Great Couples Counseling in Temple City, CA. Therapy to heal relationships.

You may have high conflict in your relationship or just feel like you are "growing apart" from your partner. Couples counseling can help you and your partner communicate on a "level playing field." As a therapist, I meet with you and your partner at the same time; therefore providing both of you with the opportunity to communicate in a calm, safe environment. Finally, I do not "take sides" in your relationship. I am an advocate for you as a couple.

Are you feeling disconnected from your partner? Drifting apart? Constantly fighting? Leading separate lives? It would be a privilege to help you reconnect and find the love that brought you together in the first place. I will help you understand why it doesn’t feel safe to truly express how you feel and create the safety necessary to share all of you with one another.

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.

We have been sold a bad story about love. The truth is perfect is the enemy of the good in love and even in the good there are rough patches. But that doesn't mean you can't have a joyful and romantic relationship. I can help learn to handle painful relationships more effectively and engage fully in the process of living and loving together to build a life together.

I specialize in couples and marriage counseling. My approach is based on recent research in marriage science showing what habits successful couples have that other do not. My approach is skills based and practical, teaching both of you how to communicate more effectively, how to understand each other, how to decide what is changeable and what is not in your relationship, how to deal with perpetual issues,on which you may be deadlocked, and different ways to view issues and problems in your relationship to reduce conflict. I also help you identify what is working in your relationship, (or what used to work) so that we can build on the positive.

My goal is to help the couple learn how to love each other well. We work on learning how to express their needs and desires and also how to give to the other in the way that they need. I require homework assignments to develop intimacy and passion on a daily basis. We work on sexuality and physical closeness. Communication, anger management, roles and responsibiliteis are all addressed as needed. I am a nationally touring group counselor for New Life Ministries couple conventions. I have a hugs bag of tools and techniques as well as experience in leading couple retreats. Couples are my specialty.

When couples wish to work through their relationship difficulties, or do premarital couples therapy, they will find my office to be a safe, nonjudmental, and encouraging space. You will colaborate with your spouse, and prioritize issues you'd like to discuss. You will explore your own ability for acceptance and tolerance of your spouse's behavior. We will work together on communication skills, and styles, we'll try to soften the dialogue. We'll learn about problem solving skills with which husband and wife are heard. If there are sexual problems, I have experience in treating sex addiction, internet pornography addiction, and the affect of extended families on your relationship.

Relationships are the stuff of life and wise persons will attend carefully to their intimate, committed relationship. Most couples are not aware of the sources of conflict and how these sources impact their relationships. Most couples do not understand how their coping habits, learned the child and teen years, will actually interfere with success in their love relationship. Couples all need to learn new and better ways to cope with relationships pain as their old coping habits will not work -- they will end up unintentionally hurting their partner.

My initial work was with sexless/touchless couples, where I developed a speciality in supporting them in bringing the passion back to their relationship. This included sex of course, but also a deeper passion, a passion for life, a joie de vivre, a deep, loving connection. This is how I became known as the "Passion Doctor". My approach is to get the couple back into connection: verbally, emotionally and physically through psycho-education and exercises specifically tailored for them. My approach is not cookie-cutter or generic and combines the many disciplines I have studied and practiced including psychotherapy, somatic work, breath work and Tantric practices.

Challenges in our relationship with our partner can greatly affect well-being and day-to-day life. If you are facing a specific challenge in your relationship or feel there are areas you would like to improve, therapy can help. I work with individuals and couples of all orientations on relational issues such as communication, conflict, finances, intimacy, trust/mistrust, parenting, and pre-marital counseling.

Couples counseling is becoming more common since people are postponing marriage and choosing to live together, before marriage. Both choices have there difficulties, and we are equipped to work with people who are at any stage in their relationship. We guide clients toward their goals, educating them to better understand the reasons they are having difficulty.

When two individuals desire to be together due to the mutual love they feel for one another and encounter difficulties within the relationship seeking therapy is vital. Each couple has specific relationship need and goals. Learning the partners love language, relationship goals and assisting them with communication skills can be crucial in providing longevity to the relationship.

Our staff of over 25 therapists specializes in helping couples in distress. From pre-marital counseling to couples work and even marriages that have been together for years--we are ready to help. Our staff has received training from Dr. Susan Johnson, the international expert on marriage and couples therapy and can help couples get free from patterns of fighting that you can't get out of on your own. We can teach you how to get free from the gridlock of fruitless fighting, and learn how to thrive in your relationship again.