Relationship Counseling or Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is the process of counseling the parties of a relationship in an effort to recognize and to better manage or reconcile troublesome differences and repeating patterns of distress. The relationship involved may be between members of a family or a couple, employees or employers in a workplace, or between a professional and a client.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy is a time-limited counseling that focuses on the interpersonal context and on building interpersonal skills. IPT is based on the belief that interpersonal factors may contribute heavily to psychological problems. It is commonly distinguished from other forms of therapy in its emphasis on the interpersonal rather than the intrapsychic. It focuses on present challenges and skills development rather than history or psychodynamic elements.

The goal of interpersonal therapy (a brief form of therapy) is centered on increasing the quality of the patient's interpersonal interactions. Emphasis is placed on enhancing the patient's ability to cope with stresses, improving interpersonal communications, increasing morale, and helping the patient deal with the effects of the depression.

Before the relationships between the individuals can begin to be understood, it is important for all to recognize and acknowledge that everyone involved has a unique personality and background. Sometimes the individuals in the relationship adhere to different value systems. Institutional and societal variables (like the social, religious, group and other collective factors) which shape a person's nature, and behavior must be recognized.

A tenet of relationship counseling is that it is intrinsically beneficial for all the participants to interact with each other and with society at large with the least conflict possible.

Occasionally relationships get strained, meaning that they are not functioning optimally and maladaptive patterns have emerged. There are many possible reasons for this, including ego, arrogance, jealousy, anger, greed, poor communication/understanding, etc. Often it is an interaction between two or more factors, and frequently it is not just one of the people who are involved that exhibit such traits.

A viable solution to the problem of setting these relationships back on track may be to reorient the individuals' perceptions - how one looks at or responds to situations. This implies that they make some fundamental changes in their attitudes. The next step is to adopt conscious structural changes to their inter-personal relationships.

After evaluating the story as it is narrated, a realistic, practical solution can be developed; individually at first if this is beneficial, and then jointly to encourage the participants to give their best efforts at reorienting their relationship with each other. It has to be remembered that the change in situations like financial state, physical health, and the influence of other family members can have a profound influence on the conduct, responses and actions of the individuals.

In the initial stages of Relationship Counseling or IPT, therapeutic goals typically include diagnosis, completing the requisite inventories, identifying the client's major problem areas, and creating a treatment contract. In the intermediate stages of IPT, the client and therapist, focusing on the present, work on the major problem areas identified (such as grief, role dispute, role transition, interpersonal deficits etc). In the termination stages of IPT, the therapist works to consolidate the client's gains, discuss areas which still require work, talk about relapse prevention, and process any emotions related to termination of therapy.

• Interpersonal deficits - Clients presenting interpersonal deficits can work on their relationship challenges to build their relationship skills.
• Communication Skills – whether it is in business or in personal life – effective communication skills are essential for success. Effective communication is all about conveying your messages to other people clearly and unambiguously. It's also about receiving information that others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible.
• Problem-Solving Skill - Problem solving is considered the most complex of all intellectual functions. It occurs when the person does not know how to proceed from a given state to a desired goal state. It is part of a process that includes problem finding and problem shaping and resolution.
• Conflict-Resolution - Conflict just seems to be a fact of life. The fact that conflict exists, however, is not necessarily a bad thing: As long as it is resolved effectively, it can lead to personal and professional growth. In many cases, effective conflict resolution skills can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes.
• Role dispute - A client is experiencing nonreciprocal expectations about a relationship with someone else. Here, treatment focuses on understanding the nature of the dispute, the current communication difficulties, and works to modify the client's communication strategies while remaining in accord with their core values.
• Role transition - An individual is in the process of giving up an old role and taking on a new one. In this case, treatment attempts to facilitate the client's giving up of the old role, expressing emotions about this loss, and acquiring skills and support in the new role they must take on.
• Anger Management - Anger is a natural human emotion and is nature's way of empowering us to "ward off" our perception of an attack or threat to our well being. The problem is not anger, the problem is the mismanagement of anger. Mismanaged anger and rage is the major cause of conflict in our personal and professional relationships. Yet, we can learn and apply practical anger management methods in our daily life to reduce our anger and finally to prevent it from arising at all.
• Relationship/Social Anxiety - Many people get nervous or self-conscious on occasion in social saturations, like when giving a speech or interviewing for a new job, getting into an argument, facing conflicting situations and so forth. The good news is that many effective treatments and self-help strategies can help you overcome the symptoms of relationship and social anxiety and reclaim your life.
• Loss & Grief - Clients typically present with delayed or distorted grief reactions. Treatment aims include facilitating the grieving process, the client's acceptance of difficult emotions, and their replacement of lost relationships.

The relationship counselor must be a relationship expert. The duty and function of a relationship counselor is to listen, understand and facilitate a better understanding between those involved while promoting relationship skills and patterns to the benefits of all parties involved. The basic principles involved of relationship counseling are:

• Non-judgment on any of the issues or incidents narrated to them as counselor
• Skill Development - helping develop relationship and interactional skills
• Education/Knowledge development and practice of the skills learned in real life
• Confidentiality of the persons being given the counseling

A successful counselor is someone who has a mature and balanced state of mind and disposition, who can place themselves in the shoes of those they are counseling, and the ability to respect their opinions, thoughts, feelings and (more importantly) emotions. Yet, direct them constructively where they want to be.