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

One of my main specialities is couples counseling. I work with couples of all varieties - not just romantic couples but any combination of two people who need help with their relationship; sisters, father and daughter, cousins, business partners. I also work with other types of couples such as gay and lesbian couples, transgender couples, polyamorous couples etc. I enjoy this work immensely and have helped many couples find more closeness, safety, compassion, ease and care for each other. About half of my clients are couples so I have a great deal of experience. No matter how old and deep the problems are in your relationship, I can help you finally move past these issues for good.

Are you trapped in destructive cycles of anger and blame? Have you lost trust because of an affair? Are you avoiding your partner or feeling disengaged? Is it hard for you to have real conversations or solve problems together? I will help you untangle your painful negative cycles of communication and build new stronger connections. You can learn to have power over that cycle by learning your triggers and undoing them. You will learn about the roots of the cycle learned in early relationships. Call, text or email me to set an appointment.

Issues that can be worked on in couples counseling often stem from conscious and unconscious assumptions and expectations that each person has about the other. The individual sees the other through the lens of their upbringing and relationship history. I help couples unpack the complex and often tangled web of how each person is understood and misunderstood in the eyes of the other. In doing so, each partner can have a deeper understanding of themselves and their partner, generating compassion, clearer communication, and emotional space from pressing issues.

I work with couples that are struggling to connect emotionally, have issues with communication, and want to create new relational dynamics that increase their connection. My approach is warm and collaborative and I work hard to carefully listen to each person to provide the therapeutic interventions necessary to increase understanding, communication, mutual interest, curiosity, and awareness. In my experience couples enter treatment with varying degrees of ambivalence and desire for change. I work hard to create a safe environment to explore each persons concerns and desires so we can better collaborate towards working together to generate movement and change.

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.

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 focus on authenticity in my practice, and for me this is especially helpful when it comes to couples work. That most problems in relationships come from people being afraid to fully reveal themselves to their partners, for fear they won't be fully accepted and loved. And that by working on open and honest communication tools, and how to really share the depth of their beings with each other, we can create relationships of real intimacy that are healthy and nourishing.

Each couple has a unique dynamic. I work hard to ensure that both individuals in the couple are heard and understood so that the couple feels safe to work on their communication goals and meet their intimacy needs. Relationships change as life circumstances change - new couples, couples considering marriage, addition of children to the dynamic, individual job challenges, death of parents, financial difficulties all impact the health of the couple. Come discuss the issues and improve the relationship bond.

If you are having difficulties as a couple, psychotherapy can help you: (1) Understand one another better (2) Identify more satisfying, fulfilling and compassionate ways of relating (3) Understand the correlation between your early family lives and the ways you view or experience your partnership or marriage (4) Learn to community more from your heart (5) Develop a more collaborative approach to conflicts (6) Acknowledge and draw upon your strengths (7) Become more intimate (8) Cope with life's hardships and challenges IF YOU THINK PSYCHOTHERAPY CAN HELP, PLEASE CALL ME: Rawna Cheri Romero, LMFT 415-533-9724

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.

I specialize in working with couples struggling with a wide range of issues. From problems with communication and feeling connected, to parenting, affair recovery and just learning not to take the relationship for granted anymore, therapy can make a big difference. Like any other living thing, a partnership is a dynamic, growing thing that needs attention and to be nurtured and cared for. Couples therapy is an effective way to learn how to identify and express your own needs at the same time hearing, understanding, and meeting your partners needs. I have helped many couples overcome seemingly impossible challenges and go on to build happy, healthy, more satisfying relationships that last!

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.

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.