Couples Therapy
We support and guide our couples in improving overall relational and emotional connection. As relational and sexual dynamics are likely to impact one another, the couples work may intersect with sex therapy. Navigating a happy balance between relational and sexual dynamics can be tricky. Most couples who come in for counseling have been stuck for some time, and can feel helpless and hopeless. We help in determining factors that have contributed to the current relationship state by exploring the couples’ history. By understanding each individual’s past relationship experiences we can help couples map out the best direction forward.
Relationship Phases – There are different phases of relationships, including premarital, new relationships or marriages, and long term relationships or marriages. Helping people navigate dating after a breakup or divorce would be part of this work as well. Disconnect and intimacy issues are likely to occur at one or many points throughout a relationship. Each partner has learned different ways of relating and connecting which do not always mesh. As such, the opportunities for conflict can arise more and more as the relationship continues. We help couples to better understand these differences, find ways to become more compatible, and ensure that moving forward the couple will be better prepared to resolve conflict and repair disconnection.
Adjustments and life transitions can occur at any stage of a relationship: whether at the beginning while dating, deciding whether or not to have children, during pregnancy, after marriage or having children, once children move out of the home, job changes, moving, retirement, or health issues. No matter the phase or state of the relationship, there are always ways to improve and grow. We help couples through life’s expected and unexpected transitions.
Pursuer/Distancer Cycle
Most couples come to therapy finding themselves stuck in a cycle known as the pursuer/distancer pattern. This is a pattern created by inadvertent power struggles when one or both partners feel insecure about the state of the relationship. Identifying which behaviors are contributing to this cycle can be extremely difficult without an objective third party. As therapists who specialize in working with these very patterns, we can provide this objective viewpoint for couples to break out of these toxic patterns.