How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted couples' relationships? Avail of a couple’s therapy in Kolkata.

It is a well-established truth that tough times require us to be even tougher in order to make sense of and successfully navigate the situation.

The very trajectory of life has been shifted for most of us (if not all!) in ways that we had probably never imagined it would! From economic crisis to role-changes, the pandemic has forced us to re-think life. Let us look at just two out of the countless individuals who found that the pandemic has impacted the dynamics of their romantic/ marital associations-

“my husband and I both have been working in the software development industry for the last 8 years and have been married for exactly half that duration. We had properly scheduled date-nights and spent Sundays together, watching movies or just lazing around. Since we worked in different companies with different environments, members and employees, we always had interesting stories to share. But then the pandemic hit us and both had to switch to work from home. Spending 24x7 hours in each other’s presence is something we had never done and to my shock, it became apparent that we are a rather boring couple who actually run out of things to say when there are no stories left to share! We have very little emotional engagement and I now find both our marriage and him very dull and mundane to the point that I sometimes wonder if we should look into separation, a thought that had never come to me till COVID happened…”

- Keifa Bajaj Shefawat, 33 years, Bangalore

“the wife and I have decided to go for mutual divorce in July this year and are presently unable to decide on the custody rights of our 4.5-year-old twin children. We are in different sectors and had never made as much as my spouse. Since the last 3 years, I have been free-lancing and spending more time with my children while their mother was a full-timer. All was going fine until the lockdown happened and my wife was shifted to work-from-home and receive a salary deduction of 30%. We have since been having frequent fights and one of the most common topics is my bringing in less money and poor contribution to the family. Things worsened when my parents requested to come and stay with us to cut their budget but then began to frequently point out that there was an unfair role-reversal between us, causing even more miscommunication between us.”

- Atindra Mohan, 41 years, Kolkata

The above cases highlight difficulties in various areas such as communication, healthy boundary-setting, time-allocation, personal space and individuality, financial goals and conflicting ideologies. As important as togetherness is for couples, it is also important to have time for individual activities and friendships. Absence does have its role to play, after all. With the world being the way it is due to the pandemic, finding time for self has proven difficult….and without a stable self, relationships may also become misbalanced. Without that outlet for individual discovery and release, couples may find that their relationships have begun to stagnate or that the relationship is actually not what they had thought it to be all this while. The following problems may be considered-

1. Handling stress and misplaced anger, sadness or frustration
2. Sudden changes in roles and routines
3. Pressure and interference from members of extended family/friends/associates
4. Financial difficulties and individual economic contributions
5. Sharing common workplace (as both partners may be doing work-from-home)
6. Health issues and health anxiety
7. Lack of congruency of future planning
8. Difficulties in physical intimacy and mismatch in needs
9. Lack of privacy and me-time (finding it hard to create a personal space in shared living quarters)
10. Coping with monotonicity and boredom

How can couples therapy help?

A couple’s therapy can become a relationship-rescuer in this situation! With celebrities such as Kristen Bell (Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard), Jennifer Lopez (Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez), and Rochelle Rao (Keith Sequeira and Rochelle Rao) becoming quite vocal about seeking couple’s therapy and how it helped them, we request you to give it a go yourself!

Therapy can indeed help you and your partner reach the crucial middle-ground and make it easier for you to establish your feelings, needs, and thoughts to your significant other while enabling you to understand the conflicts that may be causing a rift. Initiation, continuation, or termination of a relationship can be sensitive processes and a couple’s therapist can help you make the process smoother and more simplistic. Mpower minds Kolkata is fully equipped to provide you with the necessary support and guidance so that this pandemic, your relationship is one less thing for you to worry about.

For seeking a couple counselling or couple therapy, find the mental health centre near to you.
https://mpowerminds.com/contact

How to be more understanding in a relationship? How does couple counselling or couple therapy in Kolkata help?-
https://mpowerminds.com/blog/How-to-be-more-understanding-in-a-relationship-How-does-couple-counselling-or-therapy-help

Quality time- The Balance between “Me” & “We”. How does couples therapy work in Kolkata’s Mpower centre-
https://mpowerminds.com/blog/Quality-Time-The-Balance-Between-Me-We-How-couples-therapy-work-Mpower-Kolkata

Signs you need couple counselling. Seek couple counselling or couple therapy near you.
https://mpowerminds.com/blog/Signs-you-need-couple-counselling-Seek-couple-counselling-in-Bangalore

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