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

Romantic relationships can be one of the most important aspects of our lives. When our relationship is going well, we feel great. But when there is constant conflict, disagreements, and disconnection, we feel awful, and our work, health, and sleep suffers. Therapy can help couples understand the negative patterns that keep showing up in the relationship, and take steps to do different actions that work for both people in the relationship. Couples counseling helps you understand yourself, and your partner, so you can create a safe, loving, and connected relationship where both partners feel valued and cared for. Contact me for a free 15 minute consultation today.

I focus my practice on supporting families (or key individuals within the family) facing issues related to separation, divorce, co-parenting and mixed/blended families. I work with couples who are going through the processes of separation and divorce, supporting them with being able to co-parent successfully. I can also work with parents as they re-partner, creating new blended/mixed families.

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 work with couples of all kinds, and in all stages of relationship. I help couples focus on the "We" in their relationship, develop strengths and improve their communication. I also help couples pause behavior that is having a negative impact and develop new perspectives and behaviors that nourish their connection. Whether couples are married or unmarried or considering marriage, whether they have been together a few months or many years, I help them make their relationship a more loving, less painful and more enjoyable place to be.

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

In working with couples, I recommend holding a separate individual session with each partner. That allows me to understand the historical background that each partner brings to the relationship and how that impacts their attitudes and patterns of behavior. That process encourages each partner to honestly identify their perception of the conflict without fear of recrimination from their partner. I can then bring both partners together and help them understand aspects of their relationship that underlie their conflicts. We work together to implement strategies which support the goal of resolving their problems and improving the quality of their communication and their relationship.

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.

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.

Relationships are the most complicated, yet most rewarding things in life. They make us feel excited, happy, and high on life one minute while maintaining the ability bring us pain, frustration, and emotional distress the next. For all the beauty that comes with companionship and commitment, there are also times when you have to sacrifice things you may not want to for the sake of the relationship. Furthermore, maintaining one’s own identity while growing with another person can be a lot to manage. I help couples come to a much more meaningful understanding of how each person is showing up in the relationship so that they can make healthier choices towards a more fulfilling future together.

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.

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.

As we know, romantic relationships can bring out the best and worst of us. Working with couples involves being open to identifying and experiencing those parts of ourselves that get triggered. In this way, we allow the relationship to be an opportunity for working through patterns that block intimacy and develop new ways of being that deepen communication, allow for more honest, open expression and enable each partner to be a healing agent for the other. This is a pathway of healing and growth- a vehicle for enhancing capacity for love (including self-love) and soul connection.

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.