Can Therapy Help You Deal with the End of a Relationship?
The end of a marriage or long-term relationship is a painful experience, and the psychological effects of such a breakup can linger for months or even years. If you’re having trouble moving on after the breakup of a significant relationship, it can be helpful to talk to a psychologist or therapist about what you’re going through.
When a relationship is over there are many issues and emotions to work through. Grief, hurt, anger, and frustration are common emotions, even for the person who ended the relationship; but whether you initiated the breakup or not, moving on isn’t easy.
Grieving the end of a relationship is similar to grieving other kinds of loss, and in general, the longer or closer the relationship, the more intense the emotional impact is. For some people, the end of a marriage or long-term relationship can trigger an episode of depression or other problems that make it harder to move on afterward.
How Can a Psychologist Help?
Just as with any other problem or life event, some people are able to deal with a breakup effectively and move on, while others don’t cope quite as well. There are lots of ways you can help yourself work through the end of a marriage or long-term relationship; for instance, you might spend more time with family and friends, find a new hobby, or take time out for self-care.
Many people benefit from talking about a breakup in order to better understand the reasons why it happened, but an intimate relationship can be a difficult thing to talk about, even with a close friend or family member. If you find it hard to reach out to others for support, it can be useful to get the help of a therapist. Having someone to talk to about the feelings you’re experiencing is an important part of dealing with what’s happened, and learning to move past it into the future.