Therapy for Relationship Issues

Discover how The Bridge to Recovery can help you work toward healthier, more fulfilling relationships.

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Relationship Issues Therapy

"Attending The Bridge to Recovery changed the lens through which I look at every relationship in my life, including the relationship with myself." - Paul Hamblin, retired CEO of The Bridge to Recovery

Unresolved trauma causes pain.  

Unhealed pain causes us to experience a state of emotional disease.  

In this state, we cannot effectively and healthily participate in relationships, as parts of ourselves are disconnected. 

This state of emotional disease can affect relationships with our:

  • Friends
  • Family
  • Jobs/Careers
  • Community
  • Religion
  • Sex Life
  • Hobbies
  • Schooling

And much more.

It is important to understand trauma. Past experiences are part of what determines who we are, and when trauma interrupts the natural development of our emotional response systems, our ability to engage in healthy relationships also can become impacted.

Our clients get the life-changing opportunity to heal at The Bridge to Recovery. They report that attending our program improved EVERY relationship in their life, including and, most importantly, their relationship with their whole-self. Our therapy for relationship issues helps individuals uncover how their life experiences have shaped their relationships and work toward a healthier balance.

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Relationship Between Codependency & Trauma

The Bridge to Recovery is One of the Original Codependency Programs

Five decades ago, our co-founder, Carol Cannon, developed a definition of codependency. The codependency movement was taking shape, and the focus shifted to understanding the correlation between family, childhood experiences, and adult relationships.

"Five decades ago at The Bridge to Recovery, we created a safe space for people to address their family dysfunction, their woundedness, and their unresolved pain. It was not the traditional "rehab," and people finally felt like they had a place to go that fit their needs. "

Mainstream media, books, and talk shows began taking notice of the wave of codependency-related information. As with every serious and confounding reality, Saturday Night Live even used comedic irony to draw attention to what so many households were experiencing: family dysfunction. However, the comedic irony combined with published articles diminished the importance, relevance, and need for the movement, causing it to lose momentum and power.

But during these past decades, The Bridge to Recovery always retained momentum in our mission. The response to our trauma is pain, which, when left unresolved, creates negative thinking, behavior, and feelings. Through our unique workshop approach to therapy for relationship issues, we have continued to help thousands of individuals and tens of thousands of families experience healing, hope, and resulting happiness.

Language Matters. Language Changes.

As negative stigma became more attached to the word "codependency," the less likely people wanted to be associated with it.

"Don't call me a Codependent"

Grievous misunderstandings about the term 'codependency' caused it to be mocked and disappear from visibility. The critical importance of its role in individual and family dysfunction, however, did not get lost.

Society began associating being codependent with being weak, frail, and damaged. It was mainly associated with women, and even the mental health industry went away from using the term.  

But only as a technicality.

The mental health and addictions industries were actually growing stronger in their belief that unresolved childhood trauma was an acute cause of things like chronic relapse, anxiety & depression, love, sex & intimacy issues, and much more. What the industry defined as trauma was the same as what we had defined codependency all those decades ago.

Treating Trauma & Codependency for Healthier Relationships

Same causation (negative childhood experience) + Same Response (Pain) = Same Outcome (negative thinking, behaving, & feeling) Trauma.

There was a word the industry could get behind that did not have the same negative feel to it that codependency had. Suddenly, the word trauma was everywhere. It was a buzzword, and it caught on quickly.

Our message and mission, the one we have stayed steadfastly focused on for five decades, has never changed. What we do has never changed. What we will do for decades to come will not change. Whether society prefers the term trauma or codependency, we will continue to help people heal from their woundedness within so that they can experience hope, healing, and happiness.

Codependency

If you look at sociological explanations of codependency, you will find that it focuses on imbalanced relationships between people, often enabling one another in an unhealthy way. At The Bridge to Recovery, we have always viewed codependency in a much broader, more encompassing way.

At The Bridge to Recovery, we view codependency as an individual having an unhealthy relationship with anything in their lives, such as with:

  • People
  • Places
  • Substances
  • Money
  • Sex
  • Job
  • Community
  • Religion
  • and, most of all, relationship with OURSELVES

You can find more on the relationship between codependency and trauma. It is an important concept to understand since they are linked so closely together, almost intertwined.

At The Bridge to Recovery, our focus is on helping those individuals heal those relationships. When we experience trauma, including childhood trauma, we experience negative thinking, behaving, and feeling. When left unresolved, this becomes our common emotional response system.

Just an hour and 20 minutes North from Nashville, Tennessee sits our healing refuge. Hidden away on 120 acres of rolling Kentucky hills.

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We Can Help

Therapy for Relationship Issues at The Bridge to Recovery

If you are dealing with relationship struggles, The Bridge to Recovery can help. We'll help you gain a deeper understanding of how your past experiences may be shaping your current relationships with others and with yourself. In our unique mental health workshops, clients spend a minimum of two weeks unpacking their experiences and building the skills needed to navigate life and their relationships in a healthier way. Reach out to our team today to learn more about our residential therapy program for relationship issues.

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