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

I use a combination of tried and true couples communication techniques to help couples create and build effective communication into their relationship. I also spend time on exploring sexual compatability and communication, when the couple wants their sexual lintimacy enhanced. IF there is lack of desire or an imbalance of desires, we address the roots of this.With couples who come for pre-marital counseling, we focus on communication skills and on common needs and wants the couple have for their impending marriage and family unit. We also look at any red flags that are showing up in the relationship.

Every marriage has its ups and downs. In fact, it is not the absence of conflict that makes a difference, it is how you manage conflict when it does arise that determines whether a marriage will survive. Successful couples have learned HOW to manage their conflicts in a way that honors the needs of both partners.

In Couples therapy I have completed Level Three Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy and I use Gottman Method in therapy work. Gottman Method Couples Therapy is a structured, goal-oriented, scientifically-based therapy. Intervention strategies are based upon empirical data from Dr. Gottman’s three decades of research. This research shows us what actually works to help couples achieve a long-term healthy relationship. Also, in my practice, as needed, other therapy methods are employed as well.

Couples can get in a routine and can get bored with the relationship. This can lead to drifting apart and turning away from each other. Some couples deals with trust issues that can really break the marriage if not fixed. I help couples to rebuild their relationship and feel safe and secure with their spouse. They learn how to rekindle the love and admiration that got them together to begin with.

Couples therapy often triggers roadblocks in communication. In being shaped by prior relationships, we create various meaning from our experiences as well as receiving and giving instructions on how to live. When we form new relationships of any kind, this gets challenged; coming together and finding a path forward that celebrates all involved is the key to success. My specialty is interracial couples; regardless of if you both come from different backgrounds, the goal is to create shared meaning that is co-constructed. I can help with this process.

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.

Many couples find themselves having the same argument over and over in different forms, never quite reaching what it's really about. That repetition doesn't mean your relationship is broken; it means something underneath the surface hasn't been heard yet. I help you slow the cycle down and see what each of you is reaching for beneath the friction: the longings and fears that are hard to put into words. So much of what strains a partnership lives in what goes unsaid, and as it comes into the open, real understanding and closeness become possible again. I don't take sides. I've watched many discouraged couples rediscover each other, and I'm confident you can too.

It can happen to any of us...everyday stressors we bring home to get taken out on the wrong person - - the one person who means more to us than anything. It leaves you both feeling awful. Maybe you are not getting enough attention, conversation, physical intimacy. The focus of relationship counseling is to change the negative path to a positive one: learn to listen to each other, support each others needs and goals, be willing to compromise, make family and relationship decisions together, stop keeping score, reconnect, relax, and enjoy each other If you reading this, you have already begun to move forward. Please call me so I can help you work through your issues and reconnect.