Any counselor will tell you that one of the most common problems observed when people come for help is poor communication skills in their relationships. This isn’t their fault…communication is a skill many of us never formally learned.

Work issues often come up during our counseling sessions. As therapists, we see how like a family, a company is a group of people who have an ongoing relationship with one another.

In our counseling practice, it’s not only the people who see us that are sometimes concerned with their own self-esteem, but they are sometimes concerned about the people they care about. Low self-esteem can affect any relationship and it isn’t always on the person seeking counseling.

While we focus on working solely with individuals in our counseling practice, it’s very common for relationship issues and questions to come up during a therapy session. We’re providing this checklist as one possible tool you may like to use to help you identify any possible strengths and issues.

Even though we solely provide individual counseling, relationship conflicts often come up because every relationship has a conflict at some point or another.In some relationships, conflict is a serious problem; in others, differences seem to be resolved without creating a major incident.Think about the kinds of conflicts that happen in your daily life. These are typical:

Ineffective communication skills are something we see quite often in counseling.

Not only does ineffective communication harm relationships, it can erode self-esteem. Such communication patterns may actually be destructive, but, sadly, many people fall into the trap of using them. If you and your relationship partners follow these rules and steer clear of the traps of destructive communication, you will almost certainly feel better about not only each other and your relationship but yourself as well.