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

Marriage counseling can be the best thing you can do for your relationship, whether you’re having marriage problems or not. Either way, the skills learned in marriage counseling can help you find happiness and satisfaction with your spouse. If you are having significant problems, and you want marriage counseling to work, you need to be willing to put everything into it. You cannot shut down and refuse to participate because you “already made your decision.” Give your marriage a chance. Give yourself and your spouse a chance to be happy. I have helped many couples, and I have found that the majority of them benefit from the therapy and gain happier marriages. Unfortunately, many couples wait ye....

Couples therapy combines techniques from the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy. After gathering a comprehensive history about your relationship, we will specify goals and work to build strong emotional alliances. The goal is to help lead you to a deeper understanding of each other, and then move toward more effective problem solving and accountability for communicating your needs within the relationship.

I have worked with hundred's of couples over the last 20 years. Each couple is unique in their own right which means there is no one way to "fix" a problem. Our deepest longings and hopes emerge in a couples relationship. Oftentimes we are working out unmet needs and hopes carried forward from our early family relationships to our present couple relationship. Problems become increasingly complex and difficult to overcome when we don't know what these issues are all about. Couples remain stuck in conflict not because of what they know, but what they don't know or can't recognize. The work in therapy is to help couples recognize unhealthy patterns of relating and introduce novelty.

When problems enter a relationship or family construct it is easy for people to fall into cycles of blame that create further disharmony. I utilize Narrative Therapy and post-modern practices that highlight social discourses that may be influencing your relationship. Collaborating, we will find what unites you in your relationship and how be in partnership against the problems that keep you in isolation. Together, we will target those struggles that are threatening your relationships and understand how to get out of the blame cycle—and how to re-focus on your shared dreams as a couple or family.

I believe couples naturally select partners who will eventually restimulate old hurts. If couples can recognize this, then conflict becomes an opportunity for healing and growth. My job in working with couples is to help them identify these old hurts and work together with one another to understand and provide compassion for one another as they do this work. Emotional intimacy is the natural outcome of this powerful work.

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.

I work with couples, gays and straights in all situations. Sometimes persons feel different and learning that we all really want the same thing in life which is understanding and love. Good COMMUNICATION is the key to LOVE! I can teach you how anger is changed into good communication when the methods are artfully taught. When anger is handled properly love ensues! Come in and test this method!!! What you say to another person is so important because that other person may not be able to forget those words. Changing the words helps you and your major relationships and can open up a new world in personal and business relationships. I use Imago Therapy tools and Relational life tools to help.

Conflict and discord often are a factor of poor communication and feelings that both partners must agree in order to be compatible. This kind of thinking can result in angry standoffs that lead to a feeling that in order for one to win the their must lose. I teach couples how to communicate and understand that difference in needs does not mean incompatibility. Working towards win-win solutions can enhance your marital satisfaction and increase intimacy. I enjoy working with couples and have a good success rate. Let me help you find happiness in your marriage.

Couples therapy should not be about hashing over old wounds. Getting what you want from a relationship involves good communication and active listening, tolerance and forgiveness, emotional intelligence, having common goals and working cooperatively and, like all the bets things in life, presents us with a challenge. Relationships can be hard work but the work is rewarding and life-enhancing. I love to work with couples who are committed to improving their future rather than reliving their past.

When couples wish to work through their relationship difficulties, or do premarital couples therapy, they will find my office to be a safe, nonjudmental, and encouraging space. You will colaborate with your spouse, and prioritize issues you'd like to discuss. You will explore your own ability for acceptance and tolerance of your spouse's behavior. We will work together on communication skills, and styles, we'll try to soften the dialogue. We'll learn about problem solving skills with which husband and wife are heard. If there are sexual problems, I have experience in treating sex addiction, internet pornography addiction, and the affect of extended families on your relationship.

Being in a relationship is a complicated thing. Often people do not realize the magnitude the past impacts our ability to love, to handle conflict, to accurately communicate. Until you understand what each of you is bringing to the table, you are truly handicaped. Our early role models and messages about love and the opposite sex can create issues in our relationships. Unresolved issues from previous loves can create walls which make authentic love difficult. Helping to unlock the "gridlock" and get you moving again in a healthy direction is my goal. Don't wait for things to "magically" get better. Invest in your relationship and enjoy it once again.

The general goal is to reduce conflict and increase intimacy. In the safety of therapy, and with a trained professional as a third party, you each will have the opportunity to learn about yourself in depth, in addition to gaining insights into the complex dynamics of your relationship. The increasing of knowledge, communication skills, and relational tools can combine to create the intimacy and connection that is so necessary in marriage.

I am a Level 3 Trained GOTTMAN METHOD COUPLES THERAPY (GMCT) counselor. GMCT is a research-based approach that will help you and your partner understand each other on a deeper level, better manage conflict and differences, turn toward each other, reignite intimacy, and make your life dreams come true. I work extensively with infidelity and betrayal, pre-marital, discernment (do I stay or do I go?) addictions. My practice is open to all sexualities, as well as non-monogamy couples.