Psychotherapist & Couples Therapist
Relationship Issues
Shaun McMahon is a relationship issues therapist who helps individuals in Moonee Ponds improve their relationships with friends, family, colleagues and romantic partners.
A relationship issues therapist uses psychotherapy to help people improve their romantic and other close personal relationships. Our relationships are crucially important to us, but can often be negatively affected by patterns and beliefs that we are carrying over from past relationships. As a relationship issues therapist, Shaun McMahon can help you to recognize and understand how older patterns and beliefs are influencing your relationships, and learn how to better navigate relationships.
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Why Are Relationships So Hard?
Many of our relationship issues stem from our most foundational relationships: those with our family. Consider that we aren’t born knowing how to express our feelings, ask for what we want and need, and handle conflict. These are things that we ideally learn in our relationships with family, in particular, our primary caregivers.
In some cases, our relationship issues are the result of personality and temperamental mismatches. Not all parents are going to be perfect, but the hope is that their parenting is “good enough” for children to grow into healthy, thriving adults. When this occurs, we can form secure relationships with others, but are still prone to encountering relationship issues because there will always be differences between people. Relationship issues therapy in these instances can involve an exploration into your personality and how it influences your relational style.
However, this relational learning can be disrupted in a variety of ways. At times, parents are unable to provide “good enough” parenting for their children. This can be through no fault of their own, such as being affected by life circumstances such as the loss of a spouse, illness, or socio-economic factors. In other cases, parents are dealing with serious mental health issues which can impede the development of their children and result in abuse and/or neglect. Relationship issues therapy then becomes focused upon addressing insecure attachment, relational trauma, or other mental health issues which are impeding your ability to form healthy relationships.
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What Relationship Issues Do I Have?
Relationships are incredibly complex. Consider that someone over the age of 20 has already spent two decades of their life navigating a wide variety of relationships, from parents and siblings, to extended family, to friends and school teachers. All of these relationships can leave a mark on us and shape how we show up in relationships. And that isn’t even taking into consideration the complexity of the other person in the relationship! As such, there are a wide variety of issues that can arise in relationships, which include:
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Communication skills
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Trust issues
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Expressing wants and needs
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Setting boundaries
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Attachment patterns
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Expectations in relationships
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Navigating conflict and learning to saying “no”
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Abuse and neglect
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Dealing with loss
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Anger management
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Intimacy and sex
These are just some of the relationship issues that Shaun McMahon helps his clients to navigate and resolve.
What Happens In Relationship Issues Therapy?
Relationship issues therapy is all about helping you to better understand yourself and how you show up in relationships. Many of us enter into relationships with certain wants and needs. It’s important to understand what those are, and how to go about getting those wants and needs met, while also understanding how willing and able you are to meet the needs of others. Our ways of being in relationships often form into patterns that can be observed and then shifted through relationship issues therapy. This includes bringing awareness to the roles that you play in relationships, with your romantic partner, in your family, and in the workplace. Relationship issues therapy can take many forms, including:
Individuals Looking for a Relationship
Despite recent innovations in dating apps, you might be finding it increasingly difficult to find love in the modern world. Relationship issues therapy for singles can help you to gain clarity on what it is you’re looking for in a partner, get you to a place where you feel ready and excited to start dating again, and assist you throughout the dating process, helping you to avoid making the same mistakes again.
Individuals in a Relationship
Many people see a therapist about their relationship issues without their partner. Sometimes this is because their partner is unwilling to attend therapy, or there are things they wish to discuss that they do not wish their partner to know about. Relationship issues therapy can still be incredibly beneficial by helping you understand yourself in a relationship more, as well as helping you to strategise how to better engage with your partner.
Therapy for Couples
Seeing a relationship issues therapist as a couple is a valuable way to navigate difficulties and conflict, understand each other better, and plan for the future. Sometimes relationship therapy can help repair and enhance a relationship, even when it feels like things are hopeless. At other times, therapy can help to bring the relationship to a healthy ending, tying off loose ends and leaving both parties in a better place for their future relationships.
How Relationship Issues Therapy With Shaun McMahon Can Help
As a relationship issues therapist, Shaun McMahon offers help to individuals and couples in Melbourne who are impacted by their relationships. As an integrative therapist, he will work closely with you in the initial stages of therapy to get a solid understanding not only of the issues affecting you right now, but also how your personal history might be influencing your current challenges. He will then collaborate with you to choose the best path forward in therapy that is going to be right for you. As the therapeutic relationship can in many ways mirror outside relationships, he will pay close attention to the themes and patterns that emerge in therapy, and help you to better understand them. Here are some of the ways in which Shaun works with clients to help them with their relationship issues:
There is no “magic pill” when it comes to relationship issues therapy, and that’s why Shaun McMahon will work with you throughout your therapy to understand your goals and make sure we’re on the right track. Therapy can be difficult because it involves looking at parts of ourselves we don’t like, and sometimes admitting that we have made mistakes or wronged others. However, it is ultimately rewarding when it means having more fulfilling relationships and finally getting our needs and wants met.
Interested In Relationship Issues Therapy With Shaun?
It’s important to remember that we were never given lessons in school on how to be in relationships. Most of us are just figuring it out as we go along, and hoping for the best. Investing in therapy can be a great way to make sure you stop making the same mistakes over and over again, saving you from pain, confusion and heartbreak in the future. If you’re interested in seeking relationship issues therapy with Shaun McMahon in Melbourne, you can click the button below to arrange a confidential, obligation free phone consultation. Even if you’ve never been to therapy before, it’s worth just having a phone call to see if it’s right for you. Shaun will be transparent with you about what to expect, and will never pressure you into booking a session.