment with setting aside time to fully unplug and communicate with each other. Every relationship has conflict. Learning how to handle your conflicts can not only patch up your issues but also make your relationship much stronger.

Like any form of therapy, couples counseling requires a commitment and willingness to open up from both involved parties. According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, more than 98 percent of people reported marriage and family therapy services as good or excellent. Couples therapy can help anyone in a relationship, regardless of demographics like sexual orientation and age.

Assign this exercise as an action item within CleverMemo. This allows clients to share their answers right in their private stream. Over time you both have a running record about the entire couple therapy with each partner.

The complete exercise is part of the C ouples Therapy Toolkit. It takes two for a successful relationship. If both parties start journaling about their thoughts, feelings, experiences, mistakes, successes, and wishes, a lot of invaluable insights will be uncovered. The therapist could discuss the journal entries individually with each partner and afterward try to solve and work on them together. The CleverMemo automation allows you to assign the journal entry as a homework item.

Just define how often e. Rereading past entries is a great way to reflect and uncover recurring patterns, habits, and thoughts. Two journaling templates are included here. This exercise prompts each partner to take a closer look at the strengths. The couple should make this exercise individually. Sometimes we are sure that we possess certain strengths but our partner may not notice them or take them for granted. But unfortunately, in some cases, arguments can escalate quickly, turning a little disagreement into a big issue.

Each time an argument comes up the couple should say some keyword like Pause, Stop, or PIT-Stop and then leave the situation. Each partner takes a seat and writes down their thoughts and feelings. Communication and the ability to listen to each other are vital skills for any relationship to be successful. There are several exercises to assess communication issues:.

Good communication is an essential part of a healthy relationship. Every relationship has its ups and downs, we all have bad days, but a healthy way of communicating with our partner makes it easier to deal with conflicts and building a stronger relationship.

Every person has different communication ways and needs of communication. How would they rate their current communication?

Are they able to talk about everything with their partner? This is the first step to improve communication. The whole worksheet is part of the Couples Therapy Toolkit. The miracle question is a great thought experiment in coaching and counseling. The question has its origin in the solution-focused therapy and its name is credited to Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg. The focus is on the future, on the goal the client wants to achieve.

It can be very helpful in understanding what both they and their significant other needs to be happy with the relationship. Imagine while sleeping tonight a miracle occurred: All your current problems disappeared. What would you notice that would tell you life suddenly gotten better? How would life look like? The miracle question is just one example that shows how great the impact of the right questions can be in couples therapy.

Questions can be a great resource for any couples therapist, and relationship counselor, or coach. We created a collection that will help to identify problematic areas within the relationship. Check out the list of couples therapy questions for your next session here. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Yes, this is a doppelganger of the famous hangman game but there is a twist: The words to be guessed should be related to your relationship.

When you are in a restaurant, waiting for your meal, or when both of you are on a train to somewhere with a lot of time to kill, simply bring out a pen and paper. Now start drawing boxes that resemble a wheel of fortune.

If you want your S. Then your mate has to guess the letters, and if they get it right, you put the letter in the box. But if they get the wrong letter, you draw the hangman — start with his head, then his trunk, then hands, etc. Invite your friends over for dinner. Turn your kitchen into a MasterChef kitchen. Let your guests be the jury. Ask them to at least pick one of their dishes over yours. Suggested read: 10 golden tips on how to make your relationship better than it already is.

Relationship games for couples to build connection in the bedroom. Cultivating intimacy inside the bedroom is essential. Prolonged back massages and spooning are awesome ways.

But some games can ensure an extremely engaging foreplay. Yes, engaging should be your operative word. You should have so much fun before sex that the actual lovemaking becomes just a cherry on the cake. Here are five scintillating games to achieve that level of closeness with your partner. Tear a piece of paper into twelve equal pieces. Now, write truth on six of those and dare on the remaining.

Fold them evenly. Next, place them in a jar or a bowl. The questions you ask or the dares you give should be sex-related. Yes, when you guys are alone at home, there can be nothing better than a game of naked hide and seek. Now play the game since you already know the rules!

Lie next to each other and face each other. You should put your foreheads together without touching your nose or chins. At first, try to do 7 in a row. If it feels good, and it will extend it to 20 or 30 breaths. Prolong it for as much as it feels good for you and repeat any time you want to feel present and connected to your partner.

The idea is fairly simple — take a jar and add any number of relationship-building questions. If you are having trouble coming up with them, there are already made question jars available for purchase. The Legacy Jar , for example, has awesome questions, which can also be used with your colleagues, friends, and kids.

If you, however, wish to make questions more personal, you can use any jar, and your partner and yourself can write as many questions as you wish. Feel free to use the famous 36 questions that were used in an experiment showing that answering these 36 questions can bring people closer together. Several of them even fall in love. This activity offers a reflective way of helping couples dive deep into an exploration of what kind of future they would like to create.

A lot of people are facing struggles, simply because they are not sure of their own and partnership goals. Therapist Ryan Howes elaborates the Miracle Question as:. When you awake tomorrow, what would be some of the things you would notice that would tell you life had suddenly gotten better? This question allows you to go beyond the spectrum of reality, using the imagination to dig for the things you truly wish to happen.

By not being bound with the everyday constraints, you will bring up your desires that you prevent yourself from verbalizing. In the setting of couples therapy, even though your partner might give an impossible wish, you can grasp the idea behind it. The therapist would use an unrealistic idea to help you investigate it would change your life for the better. The change you find there is the change you need. On a partnership level, you can then work on scaling the idea of change and apply it on a practical level.

In hectic lives, where we run around every day doing all sorts of errands, this exercise can be a good way to freeze time and reconnect. During this exercise, it is important to have an adults-only 1-on-1 conversation. All distractions including kids should not be around. You can kick off the conversation with the following questions:.

Even though direct, these questions are meaningful and will inspire your partner and yourself to have a productive discussion. It is quite important to have these conversations regularly and treat them like an important commitment out of which you will not bailout. You can create as many categories as you would like, but we suggest you start with these 6 important areas of life:.

After you agree on which categories you want to work on, set goals for each of the areas. Agree on the timeline and put the goals somewhere visible. What is a cause you both believe in? Focusing on helping there will bring you two together.

When you see your partner helping others you will fall in love with them all over. Decide what case you want to dedicate some of your time and volunteer together through a local charity or a church.

This exercise is best utilized during the evening and allows the cole to check-in with each other. This exercise is used in couples counseling to increase empathy and understanding.

While one of the partners is sharing their high and low of the day, the other is using attentive listening techniques. In this exercise, the focus is on written communication. B oth partners need to write on separate postcards their frustrations, feelings, or desires. Once written it is to be mailed and not verbally discussed. Any further response should only be written in the same format and sent.

This fosters written communication and patience. Besides the cute nicknames and endearing words, partners sometimes call each other names that can be hurtful. This exercise allows partners to address any name-calling that might have aggrieved them in the past. They are to make a list of names they found disrespectful and share it. After reading it, both have a chance to elaborate on how those terms impacted their feelings of confidence and self-worth.

This fun couple activity involves the body and the mind. The partners are to work together to achieve a common goal. The twist is — they each have an arm tied behind their backs. They need to communicate directions and actions concisely so that, with their free hand, each of them is working to achieve a goal.

Their synchronicity is necessary for obtaining the objective.