Navigating Conflict: The Healing Power of Relationship Counseling

Written by Suzan Babcock Photo by Miranda Lin

We all encounter relationship issues from time to time and sometimes, we need a little help to work things out. The goal of The Community Services Center’s counseling team is to offer top mental health care to the local and international community from licensed therapists.

Community Services Center therapist, Miranda Lin, MS, LPC enjoys her work and finds much success, as a relationship counselor in helping clients get in touch with themselves and significant others at a deeper level. When new understandings and insights occur, clients are able to bond with others in healthier ways.

Miranda emphasizes the importance of having a safe space for couples to be able to share their stories. Communication is a major factor in any relationship. “As a therapist, I look for patterns in how couples relate and interact with each other, then find a common ground that they can work from.”

Relationship counseling focuses on attentive listening, empathy, support and effective (non-abusive) ways of expressing feelings, emotions and thoughts that couples have been afraid of showing their partner. Learning how to explore issues in their relationship, work on their communication, improve their interactions with each other are key relationship counseling goals.

As couples experience and realize that they have been heard and respected during their counseling sessions and that their feelings have been validated, new insights begin to open up allowing them to rethink their relationship and its difficulties from different perspectives. This is an important shift for them for it offers an opportunity for change and new directions to occur within the relationship. The couple can then move forward continuing to demonstrate their improved communication skills, set new goals and objectives for themselves. Every relationship has conflict. It’s learning how we handle our conflicts that can make our relationships stronger. Effective therapy depends not only on the skills and experience of the therapist but also on the willingness of the couple. Relational issues such as family, parent-child, couple and personal issues are common for both expats and locals. When working with clients, Miranda employs a strengthbased counseling approach and has worked with a wide range of clinical issues both short-term and long-term. She prefers incorporating an integrative approach utilizing person-center theory, emotionally-focused therapy, transactional analysis theory and cognitive behavioral theory – because each counseling situation is unique. Using the right supportive approach helps clients process their feelings in a deep healing and self-compassionate way. It was at this point, I asked Miranda her suggestions for people who may be having some issues but were afraid of reaching out to a counselor because they didn’t know if it was something worth talking about.

“There are often misconceptions about counseling,” Miranda shared. “You don’t have to be mentally ill or dealing with a dire situation to receive professional help. Counseling services provide people an opportunity to meet with themselves without being affected by other people’s thoughts or feelings. A professional therapist is trained to help people get in touch with themselves, hear their own voices, and find the path they desire for their lives. So from my opinion, everyone can benefit from having counseling sessions.”

“The concept of ‘counseling’ in western countries has become a common practice for maintaining good mental health. It is taking a bit longer here in Taiwan to be accepted, however, more and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of counseling. And, as I like to use the analogy, the benefits from counseling are like receiving a mental massage! Who doesn’t want to go for massage to allow themselves to recharge?”

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