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

Is this you? All we do is fight! It seems like we never hear each other and neither of us listens anymore! It is so frustrating I do not want to come home and try. I have been successfully helping couples to develop the tools necessary to communicate effectively for more than 20 years. Having disagreements is not unusual. Learning how to resolve disagreements is a key element to healthy relationships. Conflict resolution is about learning to fight fairly by listening in an atmosphere of Respect, Trust, Safety and love and not placing my desire to be right over the relationship.

Couples counseling is becoming more common since people are postponing marriage and choosing to live together, before marriage. Both choices have there difficulties, and we are equipped to work with people who are at any stage in their relationship. We guide clients toward their goals, educating them to better understand the reasons they are having difficulty.

My goal is to help the couple learn how to love each other well. We work on learning how to express their needs and desires and also how to give to the other in the way that they need. I require homework assignments to develop intimacy and passion on a daily basis. We work on sexuality and physical closeness. Communication, anger management, roles and responsibiliteis are all addressed as needed. I am a nationally touring group counselor for New Life Ministries couple conventions. I have a hugs bag of tools and techniques as well as experience in leading couple retreats. Couples are my specialty.

As a couple certified in couples therapy, we understand betrayal, abandonment, feeling unappreciated, ignored, misunderstood, and having the same repeated fight. We know that troubles with family, finances, and substance use can strain even the healthiest of relationships. Our work as co-therapists in the room together brings balance and fairness so you can move through the rupture and into repair. We offer unique insight into how you can manage each other and life's challenges. Can you imagine feeling connected, making mutual agreements, experiencing intimacy and getting what you need from your partner without arguing over who is right? We can help.

My doctoral research was on the difference between intense/compelling & secure/comfortable romantic love experiences and I have been studying love for the past 35 years. I taught the Interpersonal Attraction/Romantic Love course at Chapman University, along with Human Sexuality & Sexual Disorders & Treatment. I am certified in Gottman Method Couples therapy, as an ASL (Gottman) Workshop Leader, and a Gottman Method Level I Teacher. I also have trained in Emotion-Focused, Imago, and Voice Dialogue approaches to give couples in relationships of all kinds the best help available in making troubled relationships good and good relationships even better.

Couples come into counseling for various problems. Couples therapy can be very helpful to identify negative patterns of behavior which cause unhappiness, it also can point our strengths in the relationship which are causing a great deal of satisfaction in the relationship. I work from a Christian based Gottman model to help couples to quickly determine what is going wrong for them and help them to solve these issues and have the happy relationship they desire.

Being understood and respected is the foundation for a healthy and loving relationship. This can happen when we decide to truly listen to each other. As Author Dr. David Augsburger puts it “Being listened to is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.” If you'd like to repair your relationship and move toward growth and healing then please call me for a free consultation at 714-326-6578

We have been sold a bad story about love. The truth is perfect is the enemy of the good in love and even in the good there are rough patches. But that doesn't mean you can't have a joyful and romantic relationship. I can help learn to handle painful relationships more effectively and engage fully in the process of living and loving together to build a life together.

Being part of a couple can be challenging. Couples counseling helps couples learn and implement relationship enhancing skills allowing for healthier and more satisfying relationships. Wouldn't it be nice to have that "spark" back in your relationship? Or maybe just a civil conversation? Whatever your goal may be, couples counseling can help give you the skills desired.

Couples counseling will provide the opportunity for couples to focus on their marriage by doing deeper work in a safe and confidential setting. Couples will explore and understand effective communication, love styles and form a deeper connection and intimacy. Couples counseling is available for any two people in a committed relationship. It is a great investment in any meaningful relationship!

In couples counseling we will explore the strengths each of you brings to your relationship and how these contribute to the overall health of your relationship together. We will work to understand your contributions and barriers to making your relationship work. The focus will remain on your goals for the relationship with the understanding that these may change as we learn more about each parties level of contribution. I encourage honesty between both parties. You will be encouraged to speak directly with one another to work toward strengthening your communication skills by clarifying the meaning and quality of the words you choose when speaking with your partner.

Helping couples is my specialty! I feel such a passion for this because I know how great it is to be in a supportive, fulfilling, and intimate relationship. I also know how awful it can be when the relationship is not working--feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, neglected, attacked, disrespected, betrayed. I have been helping couples improve their relationship and regaining intimacy for a number of years. For some, it means decreasing the verbal fights by talking through past hurts, forgiving, and rebuilding trust. For others, it is rekindling the fire of passion and falling in love all over again. Whatever the case, I can help your relationship get to where you want it to be!

According to a leading couple's therapist, David Schnarch, differentiation is a crucial aspect of intimacy for couples. My approach to couples therapy emphasizes the importance of differentiation in couple relationships. I believe that a healthy couple is one where individuals can share deeply personal parts of their selves with their partner, while also being secure enough to handle however their partner responds. This approach also incorporates exploration of attachment style and intergenerational relationships. I also incorporate aspects of Gottman therapy when treating couples and helping them to enhance intimacy and differentiation.

Our staff of over 25 therapists specializes in helping couples in distress. From pre-marital counseling to couples work and even marriages that have been together for years--we are ready to help. Our staff has received training from Dr. Susan Johnson, the international expert on marriage and couples therapy and can help couples get free from patterns of fighting that you can't get out of on your own. We can teach you how to get free from the gridlock of fruitless fighting, and learn how to thrive in your relationship again.

My experience as a Therapist has been focused on my passion for helping couples thrive: even in the midst of the challenges they face. If you're wanting to work on effective communication: I'm here to help. If you're feeling stuck in unhealthy relational patterns, we'll identify ways to change and grow. Together, we'll process and work towards insight and personal growth. Through therapy, you'll receive compassion and tools for growth. To talk more, simply give me a call and we'll find the best time for your first session.

Couples counseling is an amazing experience. Your relationship is my client and I will work closely with both of you to identify the relational dance you participate in, and how we can interrupt the negative patterns you engage in, and instead promote healthier ways of connecting and attaching. Couples therapy can be a really fun and pleasurable experience where you get to know more about your partner and also about your self. Couples therapy works in a stage process. I will be there along each step of the way helping to make sure that you guys are connecting. I will help to empower you both so that you may enhance and strengthen your most important relationship!

There are times when we feel disconnected and distant from our partner and this usually creates increased conflict. Couples counseling will improve the intimate connection and foster improved communication between partners as they move toward increased physical and emotional intimacy. A couples therapist can help a couple see each other in a different way and be able to teach the couple the tools that are necessary to address conflict and solve problems.

Communication and Commitment-- two vital words for Couples. I've heard it said we choose to love someone and we choose to stay in love with that person. Are you going to hightail it out of there after the first sign of conflict or stay and face the music? That music can be beautiful when seasoned with the right tools and mindset. Couple relationships are not always Romance and Caviar. There are dry spells. I'd like to show you how to weather the dry spells and increase the joy and romance in your relationship. I will show you how to prevent the conflicts and trials of life from robbing that first love you felt in the beginning. I can help you restore that sweetness and passion.

Are you and your partner constantly in conflict? Do you find that an argument about a seemingly silly issue often escalates into a full-blown fight? Are you tired of leading two separate lives? Do your differing views on money, sex and life feel insurmountable? Couples therapy can help. No matter what the issue, relationship counseling should not be about partner bashing. Couples therapy provides a safe place for you and your partner to improve communication and decrease reactivity. Couples therapy can help you reconnect with your partner and help you discover how to choose each other first. Call for a free phone consultation today.

Are you feeling disconnected from your partner? Drifting apart? Constantly fighting? Leading separate lives? It would be a privilege to help you reconnect and find the love that brought you together in the first place. I will help you understand why it doesn’t feel safe to truly express how you feel and create the safety necessary to share all of you with one another.

You may have high conflict in your relationship or just feel like you are "growing apart" from your partner. Couples counseling can help you and your partner communicate on a "level playing field." As a therapist, I meet with you and your partner at the same time; therefore providing both of you with the opportunity to communicate in a calm, safe environment. Finally, I do not "take sides" in your relationship. I am an advocate for you as a couple.

Without conflict, couples do not achieve intimacy. The challenge is helping you and your partner learn how to have healthy conflict that leads to intimacy, rather than destructive conflict that destroys the relationship. While I work with all couples, I specialize in working with neuro-diverse couples. I usually start with helping you learn ground rules for being able to have safe, constructive, healthy conflict to reduce and eliminate destructive relational patterns. I also use Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) to help you reconnect, learn healthy communication skills, rekindle the flame that you once had, and start talking to each other again. If you are willing to work, I am here for you!

In a relationship that you feel is stuck where neither partner feels loved, heard, or validated? I can work with you to change unhealthy patterns, learn new ways of communicating, and build a loving relationship. We will work together to create a new relationship vision for the future, a shared vision. I want to help you find the love you want and deserve.

Whether yo uare in a new relationship or have been in one for several years, there may be a barrier from preventing you to be in a healthy relationship with each other. Different forms of communication may be missing in that relationship such as lack of understanding and not hearing each others wants and needs. Therapy can provide listening skills and ways to improve your relationship on a daily basis.

Couples are frequently referred to me by current and former clients, colleagues, and other healthcare professionals including physicians from several disciplines. More often than not, couples self-refer for help because one or both are feeling stuck and in pain. Sometimes there is an accumulation of hurts that have piled up. You need to talk about it. There are many benefits to couples counseling: enhanced communication, learning how to resolve conflict, creating more trust, growing intimacy, identifying triggers that can cause upsets, learning how to deal with the inevitable challenges that even the very best of relationships experience, and learning how to love at deeper levels.