Couples Counseling

Couples counseling is about finding new ways of communicating with each other, learning more about ourselves within relationships, and also leaning on each other to support each other towards our goals. Often value conflicts, life transitions, and the ways we communicate to each other can get in the way of the connection and relationship we desire. I focus on integrating the Gottman method into my work with couples to help them identify areas in their relationship that can grow. 

Couples counseling is about wellness and growth. I believe that a wide range of people in long-term relationships can benefit from couples counseling. Couples counseling can be a preventative measure to strengthen a relationship and a last effort to right the ship. In either situation or somewhere in the middle, we can work together as a team.

The primary lens I use to view couples is through the Gottman Method and I have been trained in the Gottman Method Level 2. The Gottman method has been researched extensively since the 1970’s and shown to be effective in helping repair and grow relationships. The Gottman Method addresses how to build a strong relationship house built on a foundation of friendship, appreciation, connection, conflict management, trust, commitment, shared meaning, and helping each other reach each other’s dreams. The Gottman method looks at how we can approach conflict in a healthy way, and how we can use our value differences and similarities to create a shared vision of the future. 

Relationship trouble and mental health struggles often involve feedback cycles that grow over time. I also use Emotion-Focused Therapy to help with identifying some of the cycles we get into as couples and how we connect or fail to connect and attach to each other. Together we can identify these helpful and harmful cycles and find actions we can take to create new cycles of connection, love, and meaning.