Whatever the nature of your communication difficulties couples therapy can help you get to the root of challenges as well as looking at more effective ways of expressing and feeling heard and understood by each other.
When caught in argumentative or avoidant patterns, the way feelings are communicated by a couple can sabotage their chances of being heard and understood by the other. It can be hard to take the risk of trying to be heard with what you are feeling on a deeper level, or really wanting. This can feel vulnerable as it may seem to run the risk of not being heard or met in areas that matter so much.
However, when we communicate from this open place, owning our feelings, not projecting, and take the risk to be heard and seen, it is often easier for our partner to listen, understand and not be defensive.
Once couples start to build new connections where they communicate in a way that their partner can be receptive, this has the potential to grow so that both people feel heard and more respected. These new ways can outgrow the old, familiar but dysfunctional ways of relating and start to become the new default; the new familiar and loving ways of communicating.