This blog is intended to:
- understand how relationships can help us live a more fulfilled life,
- suggest ways to improve the health, fulfilment, and emotional connection in relationships,
- explore difficulties that couples generally face and to provide some ways I understand these problems,
- provide some general recommendations and resources that will hopefully help readers,
- give a bit more info about my approach to counselling than is already provided on dawsonpsychologicalservices.com.
This blog is also intended to provide information about the new Home Study resources available on the website, and to hopefully make them easier to use.
It is important to state that I’m not speaking for all therapists or all psychologists in this blog. What I write here is my opinion only. If I cite others, I will provide my interpretation of what others said or found in their research. It’s also important to say that this blog is not set up for publication beyond dawsonpsychologicalservices.com, nor is it set up to automatically publish feedback or questions from readers. If you have questions, concerns or feedback about couples counselling, the blog itself, or about dawsonpsychologicalservices.com, please email me at[email protected]. I would be happy to respond to your email either personally, by posting an FAQ, or by addressing a question generically through a blog post.
What this blog is not?
In addition, although I am occasionally asked to give advice to couples who I see in my private practice, the purpose of this blog is not advice-giving nor is it designed for any individual client or couple. But that doesn’t mean it can’t help those looking for advice. There will be a lot of information shared in this blog, perhaps so much that you might think you don’t even need to go to see a counsellor. Not to take way any value from seeing a couples counsellor, if that’s what you choose to do, great! I’m happy to save you some money!
It is important for readers to be aware that any recommendations or resources provided here are not intended to be a final solution for any specific couple. Instead, it is most helpful when any suggestions or recommendations are taken as representing or symbolizing part of a relational process.
In essence, this blog is not intended as a replacement for face-to-face counselling. Having said that, research on self-help supports the helpfulness of circulating information about the psychology of couple relationships. Better informed couples hopefully can use the information to better understand themselves and each other.
Who is this Dr. Dawson anyway?
To acquaint you a bit with who I am…I am in my 20th year of marriage to a wonderful woman and have been in private practice working with couples for 8 years now. I have also worked with families in the area of child and youth mental health for 11 years, and prior to that was a substance abuse counsellor with young offenders for two years. I was trained from a perspective that appreciates the role that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviour play in our family relationships. An important part of my training and my upbringing was to value the unique story each person brings – because in that story are the seeds of improving the quality of life.