The quality of our relationships is vital to our well-being and happiness. It is central to how we cope with stress and adversity.  It is essential to our sense of meaning and purpose in the world.  And it is a key factor in one’s sense of satisfaction in life. Given this, it is no surprise that one of the most common reasons people come into therapy is because they are having problems with aspects of their relationships.

Traditionally, when we think of being in relationships, we think of friends, family and members of our community we are close to.  We think of how connected or disconnected we are to those important people. 

An integral approach widens our definition of relationships to include not just relationships in the interpersonal domain, but relationships in all four domains of being (see Domains of Well-being). 

For instance, we have multi-faceted relationships with our own bodies.  We have complex relationships with our minds and our emotional states, and between all the different aspects of our personalities.  And we have impactful relationships with the different physical environments we spend time in on a regular basis.

We may not always realize it, but we are constantly in relationships, on many different levels.  We have relationships with things like food, money, work, time, play, sleep and sex that affect us in powerful ways.  We have relationships with people we have not seen in years that continue to impact our lives on a day-to-day basis. 

When our relationships are healthy and harmonious, they provide us with sustenance and facilitate happiness, health and well-being.  But when they are problematic, they cause us stress and can affect us in a wide variety of adverse ways. 

Integrally-oriented relational therapy strives to cultivate, restore, heal and deepen relationships in all domains of people’s lives.  Through building a warm, safe, supportive relationship within therapy, and working together to identifying areas of relational strength and weakness, therapy can help clients cultivate resources, tools and insights they can use to increase their relational IQ and vitality, so they can have the most beneficial and rewarding relationships possible. 

When our relationships are healthy and harmonious, they provide us with sustenance and facilitate happiness, health and well-being.  But when they are problematic they can cause a great deal of stress and affect us in adverse ways. 

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