Couples Therapy
“Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.”
– Barbara De Angelis
Our Most Treasured Relationships...
...Can be some of our most challenging relationships. But they also provide a unique and fulfilling means to healing, growth and most importantly - connection. Human beings are wired to connect. What do we do when connections are broken or wounded? All too often we do things that make us and our loved ones feel worse.
Common Relationship Struggles
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Poor Communication Skills
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Unfulfilled Needs
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Repeated/ Ineffective Fights
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Intimacy problems & Affairs
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Substance Abuse
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In-Law and Family Problems
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Traumatic Past Events & Grudges
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Lifestyle Incompatibility
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Difficulty Expressing and Asserting Feelings and Needs
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Anxiety, Depression, Other Emotional Conditions in One or Both Partners
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Different faith beliefs between partners or changes in faith tradition
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Life transitions (birth of children, change in careers, home location, Illness etc.)
All of these problems can distort couples love and friendship and make it difficult for them to function lovingly and healthily. Even the normal stresses of family and career can push an otherwise healthy relationship into a spiral of misunderstanding and hurt feelings. If the couple has children, we know that high marital conflict leads to distress in the whole family, and that can have a lifelong impact.
Restore Hope,
Restore Connection
Couples counseling provides needed communication skills training and problem-solving to help partners get back on track. It can even heal deeper wounds and mistrust that block their capacity to love. New ways of seeing and relating to one’s partner are possible, even when a couple decides that they are committed to ending the relationship. Seeking counseling can help make the difference between adversarial divorce and respectful cooperation. This can help minimize the effects on children.
Click here for the article, "Should You Go to Couples Therapy?".
Our Approach
We begin with a 4-Pack assessment. By having a thorough assessment, we save a great deal of time getting to the heart of your relationship issues and establishing a plan that works for you. This assessment includes:
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First 90 minute session with both partners
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Two 50 minute individual sessions
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Online Gottman Assessment (optional but strongly recommended - saves time and money)
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50 minute session with both partners reviewing the findings of the assessment and developing a plan for your therapy.
The number of overall sessions depends on each couple, the work they put in and the complexity of their challenges. We work with couples of all ages and orientations.
Our Methods
Christine and Amy both work with couples to strengthen couples communication skills, and problem-solving approaches to encourage behavioral change and ways to restore connection. We also often explore each partner’s family background to understand how their adult relationships have been influenced by the legacy of parental influences and childhood stressors. Christine and Amy additionally have their own unique tools they utilize in therapy.
Christine's Methods:
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Use of the Enneagram to help couples understand personality differences
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Sex therapy trained, working towards certification
Amy's Methods:
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Emotionally Focused Therapy (emphasis on repairing the emotional bond between couples and break negative cycles)
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Trauma Informed