Individuals face many challenges when coming together as a couple. Each person brings to the relationship his or her own history, personality type, habits, relationship expectations, culture, family-of-origin ‘norms’, personal values and beliefs, and all that we have learnt through our development and previous relationships.

It is not unreasonable to expect that developing and maintaining a healthy relationship can sometimes be challenging.

To navigate this journey, couples may need to work through boundary issues, individual needs versus couple's needs, intimacy expectations, power differences, conflicting roles, relationship expectations, as well as external pressure and stressors.  It can be a difficult task to meld the plethora of differences together to form a strong and lasting relationship.

Couples have the task of maintaining separate identities and also need to have the ability to put identity aside, when it’s required for the good of the couple.

Couples that have been together for a period of time may also experience their own challenges. Individuals, as well as the couple's unit, change over time. These changes can bring about new obstacles and opportunities for growth at any time in the relationship time-line.