Great Couples Counseling in Hercules, CA. Therapy to heal relationships.

One of my main specialities is couples counseling. I work with couples of all varieties - not just romantic couples but any combination of two people who need help with their relationship; sisters, father and daughter, cousins, business partners. I also work with other types of couples such as gay and lesbian couples, transgender couples, polyamorous couples etc. I enjoy this work immensely and have helped many couples find more closeness, safety, compassion, ease and care for each other. About half of my clients are couples so I have a great deal of experience. No matter how old and deep the problems are in your relationship, I can help you finally move past these issues for good.

I work with couples that are struggling to connect emotionally, have issues with communication, and want to create new relational dynamics that increase their connection. My approach is warm and collaborative and I work hard to carefully listen to each person to provide the therapeutic interventions necessary to increase understanding, communication, mutual interest, curiosity, and awareness. In my experience couples enter treatment with varying degrees of ambivalence and desire for change. I work hard to create a safe environment to explore each persons concerns and desires so we can better collaborate towards working together to generate movement and change.

I am a certified Gottman's educator with a lot of research that supports my work. I try to assist couples in ensuring that the partnership is fulfilled, supportive, filled with passion and joy. The negative aspects of a relationship can be avoided if you are willing to explore how the influences of your family of origin, your life experiences and circumstances, could play out over time in your relationship. I will teach you tools and skills that will help you move forward, break bad habits, communicate in a healthier and respectful way in all aspects of your relationship. Sometimes I work individually and sometimes I work in the dyad, depending on what is standing in the way.

I help couples move their relationship forward through difficult times, into a place of support, love, and mutual understanding. As a psychologist with over a decade of experience working with couples, I have built up considerable respect for the concept of multiple points of view. The benefit of couples therapy is that you have a therapist who is on your relationship's side. Too often what one partner intends to convey, is not how it is received by the other. I am particularly skilled at helping partners phrase and ask for things in ways that the other person can hear and digest. I am happy to speak with you over the phone for a free initial consultation. Give me a call today!

Are you feeling misunderstood? Hurt? Betrayed? Overwhelmed? Frustrated? Stuck? Unsatisfied? Or disappointed in your relationship? Relationship problems come in all shapes and sizes and are among the most common reasons that people come to therapy. If you are experiencing problems in your relationship; this can be an opportunity for growth. I specialize in helping individuals and couples overcome roadblocks in their relationships and move towards fulfillment through healing past hurt, cultivating self-understanding, identifying goals and values, and developing necessary skills to move forward.

It really hurts when the person you love is focused on "being right", rather than really getting you! Does your relationship create a deep pain or numbness in your heart? When we start to believe that our LEGITIMATE needs for connection will not be adequately met with our partner, it is easy to focus on our personal needs (at the expense of our partner's). A NORMAL human response to this is: nagging, petty repetitive fights, silent-treatments, numbing out, outbursts, being condescending, focusing on being right (rather than really listening). Using EFT, I FOCUS ON SHIFTING THE CULTURE OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP from its current negative painful cycles into being a safe place for both of you.

A sense of belonging happens when we feel truly seen by one who loves us, yet it is in the safety of belonging that much of our wounding begins to emerge. Patterns of relating created by attachment, separation, and loss formed during childhood form the foundation of self perception on physical, emotional, and psychological levels, significantly influencing and impacting our adult relationships. It is through these most intimate relationships that we find the greatest opportunity to heal our attachment wounds. Together we can identify, explore, and bring relief to the cycles of triggering that you and your partner(s) get caught in, creating a greater sense of connection and intimacy.

As we know, romantic relationships can bring out the best and worst of us. Working with couples involves being open to identifying and experiencing those parts of ourselves that get triggered. In this way, we allow the relationship to be an opportunity for working through patterns that block intimacy and develop new ways of being that deepen communication, allow for more honest, open expression and enable each partner to be a healing agent for the other. This is a pathway of healing and growth- a vehicle for enhancing capacity for love (including self-love) and soul connection.

Are you overwhelmed, frustrated, demoralized, afraid, fed-up, worried, unsure, or feeling hopeless about your relationship? Have you stopped talking about things or does everything turn into a fight? Do you feel alone even when you are together? Perhaps you are concerned about your own feelings and behavior. Maybe all of this is true. You are not alone, and I can probably help. Whether the dissatisfaction, the growing distance, the tension, and the arguments are about money, intimacy, a lack of communication, the kids, or broken promises, people often find themselves stuck, even trapped in painful situations. I offer practical and lasting help for couples who are in these situation....

As a relationship therapist with over 30 years experience, I work exclusively with couples and adults, using proven methods for developing better communication skills and deeper understanding of repetitive emotional patterns. By improving teamwork you can learn to resolve your differences more quickly and reach lasting solutions more effectively. The goal: to enrich your relationship with more generosity, forgiveness, playfulness, and open-hearted sharing throughout your life together. Please visit KinseyLeaseCounseling.com to learn more.

I work with couples of all kinds, and in all stages of relationship. I help couples focus on the "We" in their relationship, develop strengths and improve their communication. I also help couples pause behavior that is having a negative impact and develop new perspectives and behaviors that nourish their connection. Whether couples are married or unmarried or considering marriage, whether they have been together a few months or many years, I help them make their relationship a more loving, less painful and more enjoyable place to be.

There are countless models of healthy romantic relationships, from monogamous to polyamorous, and unique variations between partners. The scripts for dating and longterm relationships of our parents’ generations may not be applicable to your relationship, and there is no formal education in how to be a good partner or how to identify unhealthy relationships. But there is psychological research that shows that effective communication, emotional openness, intimacy, and other factors contribute to healthy relationships. Creating these conditions are skills that can be learned. I practice brief humanistic and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) to help my LGBTQ and hetero clients learn these skills.

Couples therapy can be intimidating to start. There's a lot of anxiety that comes up for people about things getting even worse or one person being labeled as the problem or, worse yet, that it will lead to breaking up. But I have treated a great many couples over 25 years and that is almost never what happens. Although, yes, the process is sometimes very painful, I never "take sides" and blame one person in the couple and usually the couple feels better after the session. I have seen people come in with problems that made them feel like enemies and after therapy they feel like friends and lovers again. Do call for couples therapy now and don't let the problems keep on getting worse.