Couples Therapy
- Are you considering marriage and want to get pre-marital counseling?
- Do you have recurring conflicts about in-laws, children, money, sex, work, or religion?
- Are you feeling a loss of attraction to your partner?
- Are you feeling lonely, bored, abandoned, and ignored — or smothered and stifled?
- Do you have the same argument over and over without resolution?
- Have you lost trust in your partner or faith in the relationship?
- Have you had a traumatic event, for example, loss of a loved one, major illness, accident, financial loss, or an affair that has shaken the foundation of your relationship?
- Have you and your partner decided to separate and want to work on an amicable agreement?
Though each couple has their unique story, these are the most common reasons couples come for therapy.
What to Expect in the Process of Couples Therapy:
The best approach to couples therapy is to be seen together as a couple initially for one or two sessions with the goal of laying out all the issues that you are struggling with. Sometimes couples agree about the issues; sometimes there is a difference in how these issues are experienced by each person. The most important thing is that each person be heard in these crucial initial sessions. The goals will get refined as we go along.
The second step is to schedule individual sessions with each member of the couple. The purpose of these sessions is to determine if there are issues specific to each individual that need to be resolved before couples therapy can proceed. Typical issues include medical problems, depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues that require further evaluation or therapy prior to the commencement of couples therapy. In many cases, treatment of these issues can be concurrent to couples therapy.
After these sessions are completed, the three of us come back together to prioritize the issues and plan a course of therapy.
Therapy is a collaborative endeavor. As the couples therapist, I create an atmosphere that allows each member of the couple to be heard and understood; teach the skill of listening and responding to achieve a new understanding and experience; impart knowledge, information, and experience that the couple can choose to make use of; provide a structure for change in the relationship; and remain a position of neutrality unless one member(s) of the couple is becoming disrespectful — then I step in to clarify the issue and coach each partner in a more appropriate, clear expression of their message.
Modalities Used in Couples Therapy:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Sex therapy
- Systems theory
- Positive psychology
- Imago therapy
- Jungian approaches
- Solution-focused therapy
- Mindfulness meditation
- Imagery, music, sensual homework
- Laughter
- Consultation with traditional and alternative medical practitioners
For information on scheduling your first appointment, click below.