Couples therapy is a space to better understand your relationship as a whole, not just your disagreements. Whether you're dating, engaged, married, or in a long-term partnership, couples therapy provides an opportunity to slow down and examine the patterns that keep you feeling disconnected, misunderstood, or stuck. Many couples come to therapy believing they're arguing about communication, chores, parenting, intimacy, or finances. While those concerns certainly matter, they're often only the surface of what's happening.
Beneath many conflicts are deeper questions:
- Do I matter to you?
- Can I trust you'll be there when I need you?
- Am I safe to be vulnerable with you?
Couples therapy helps uncover those underlying dynamics so that conflict becomes an opportunity for curiosity and understanding rather than disconnection.
what can couples therapy address?
RELATIONSHIP GROWTH
- Premarital counseling
- Strengthening communication
- Deepening emotional intimacy
- Preparing for marriage
- Building a stronger foundation
LIFE TRANSITIONS
- Moving in together
- Marriage
- Having children
- Blending families
- Career changes
- Financial stress
- Empty nesting
RELATIONSHIP CHALLENGES
- Frequent conflict
- Feeling emotionally disconnected
- Difficulty repairing after arguments
- Infidelity or betrayal
- Parenting disagreements
- Trust concerns
- Differences in intimacy
- Attachment wounds affecting the relationship
Evidence Based Approaches
The Gottman Method
The Gottman Method combines decades of relationship research with practical tools that help couples improve communication, navigate conflict, increase friendship, and strengthen trust. It provides concrete skills while also helping partners better understand one another.
Focus: Communication, conflict management, trust, and friendship.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT is based on the idea that conflict is often driven by unmet attachment needs rather than the issue being argued about. Instead of focusing solely on communication, EFT helps couples understand the emotions and fears beneath conflict, strengthen emotional safety, and build a more secure connection.
Focus: Emotional safety, attachment, and connection.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Couples learn to recognize unhelpful assumptions, challenge cognitive distortions, and communicate from facts rather than interpretations. For example, a forgotten text message might quickly become: "They don't care about me." CBT helps slow that process down by examining whether the story matches the evidence.
Focus: Thought patterns, interpretations, communication, and problem-solving.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps couples stop struggling against uncomfortable emotions and instead respond in ways that align with their values. Rather than trying to eliminate conflict or anxiety, couples learn how to make room for difficult emotions while still choosing behaviors that strengthen the relationship.
Focus: Psychological flexibility, values, mindfulness, and committed action.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS views each person as having different "parts" that developed to protect them throughout life. In relationships, these protective parts often become activated during conflict. One partner may have a part that withdraws to avoid criticism. Another may have a part that pursues reassurance because it fears abandonment. IFS helps couples understand the protective role each part is playing, respond with curiosity instead of blame, and allow each partner's more grounded, compassionate Self to lead interactions.
Focus: Protective patterns, emotional healing, and understanding the parts that show up in conflict.
MY approach
My work is grounded primarily in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) because I believe lasting change happens when couples feel emotionally safe enough to understand, not just manage, their conflicts.
I also integrate practical interventions from the Gottman Method, along with concepts from CBT, ACT, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) when they help couples better understand themselves, regulate difficult emotions, and create healthier ways of relating to one another.
Rather than teaching every couple the same set of rules, I tailor therapy to your unique relationship, helping you build a way of connecting that aligns with your shared values, personalities, and goals.
