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We work with individuals and couples to address issues including trust, vulnerability (physical, emotional), sexuality & sexual identity, communication, and conflict. We often meet with couples who are looking to improve their relationship, enhance mutual understanding and compassion for each other, create a closer connection, heal after an infidelity, handle recurrent arguments and money conflicts, address sexuality (including divergent desires), or decide if they should stay together or part ways.
There are many therapeutic approaches used when meeting with a couple. We like to evaluate what approaches to use based on your needs and style as a couple. There isn’t one “right approach” to doing therapy as there isn’t one way to live. We provide education on what we have found useful in relationships. We invite you to look at new ideas and possibilities for living. We encourage you to try new ways of behaving and communicating. We like to learn from you about what you really want in your relationship. We are very interested in what each partner has to say about what has led to their struggle or becoming stuck. We want to know what you have done to change your situation, what has worked and what has not worked for you. We are careful not to duplicate what hasn’t worked.
Counselors avoid taking sides because it is counterproductive to long-term success. That said, if we feel one partner needs to make a change in a particular area, we will say so. We have spent years helping men and women from every imaginable background and we are capable of seeing things empathetically from both perspectives.
We emphasize the importance of forming a connection with your partner. This means there is an implied understanding of values, a common frame of reference, a series of shared experience and a sense that you are both on the same page. These connections form the bonds that foster trust and promote intimacy.
We all need help from time to time and it is a sign of strength and intelligence to know when to seek support. If I have a leaky faucet and the only tool I have is a hammer, just banging on my pipes is only going to make the problem worse. The pipes burst, my basement floods and the foundation cracks. Or I could just call the plumber and he gives me a new tool called a wrench, so next time I have a leak I can fix it myself.
Throughout our lives, we improve our skills by taking “courses” and practicing what we learn. If we played sports, we were coached in the basics and practiced them until they became memorized. At work, we were shown how to perform tasks, then got better and better as we repeated the process. To learn cooking or grilling, we followed recipes or observed someone with known abilities, then added our personal touches. Being emotionally healthy is another skill, one that gets little or no attention until failure to do so results in trouble.
CLINICAL FOCUS
Anxiety
Anger Management
Attachment Issues
Career Counseling
Codependency
Depression
Divorce
Domestic Violence
Executive Coaching
Family of Origin
Financial Disputes
Grief and Loss
Impulse Control Disorders
Infidelity
Infertility/Reproductivity
LGBTQ
Men’s Issues
Marital Conflict
Occupational Issues
Premarital Issues
Phobias
Relationship Issues
Sex Addiction
Stress Management
Weight/Body Issues
Women’s Issues
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