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

Is your relationship at a stalemate? Or are you finding yourselves drifting apart, or arguing without really hearing each other? Working with a calm, neutral third party, the two of you can explore destructive patterns and learn new ways to improve intimacy. Couples counseling does not mean your relationship is over! It is only the beginning of a new stage. Many couples find greater closeness after working through their difficulties in therapy and finding new reasons to love each other.

Relationships are hard. We need to acknowledge that, then address issues specific to your relationship. The most critical needs of any relationship are trust and friendship. I work to bring those into the relationship and find ways to foster them to make them prevalent over conflicts and everyday struggles. Communication is often the presenting issue with couples, however, IF an underlying warmth is present, conflicts are addressed and managed in a gentler, more loving manner. Couples need to find shared meaning in their lives and become each others' refuge. I explore with you desires, dreams, regrets, wants, etc.. Call me today and begin the journey back to your passion / friendship.

We don't always have examples of how to have a successful or healthy relationship, and sometimes find ourselves without the tools to navigate challenges within our own relationships. In working with me you can expect to build tools for truly and actively listening to your partner while also learning how to provide your partner with the same support. These tools can be safely mastered in my office, and then taken with you for continued use in your relationship.

Jonathan Herrick, LCSW and his wife Barbara Carroll, MA work together and are both passionate about helping couples work through the struggles that we have worked through to be able to enjoy a deeply rich relationship. Having counseled many hundreds of couples we have a wide range of skills. We are highly pragmatic and pro-active, and adjust our approach to match the particular couple. We help couples improve communication, improve intimacy, reduce conflict, handle an affair, adjust to raising children and enrich their relationship, To learn about our work, visit embraceCouples.com and read my book The Heart of Relationship

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.

I work with a lot of couples, and have helped them learn to relate with more empathy, effective communication and positive regard. I'll help you to better understand each other, and to manage conflict in a more productive and supportive way. Though we are by nature drawn to be in relationship, there are now well understood reasons—rooted in our neurobiology and our attachment patterns (which I'll explain)—that often make functioning in relationships difficult. In addition to helping you understand the source of these difficulties, I'll guide you in using that knowledge to create a more intimate, enriching and secure partnership, one based on the principle that you are in each other's care.

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.

I view relationship as a vehicle to support greater deepening and healing. It is in relationship that we see our deepest vulnerability, insecurity and unprocessed wounding. Where do we get more triggered than in our primary relationship? I believe that sharing the attitude of using the relationship as a vehicle to heal, allows couples to get on the same page as they work through their issues. It becomes less about who will win this argument and more about how the couple can support each other in healing. Together we can explore relationship dynamics and work toward creating a supportive environment for growth, transformation and healing.

Are you dating and having problems in communication and other areas? Getting counseling while you are in the dating phase can prevent you from developing unhealthy habits that keep you from moving to the next level in your relationship. Couples Counseling can help you learn those skills needed to enhance your relationship.

My work focuses on a combination of skills training in how happy couples talk and argue, and the creation of safety and opportunities to create "heart-to-heart" conversations to restore and revitalize intimacy in your relationship. It is these two approaches that are supported convincingly by a large body of research, and it requires a therapist who acts as coach and referee. I don't let couples fight their same old fights in my office - the whole point is to get past the same old arguments and have the deeper and more useful conversations that have been sidetracked.

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.

I approach couples counseling from a collaborative stance that offers tangible results from the first session. My work empowers couples in distress to deeply understand and overcome the painful cycles of interaction between partners, as well as to address and heal these cycles' root causes. From there I help couples nurture and develop ever greater degrees of trust, intimacy and love between each other. I am passionate about my work with couples and believe deeply in the healing power of effective therapy.

I am certified in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy which is based on 30 years of research into what works for couples. 90% of couples who go through Emotionally Focused Therapy report an improvement in their relationship. Sometimes it can seem like the same argument happens over and over, even though the topic might seem different. Often partners don't feel that they are understood or heard. I help couples understand, see, and hear their own and their partner's more vulnerable feelings which underlie the stuck pattern of arguments. The closeness you used to have can be regained and is often improved as you understand and know each other better than you ever did before