Great Couples Counseling in Palos Verdes Estates, CA. Therapy to heal relationships.

Married, dating, heterosexual, gay, or bisexual? I specialize in emotional intimacy, sex, addiction, and trauma, any of which can derail a relationship. You can heal your relationship or end it. I can help either way. Improve communication and handle conflicts better. Get your emotional baggage out of the way so it doesn’t hurt your relationship. Better for the couple and especially better when there are kids. Have kids and you’re divorcing? You’re still tied together. We can make that less damaging for everyone. Kids do better when their divorced parents work together for the kids’ best interest – dealing with emotions and communication better and not putting kids in the middle.

Dr. Levine is a clinical psychologist, not simply a "marriage counselor." He often works with couples whose difficulties involve such problems as disagreements about dealing with relatives, children and friends as well as arguments over money, sex and unreasonable expectations. His approach is relaxed and non-confrontational, within the framework of what is known as "cognitive couples therapy." The goal is to reduce unrealistic demands and help with acceptance of the limitations of being human within the context of a close interpersonal relationship. You will find Dr. Levine to be fair, open-minded and even-handed in working with the couples he sees. He will answer the phone personally.

All couples face challenges in a relationship. What makes some relationships last and others that don't is a combination of communication skills and commitment to making the marriage work. Many marriages test people to their limit, but that doesn't mean it's a bad marriage. If you are able to hang in there and work with a trusted professional, you can expand and grow into a more loving and nurturing person.

After over 30 years of practice as a marriage counselor, I’m shifting my focus away working with from couples whose relationships are already broken. I’m now focusing on helping couples who are just starting out on their journey to build strong, healthy relationships that will last a lifetime. If you’re looking for a communication coach who can teach you how to talk about difficult topics more easily, and learn what keeps love alive for a lifetime, I can help.

The two most important keys to a healthy relationship is communication & understanding how your partner wants to be loved. Clear and authentic communication is essential for a healthy relationship. A mindful partnership involves a place of understanding from where an individual is coming from. Clear boundaries and a respective responsibility of each other, as being unique is central for growth and belongingness. If a connection is fragmented, individuals cannot exist as one, than the relationship cannot be whole. Partners develop a dance around one another’s problems and develop dysfunctional patterns that are projected on the partner and world.

Each couple has their own unique dance. When in sync, there is a rhythmic flow between and within each partner. When there is a shift in the bond due to chaos and trauma, the movement between the two becomes disrupted and derailed; there is a dis-connect and a fight to re-connect and be understood by the other. I work with the understanding that the relationship between two people who love each other is not so much a behavioral negotiation, but rather a deep relational bond, where each partner longs for safety and trust. I help couples bring a deeper understanding of the bond between them and foster a safe haven for each partner to build a secure connection with each other.

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.

Problems you may be experiencing in your relationship do not occur overnight. It takes relationship neglect over time before significant problems develop. When you withhold feelings, especially feelings of hurt, the hurt soon turns into resentment. When resentful, neither partner can hear what is being said and you may then soon experience an "emotional deadening" where you and your partner feel as though you are more like roommates than soulmates. When the passion fades and the communication and connection fail, it's imperative that you seek counseling. Feel free to call my office for a free 15 minute phone consultation at 800-474-1445 or email me at Garydoctor@aol.com.

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!

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.

Couple dynamics are complicated and thus require a multi-pronged approach. My goal is to focus on the improvement of intimacy,communication, and conflict/resolution. This is accomplished by not only understanding the strengths and deficits of the couples' current relationship patterns but by also coming to understand the individual experiences that each member of the couple brings to the couple dynamic. Each member of the couple has a wealth of experiences, feelings, behaviors and beliefs that were formed well before the couple was formed. Understanding the impact of those separate experiences as well as current couple dynamic creates space for understanding, recover, and healing.

As an EFT therapist, I can help you and your partner to reconnect, escape from the repetitive cycles that keep you distant from each other, make sense of your emotions, improve the way you handle stress and conflict, and restore trust and safety with each other. There is no bad guy in your relationship. I'll help you see how your feelings and behaviors make perfect sense - and work with you both to create new, positive cycles that draw you closer together. EFT is very well supported by research showing that it significantly improves over 86% of distressed relationships, and importantly, that those benefits are still present two or three years after therapy is over.

I enjoy working collaboratively with couples and moving towards what they want their story to be. What do they stand for as a couple? What is getting in the way of their desired story? What are their strengths? How are the outside influences such as culture and family affecting them? How can they come together based on their values? Is there healing to be done in the areas of trust, jealousy, or infidelity? Every relationship is different and I help all types of couples re-connect and move forward.