Great Couples Counseling in Los Altos Hills, CA. Therapy to heal relationships.

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

Couples often find that their hopes and expectations for finding that special person who will "make them happy" are unrealistic and a burden to an otherwise very successful relationship. I find that when you learn to listen to your partner and appreciate who they are, and risk telling them who you are and how you feel, your love will be on solid ground. I will help you focus on what you need to feel loving and loveable, and to share that with your partner.

I thoroughly enjoy aiding couples in their ability to communicate with one another so they can fully enjoy the potential of their marriage/relationship. Facilitating deeper understanding in your personal feelings and workings and those of your partner, enable you as a couple to grow closer & stronger. It builds capacity to face adversity, for example past trauma.

Partnership has the potential to be incredibly rewarding, teaching us about ourselves through loving another. Most of us make a large emotional investment in our relationships. Because of this, partnership also has the potential to cause a huge amount of distress when it’s not working. Sometimes a struggling partnership is full of conflict and arguments, and sometimes partners just drift apart until they feel like roommates instead of lovers. Successful partnerships need respect and a core of friendship. If you and your partner are no longer friends, or you never were, I can provide you with tools to work toward a closer connection.

Dr. Goodwin finds working with couples to be very rewarding. She uses an eclectic, research-based approach which focuses on increasing insight and compassion to both the self and the other partner, (re)building friendship, and teaching behaviors that improve communication and connection. She believes in building on couples and individual strengths. Her approach is active, warm, and non-judgmental. Dr. Goodwin also has experience working with couples around sexual issues, an important aspect of many relationships. Dr. Goodwin also enjoys working with LGTBQ couples and individuals.

We practice Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT). This model believes that we are all hard wired for attachment and connection. We need love and security and how we deal with this vulnerability is what determines how we are in relationships. When love doesn’t work, it hurts, and secure emotional attachment is the cure. We facilitate a couples development of a secure attachment by helping them come together and break the negative patterns of insecurity. After the negative patterns of communication, behavior, and perceptions have identified and broken, we then help the couple to create new emotional experiences that help to replace the old out-dated patterns and solve there problems.

I work with couples who are in a host of stages of relationship and wanting to improve their communication and their harmony in relationship. In some cases, I work with married couples around increasing passion and decreasing conflict; with others, I help after a betrayal or one of the many issues that being in a couple can present. Most important, I provide a safe space for couples to know themselves both individually and in the context of their unique couplehood.

Are you feeling helpless and hopeless about your relationship? Do you often feel frustrated and defeated, opting to withdraw from your partner or emotionally lash out in ways you know are hurtful? Do you wish you could rekindle the passion and romance you used to feel in your relationship when you were dating, but can't seem to find any hope in making it happen? Has having children changed your relationship for the worse. I offer a research based assessment and treatment process that clearly guides couples better ways to express emotion, deal with conflict, and rekindle the love that brought them together. Contact me for a free consultation appointment.

Tired of the same old arguments? Sad or even scared about the growing disconnect? Want to change but can't seem to stop the same old cycle from happening again and again? Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) transforms couples in a powerfully and emotionally engaging way , and is now considered one of the best validated couples interventions approach by leading experts all over the country. So often all of our arguments or disconnects have at their core a desire to know, "Are you there for me?" Or, " Do I really matter to you?" EFT addresses the fears that keep us apart and allows us to move close in ways that beautifully work. To learn more please visit my website right now.

I specialize in Couples Work and Marriage Counseling. I'm trained by the Couples Institute of Menlo Park, as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Gottmann Method. Having been married myself for 25 years - and worked through my share of challenges in relationship - I have a good understanding for what it takes to heal, trust, and build intimacy with someone. Most of our communication as a couple is in fact asking the question "are you there for me?". In couples counseling we will explore that basic premise and understand how to make our partners feel it, as well as how we can each motivate our partner to WANT to make us feel that way.

The feeling of falling in love can feel so wonderful and our life can seem full of promise. As time goes by, we must face the reality of our lives and the person whom we love. We may believe, "I have fallen out of love." The key to healthy intimate relationships is to calm ourselves internally as individuals and connect with our pleasant feelings; this is healthy emotional regulation. The better that I regulate my emotions as an individual, the stronger I can create a bond with my partner or spouse. A secure bond is the foundation of a relationship that is both satisfying and co-creative. This is the promise of love that we glimpsed when we initially fell in love.

I view couples therapy as extremely collaborative, and I use a strong team approach to get quick results. I am very involved in the session at all times and will honestly communicate to you what I see, feel and think. I begin by establishing a vision for the relationship, which incorporates the ideals of both members. My office becomes a safe haven, where problems can be discussed without fear of pain, judgment or retribution. Our consultation time is used as a living laboratory, a place where we can explore different styles, interventions and techniques. These can be used to change hurtful and destructive patterns in the relationship and create a stronger, more open connection.

I teach couples constructive paths through the inevitable relationship conflicts and challenges we all experience. By coaching them through the researched base principals and practices for creating successful relationships, I support them in achieving their goals of creating loving companionship and respect for themselves and for each other. And as a couple embodies these relationships tools they become empowered to prevent or work through most relationship challenges going forward.