COUPLES COUNSELING
Could your relationship use focused time and energy to improve your sense of connection and partnership? Sometimes couples benefit from outside guidance that helps enhance their own friendship, communication, intimacy and understanding. I specialize in supporting couples during difficult transitions or phases of life, allowing them to move toward the relationship they’ve longed to create.
I also work with couples who are in conflict, whether the problems have been identified, or are still under the surface. I’ve found that most couples in conflict want to feel that they have made their best effort to “fix their problems" before resorting to separation or divorce. Yet both partners might struggle to create an action plan for change – or to hold each other accountable for unhealthy behaviors. Meanwhile, if they have children, their children may find themselves caught between two frustrated, estranged adults, experiencing a steady diet of distance and loneliness as their blueprint for intimacy.
Using relational life therapy tools, I will actively help you and your partner to identify and address such issues as anxiety, covert depression, numb or lifeless marriage, betrayals of trust, and emotional isolation. I can help you recognize and stop negative cycles of behavior which have exhausted your relationship and overshadowed the friendship that brought you together in the first place.
My approach with couples:
-
Incorporates relationship-inventory and assessment tools, communication support, and experienced professional direction.
-
Uses clinical principles integrating the work of John Gottman and Terry Real.
-
Provides the opportunity for you to create and commit to a mutually agreed upon, detailed action plan for emotional relief – to create a healthy life together or a healthy life apart – an agreement that paves the way for a new beginning, integrity and respect, as well as regard for others they love.
My focus is on giving individuals and couples the skills necessary to bring empathy, honesty, joy and passion back into daily practice. As they find healthy, respectful ways to relate to each other, most couples typically renew their friendship and move forward with a more hopeful sense of direction for the future.