The Science Behind Love Languages: Can Couples Therapy Help You Speak Yours?
A love language is how you and your partner prefer to give and receive love. There are a total of five love languages in all. Some people’s love languages can even be a mixture of two or more. Knowing your and your partner’s love languages can open up many benefits for the relationship. It can help improve connection. Understanding and embracing each other’s love languages can deepen the feeling of being loved and enhance the emotional connection in a relationship.
What Are The 5 Love Languages?
Receiving Gifts
Gift-giving and relationships have always shared a connection. But for some people, receiving a gift speaks love in volumes. When you give someone a gift, you show that you care about the relationship and know the person on a deeper level. After all, you know the person well enough to know what sort of gifts they would like. People whose love language is gift-giving will often give gifts spontaneously or use this as a way of showing affection.
Words of Affirmation
If you or your partner prefer this love language, then you or they probably want to feel treasured and valued. This can be done in many different ways. If your partner doesn’t mind the attention, try complimenting them in front of friends, family, or co-workers. Your partner may feel even more loved and treasured because you wanted to compliment them in front of others. For those who don’t like being the center of attention, you can always compliment them about what they do well or what you like about them in private.
Physical Touch
Yes, physical touch is an important part of most relationships. However, some people might get more out of holding hands or a reassuring hug than others. Knowing what type of touch your partner prefers is crucial to this love language. No one should ever be touched in a way that makes them uncomfortable. If your partner is someone who’s always patting your thigh or touching your shoulder, it’s a fair guess that this is one of their love languages.
Acts of Service
If your partner prefers to have acts of service done for them, they may feel most loved when someone does things for them out of kindness. This can be done by offering to do a chore they would typically do or doing something to make them feel special. Think about doing the dishes, taking out the trash, or putting in the work to make a dinner reservation. Bonus points are given to those who do things like this without being asked.
Quality Time
Quality time is precisely what it sounds like. Spending quality time together is all about fostering and nurturing the closeness that you share. During this time, providing each other with your undivided attention is important. That means putting away the phone and engaging in some quality conversation. Creating creative date ideas is a great way to spend quality time. For example, a quiet night at home with some sushi and a 2-player round of Donkey Kong would be a fun and low-pressure way to spend quality time together.
Love Languages and Couples Therapy
If you still need to figure out what your partner’s love language is or how to give them that love, couples therapy could be a great way to learn. Couples therapy is all about strengthening relationships through effective communication. Love languages are just other ways of communicating and showing love. Therefore, yes, couples therapy can help you speak your love language and reciprocate your partner’s.
If an improved relationship is what you are after, knowing your and your partner’s love languages is the way to go for strengthening bonds. Couples therapy can be an effective tool if you need help figuring out where to go from here. Think of therapy as a tool to help your relationship.