Great Couples Counselling in Bowen Island, BC. Therapy to heal relationships.

Do you look at your partner and wonder what happened to the sense of connection and intimacy that you once enjoyed? Have the stresses of life, career, and parenting gotten in the way of your relationship? Would you like to learn how to be heard and to hear what is really going on in your partner's heart of hearts? Couples counselling is an opportunity to re-connect and re-discover yourself and your partner. It is a safe forum to air difficult issues , develop skills for effective communication and enhance emotional and physical intimacy.

Relationships are a crucial component of human health and happiness, and my passion involves helping people develop better connections with others as well as with themselves. By offering a setting that is based on trust, empathy, and collaboration, counselling can provide you with a safe and supportive space to explore your thoughts and emotions while creating a deeper, more authentic understanding of who you are, what you need, and the dynamics that you are navigating. Whether you attend alone or with a partner, I believe that there can be great value in processing relationships from the past or present as well as exploring the relationship that you're maintaining with yourself.

I use the Intimacy From the Inside Out framework for couples therapy. This approach focuses on helping individuals and couples explore their internal worlds—their emotional needs, fears, desires, and vulnerabilities—in a way that fosters more authentic and fulfilling connections with one another. "Inside Out" refers to looking inward and understanding how your inner world influences your behavior, actions, and reactions in the relationship. This includes examining your emotional patterns, past experiences, and unmet needs that shape how you engage with your partner.

Relationships are essential for living a heathy life. Human brains are hard wired for love and connection, and as such, when relational issues surface life may become a challenge. Conflict, however, is a natural part of life. Relationships typically move from harmony, to disharmony to repair. It is the repair of the rupture in relational issues that is essential. Learning to communicate with respect and transparency is key. Using tools such as Non-Violent Communication, The Feedback Wheel the 5 Losing Strategies are valuable sills to learn for developing healthy ways of communicating with others.

What are the most common couples' issues? If you are thinking "communication, conflict, sex, money, child rearing" you are correct. However, most therapists will go after the symptom on each side of the couple fence thinking that the way to effective change is by getting each party to "work" on their respective "issue". Many times the parties don’t agree but comply. Imagine if you could align the unconscious brains of a couple and stop the "working on your issues" part that has become so popular in therapy settings? Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com to learn how! Or call 877-606-6161. DR. FLEMING'S NEW RELATIONSHIP/COUPLES INTENSIVES. www.kevinflemingphd.com/marriage-couples-retreats.php

Sue Johnson teaches in her emotion focussed therapy that there is a specific emotional process - a dance - that occurs between each couple. This cycle of relating (which can start with not getting one’s needs met and be followed by some protective response, for example), is largely informed by each partner’s early attachment wounds. When our relationship does not offer enough safety to be vulnerable, or when the more honest we are with our partner the more our connection is threatened, it’s time to reach out for support. In couples therapy we work to establish safety, vulnerability and connection, as well as learn the practical skills of effective communication and conflict resolution.

I have extensive experience in marriage and couple therapy. In any relationship, both people play a role in the problems and concerns, and it take two to find solutions. I work with couple dealing with communication issues, fidelity, divorce and separation, co-parenting and commitment issues. I promote mutual support, and a collaborative approach to problem solving which builds trust in the couple and the counselling process. I help couples move through the old, repetitive cycles of arguing towards new and healthier communication and connection.

The Gottman Method helps couples break out of painful cycles by applying research from over 3,000 couple-- studying both those who thrive and those who divorce—to identify what makes relationships work. In Gottman couples therapy, we'll identify patterns eroding your intimacy—like criticism, defensiveness, or stonewalling—and replace them with healthier ways of relating. You'll learn practical, evidence-based skills for expressing needs, listening deeply, navigating conflict constructively, and repairing hurt. Whether experiencing frequent arguments, feeling disconnected, or facing major challenges, you'll gain concrete tools to rebuild connection, taking your relationship in a new direction

Relationships are work, and each person in a relationship brings their own unique set of baggage to the relationship. Some of it is good and some of it is challenging. Depending on the type of couple (married, dating, common law, heterosexual, homosexual) the goals can be quite different. In counselling we can explore what those goals are and what baggage, or different values are contributing to the challenges. Even though relationships are work, they should also be the greatest place for reward. Working through understanding the goals, expectations, values, emotions and areas of conflict in the relationship, the reward can be achieved.

Intimate relationships often challenge us in ways few other relationships or experiences do. Whether you are starting a new relationship or struggling as a couple, I can help you address issues such as trust, intimacy, communication, conflict, and distance that might be preventing you from finding harmony in your relationship. In our work together, you can gain insight into how to improve patterns of relating to one another, learn about the possible origins of these patterns, find ways to de-escalate conflict, and move toward building trust, intimacy, and a sense of greater connection.

My role as a couple's therapist to create a safe haven, a calm bay, for you to make the repairs as needed, for you to re-embark on your journey together, stronger, more connected and back on the same team. The storminess of relationships is as natural as waves in the ocean, our ability to stay connect during the swells and crashing waves is what makes or breaks a marriage, not the wave itself. Our work together focuses on identifying our patterns and our partners patterns as we run for cover in the tumult of the wave. We then work on understanding, supporting and staying reconnected.

In my work with individuals, I have noticed folks come to therapy because of challenges in their relationships. I draw on the Gottman Method which focuses on helping folks build stronger emotional connections, improve communication, and manage conflict effectively. We work on strengthening the "friendship system" of the relationship, which includes trust, intimacy, and mutual respect, while also addressing deeper issues like shared goals and values. By using practical tools and exercises, the Gottman Method helps people foster a sense of understanding and partnership, creating a foundation for a more fulfilling and resilient relationship.

Do you or your partner suffer from social anxiety and it's affecting your relationship? Social anxiety is a fear of negative judgment from others and it can lead to reduced levels of intimacy, suppressed emotions, feelings of isolation and loneliness and lack of communication. If one or both of you feels anxious socially, your relationship may be suffering too. Contact me for ways in which you can move past social anxiety to a fuller, intimate, richer, relaxed more authentic relationship.

Our intimate relationships are where our deepest issues arise and our greatest healing can occur. In couples therapy we build on the principles of openness and honesty, creating a safe space where each partner can safely share their deepest needs and concerns. We work on individual awareness of personal issues that each person brings with them from their past while focussing on deepening the connection that they each yearn for.

I welcome the opportunity to work with couples, whether married or not, LGBTQ, coupling or uncoupling. My goal is for partners to become more curious about themselves and about each other. We explore how unfinished business in one's family of origin and past trauma can affect emotional initmacy between partners. We will address ways of lessening emotional reactivity in order to work on relationship issues in a calm and respectful way.

In the couple therapy , I assist the couples to identify the dysfunctional patterns that they get stuck in and to understand the underlying maladaptive emotions. I guide partners to become more aware of primary anger and sadness, fear and shame, and the attendant needs and to regulate, make sense of, and communicate these in non-demanding ways to promote security, validation, and warmth. In addition, I help partners reveal their most vulnerable feelings to each other to promote bonding and validation and help couples learn to soothe and transform emotions that are maladaptive.

I have extensive experience in working with parents and their child or youth on a wide variety of issues. For example: dropping grades, school absenteeism, communication breakdown, anger issues, control and power, oppositional communication, self-esteem difficulties, and self-harming behaviours. I specialize in helping parents better understand their child/youth and youth better understand their responsibilities. My goal is to help child/youth and parents have better communication in order to live happier and healthier lives. I look forward to working with you and your child or teen.

When a couple comes to counselling, they are often desperate for help. They have usually been arguing and drifting farther and farther apart. They feel lonely and dissappointed in their relationship. It is my goal as an Emotionally Focused therapist to help couples identify their patterns and behaviors, so they can make better choices and see major improvement. Through therapy, you begin to understand how your behaviors have impacted your partner, and led to the creation of the emotional distance between you. In essence, I give couples the tools they need to feel closer and rediscover the connection and intimacy they thought was lost forever.

I use the Gottman method to help couples work through their marital concerns to establish a friendship, nurture a stronger emotional bond, find shared meaning, and learn skills for conflict resolution. Couples typically engage in therapy to strengthen their connection, cope with crisis situations, and improve communication. I work with partners to instill a sense of understanding by breaking unhealthy patterns of communication and behaviours that may be showing up due to earlier experiences. Couples are provided with the opportunity to navigate through difficult relational dynamics to achieve happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction in their relationship.

The research around attachment tells us that having a sense of closeness with others is essential to our well-being. When partners feel a lack of connection, it can touch on past wounds that may even exacerbate the present difficulties. All couples go through challenging times, and it is important that both individuals remain allies, even through trouble. Skilled couples counselling can support this, and help the relationship become stronger than ever before. I draw from a number of approaches when working with couples, especially Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, and communication approaches such as Non Violent Communication.

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.

Relationships can become tense, defensive, and hostile. Sometimes, ruptures in trust occur that leave us questioning "should I still be with you?" When our relationships feel insecure, we react often through becoming critical/nagging, or shutting down and checking out. I practice a form of evidence-based couples therapy called Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT). Through EFT, we identify the negative cycle that has come to define your relationship, and work to repair this ruptured attachment bond, helping partners feel safer and freer around one another. This leads to improved intimacy, better communication, and a stronger emotional connection.

I'm a down-to-earth, client-centered counsellor that can bring new hope to you and new life to your relationships. I specialize in marriage and couples counselling. I'm trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Gottman Couples Therapy. With over ten years of experience, I have the tools to get your relationship back on track. I also offer intensive therapy for highly distressed couples. I'm here and ready to listen with warmth, kindness and compassion, without any judgement or criticism.

EFFECTIVE COUPLE AND MARRIAGE COUNSELLING I specialize in helping couples resolve those painful relationship struggles that no matter how hard you try, leave you feeling desperate and alone. In a safe and compassionate environment, you will discover new communication patterns that calm fears and strengthen warm connection. Research shows that 86% of couples completing the Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) approach - my approach - report experiencing greater happiness in their relationship that lasts. BOOK A FREE 15 MINUTE VIDEO OR PHONE CONSULTATION at francesbrowncounselling/janeapp.com or call 604.219.2690

Real Solutions to Real Challenges. Common Sense Techniques. Short-term & Cost Effective. All couples are exposed to challenges such as; traumas, accidents, sickness, infidelities, job loss, grief, and unproductive communication cycles. Individuals histories contain our unique interpretation of ourselves and our world and how we currently cope and function. Understanding more about our selves, recognizing unfulfilled intentions, and discharging umcomfortable feeling will produce greater self-acceptance and communion/ imtimacy with our partners