Great Couples Counselling in Beddington, AB. Therapy to heal relationships.

Gerard has diverse experience as a psychologist and leader in social services, schools, university, workplaces, and his private practice. Using a theoretical foundation of social learning and cognitive-behavioural training, he is well-versed in various kinds of formal and informal assessment and solution-focussed approaches. He listens carefully to understand your needs and relies on his extensive experience to help you find solutions.

Right now your struggles as a couple may feel overwhelming, but most situations can be turned around with the right help and a willingness to try. I have worked with many couples of every kind and lifestyle, without judgment. The sooner you start, the more you have to work with. I have been a psychologist since 1986 and a professor emeritus of counselling psychology. I am based in Calgary and see clients across Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick by secure video. Book a session now: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14249112

Are you an emotionally-intelligent couple, or do you allow your negative thoughts and feelings about each other to overwhelm the positive ones? Let Dr Mervin (Paraklesis Counselling) make an innovative assessment of your relationship that will give you an in-depth analysis and inform you as to what it will take (effort and change required) to reach your goals. Dr Mervin’s contemporary therapy approach exposes the myths of outdated methods of couples counselling, and explores post-modernity models that work for you.

Keystone Child and Family Therapy offers counseling for couples. Counseling may include healthy communication, premarital counseling, coping with mental or physical illness in relationships, concerns with blended families, affairs, the impact of depression and anxiety in relationships, grief and loss, and facilitating deeper more meaningful relationships.

Are you and your partner stuck in unsolvable arguments? Does one of you tend to ‘demand’ more while the other shuts down and withdraws? Are you feeling less connected and actually adding stress to each other’s lives instead of reducing it? While frustrating, these are perfectly normal patterns of partnership and there is hope. I would be glad to help you untangle the knots, learning to team up together instead of entering battles over who is right. In doing so, we will unpack past traumas and patterns of behaviour, learning to better communicate and to be safely vulnerable in a way that stands your relationship on solid ground.

Couples counseling provides a focused space for partners to better understand one another and strengthen their relationship. We help couples identify recurring patterns, improve communication, and navigate conflict in healthier ways. Using a balanced, evidence-based approach, we explore underlying needs, attachment dynamics, and practical skills that foster trust and emotional safety. Clients benefit from increased clarity, deeper connection, and more constructive problem-solving, allowing the relationship to feel more secure, supportive, and resilient over time.

I help couples by focusing on two goals: (1) Communicating constructively about issues; (2) Having a strong relationship friendship. I help couples achieve these goals by giving them skills from Gottman's Sound Relationship House Model and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). I am trained in Gottman's model and am certified in CBT.

Helping couples can mean taking with a couple who has been dating for a few months and wants to improve their chances for success or couples who have cohabited for up to twenty years. I used the evidence based method of Gottman couples therapy and EMDR. These research based methods give clients in my opinion the greatest chance for success.

Couples counselling with me focuses on strengthening connection, improving communication, and helping partners better understand one another’s emotional needs and patterns. Rather than taking sides, I work collaboratively with both partners to identify cycles of conflict, reduce reactivity, and create more effective ways of relating. Drawing from approaches such as the Gottman Method and emotionally focused principles, we work on rebuilding trust, increasing emotional safety, and developing skills for healthy dialogue. Couples often benefit by feeling more understood, less reactive during conflict, and more capable of working together as a team.

I work with couples involved in any stage of development or relational style including alternative lifestyle approaches. I am comfortable working with traditional as well as LGTBQ+ friendly couples and specialize in working with sexuality issues within these couple dynamics as well. I have over 25 years of couples work experience and tend to use a strongly applied approach to get effective results.

In a relationship, each member is responsible for an equal share of the dynamic. In a family, that means it splits between the amount of people, and in a couple it’s 50% created by each partner. This 50% is the result of the individual’s needs- both functional and dysfunctional. Functional needs relate to biological drives, culture, relationship goals, values, etc. Dysfunctional needs come from limiting beliefs, which are internalized in our childhood. They create needs like: the need to be in control, or the need to protect oneself. The needs, whether functional or dysfunctional, can balance each other out, creating a “stabilizer” or they can become unmet needs.

Relationships are both difficult and rewarding. Like most things of value, however, these intimate connections require intentional work in order to remain healthy and rewarding. Whether you are beginning a relationship or wishing to enhance an existing one, therapy can help you to discover and value each other's "owners manual" , communicate more effectively, and resolve conflict in a more timely and effective fashion.

I employ the well researched and proven approach from the Gottman Method to help couples learn about and develop new ways to appreciate and develop greater fondness for each other. I help clients realize that truly the core of an intimate relationship is really friendship, and not necessarily the all encompassing passion and always being "in love" that popular media/culture have led us to believe that marriage should always be about. Marriages naturally wax and wane, and aren't always perfect; sometimes people fight and disagree and that doesn't always have to end in separation or divorce. There are no perfect marriages -- just ones that are good enough to make us feel happy and content