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

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.

Effective couples therapy can be done with only one person of the couple in the therapy room. Many individuals in relationships have issues they are not ready to discuss in front of their partner for various reasons. They want to work with a therapist to truly understand their thoughts, feelings and dilemmas with regard to their relationship in a private, supportive setting. As a clinical psychologist with over 20 years experience, I have helped many couples in this treatment format. How it works is that couples are in a relationship dynamic. When one person shifts perspective and gains new tools, the relationship dynamic changes. I can help you. Call today.

Most partners in relationships wish their mate would hurt them less and help them more. My role is to coach couples to do just that. Whether recovering from an affair, overcoming domestic violence or just learning to stop squabbling and get along there is a short but essential list of attitudes and skills necessary to build and maintain a healthy and enjoyable relationship. There is very little in life that prepares us for being in a marriage but we can learn what it takes with some work and guidance.

I specialize in couples, marriage and relationship counseling as well as issues related to infidelity. Most couples find it helpful to begin by coming in for their own individual session first and then coming in as a couple after that. In hearing each person's complete perspective, I am able to gain a better understanding of where you are coming from so that I may facilitate communication. Its normal to be able to talk a little bit more in depth when you are alone, so I gain much more information about how I can help. Couples are often relieved to hear that they can begin counseling this way.

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.

Our committed relationship or marriage is often the greatest trigger of stress and anxiety. This is because our very identities (our experience of ourselves) is threatened. This may be caused by a) unresolved issues from our family of origin, b) unresolved disagreements in lifestyle or child rearing, c) conflicts over sex, romance, and intimacy, or d) sometimes just the management of everyday stressors. The sad result is a "disconnect" between partners, and resulting loneliness. Working in collaboration, we will finding the cause, and build a strategy to reconnect you and your partner. Yes, you can recapture the love, attraction, and joy you deserve together. Let's get to work!

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.

Are you feeling disconnected from your partner? Are you hurt and wondering what you can do to repair your relationship? I help couples to stop negative patterns of conflict that can pull them apart. I help them to repair hurts and to become a strong, connected team. I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy, a well-researched, very successful form of couples therapy. If you want to transform your relationship, I would love to help you!

What attracts us to an individual can become the seed for problems later in a relationship. Therapy can assist in identifying the emotional , thinking, and behavioral patterns that diminish the possibility of satisfaction and love in relationships. Therapy can help you to find new ways of relating that bring joy and happiness in sharing your life with another person. Skills can be learned and approaches to challenging situations modified that harmonize and balance conflicting points of contact with a loved one. Learning to relate in a way that increases your contentment in your relationships is only a few steps away. By opening your heart to the possibilities of love, you can heal injury.

My approach to couples and marital therapy includes several components which are: relationship enhancement skills, communication and conflict resolution strategies, increased awareness of relationship needs and empathy development. It has been my expericence that when couples are committed to improving their relationship and apply the tools taught in therapy, they find that communication improves significantly and appear more motivated to meet the needs of their partner. As each person committs to meeting the needs of their partner it tends to generate good feelings and respectful behavior bewteen the partners, which can result in greater relatinship satisfaction.

I have a passion (pun intended) for working with couples. Dating couples trying to see if they are a good fit. Engaged couples looking for tools to start their marriage right. Married couples who feel like they are living as roommates. Couples who have lost that "loving feeling" and long to get it back. No matter what the category, all couples have one thing in common. A desire for connection, love, and communication. It is my to desire to help you achieve it.

Couples therapy involves working with partners who are in a committed relationship. Individuals attend couples therapy to learn how to work through their differences, communicate better, problem-solve challenges in the relationship, work through parenting differences, improve their intimacy or their overall satisfaction with the relationship. Couples therapy involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses in the relationship, formulating goals and working diligently toward attaining those goals to establish and maintain healthy, loving and exciting romantic relationships.