Great Couples Counseling in San Diego Country Estates, CA. Therapy to heal relationships.

Among human relationships, marriage can be a source of great joy and connection. Often over time, negative cycles and patterns of interaction can develop that create pain and disconnection in the relationship. Adult love relationships are about creating secure attachment and a connection that allows each partner to feel emotionally safe. Through the counseling process, I assist couples in identifying and overcoming negative cycles, healing from past hurts, and reconnecting emotionally. I also work with couples looking for healing from infidelity. Even very distressed couples can reconnect and restore trust and emotional security. I also provide pre-marital and enrichment counseling.

How is it that we are so clearly built for relationships, but also so bad at them? Often couples crave intimacy and connection from their partner but feel like there is junk in the way that keeps them separated from that connection. Both members of the couple keep walls up and are self-protective. This makes them quick to respond to slights, to hold on to the pain caused by past slights, and live with the anticipation of the next slight. As a relationship coach, I work with couples to identify the typical patterns that are present in their relationship to find connection, a space to be vulnerable, and a place to be truly seen. (I am LGBTQ and inclusive)

In my Couples Counseling work I help partners build on the strengths of their relationship while we work together to create new skills for communicating and solving problems. My approach is collaborative and I teach each partner to learn how to listen and hear what the other is expressing and needing as well as ways to be heard and understood better. I provide a safe place where difficult problems can be discussed and solutions explored and practiced so that couples can better resolve ongoing problems.

I am an Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist (EFT) which is the most empirically validated and proven couples therapy to date - helping couples go from distress to a more secure, lasting love, which after a 2 year follow-up, couples report a happier and more fulfilling relationship. I help couples understand their painful disconnection that creates distance and frustration, learn to be more clear in their communication and needs, helping couples begin to heal and repair rifts to bring about a deeper felt sense of security within their relationship. I desire couples to experience with one another that they matter, that they are cared for, they are unconditionally loved by their partner.

If you are feeling like you’ve lost hope for your relationship, part of my job is to hold the hope for you. I passionately believe that there are very few problems that can’t be resolved when both partners are willing to work on the relationship. Even when you feel there is no way that you could regain what you once had, couples counseling can help you find something new and maybe even better. I practice Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and I welcome the opportunity to help you both build a stronger relationship. In addition to regular weekly sessions, I offer special 3-hour sessions to help “jump-start” the healing.

Couples may they be in a dating relationship, living together, engaged to marry, married, in business together, separating, divorcing, fighting over children, property, alimony or visitation, are often confronted with a breakdown in communication and an inability to resolve conflicts. Couple counseling aims to reveal the disconnect within a couple that often once had the ability to connect and function in harmony. Couples can quickly get off track with one another and need skilled guidance to help them learn to resolve conflicts, once again listen and communicate effectively as well as to be able to disagree without forcing the relationship to end.