Great Couples Counselling in Markham, ON. Therapy to heal relationships.

The couple bond becomes the most important connection in adult life. This couple relationship fulfills and sustains us when it works well and can also be debilitating when it does not. Adult attachment will also be affected by childhood attachment experiences, often making the adult bond an interesting place for triggers and emotions as well as healing and a soft place to land. My work with couples involves re-discovering the reasons for choosing each other, determining what is causing their difficulties and their willingness to restore the relationship. Important tools I use to do this is uncovering emotions, beliefs and assumptions and improving emotional communication and intimacy.

How can we learn and grow together in a relationship? Having and sustaining a meaningful relationship is one of the most important aspects of our lives. When we love one another, we can sometimes face roadblocks that contribute towards a rupture or breakdown in our primary relationship. Couples Counselling can help you understand how some of your personal patterns may be negatively affecting your relationship. This is an opportunity to feel heard and understood by your partner and to open yourselves towards new possibilities of communication and understanding in your relationship. Take the opportunity to share and grow together in your relationship.

Specializing in couple therapy, I can help you and your partner work through difficult times such as affairs, broken relationship, losses, etc. As I am informed by Emotion Focused Therapy (which is effective in couple therapy), I can assist you in reaching out to your partner despite your fear and uncertainty. You will experience a closer and intimate relationship.

Working with couples is my passion. The first question most want to know is: can we be helped and how long will it take? The answer is tied to how long you waited to get help and how willing both parties are to work in making it better. I work with people to heal the damage that has been done and educate them on how to avoid hurting each other in the future. We explore effective communication tools; arguing styles and develop an intimate knowledge of needs and wants. When our work is complete you will have created a marriage, which is unique and customized to you. Marriage counseling is an investment; however when it is done correctly it is worth the work.

Having a soul-mate to share your life with brings such a joyful and fruitful experience. However, misunderstanding and miscommunication by your significant other can also make your whole world up side down. Through couple counselling, both of your feelings will be addressed and validated. In addition, you will understand how your communication styles create an unhealthy cycle and pattern that need to be broken in order to foster a long-lasting healthy relationship.

Couples do not realize that they are acting exactly as their parents did in their relationships. I shine a light on this, by exploring each person's individual family maps, their parent's communication stances and their family (rigid) rules, both verbal and non-verbal. When this is done with both individuals in a relationship, they can better see how they can change and transform their current relationship into healthier way. I follow many approaches to Couples work, via Imago work, Gottman's 4 horsemen and Satir therapy. I use them all in conjunction to allow the couple to clearly see their personal processes and how they can learn a better way to relate with each other.

Relationships can be both satisfying, and frustrating. Although we can get along with some people some of the time, in close relationships we can sometimes get stuck, over-reactive, or even too distant. In couple counselling we can explore what's not working in your relationship, what your individual and 'couple' ideals and dreams are, and then strategize and work together on getting your relationship to a better place.

Couples counselling focusses on enhancing your relationship with your partner. You may do this type of therapy with, or without, your partner. Benefits to your relationship still can come from attending couples sessions on your own, such as, improving communication skills, developing assertiveness, overcoming resentments, improving intimacy, learning new ways to deal with your partner. When attending with your partner: * Learning how each of you are in relationships (early influences, patterns, self-defeating styles) * Increasing self-expression * Learning constructive ways to argue and fight * Better understanding of the each other (who you are really dealing with)

Our most intimate relationships are where we are often challenged the most to grow. Much of my work with couples is helping each person feel entitled to their feelings and feel able to advocate for their needs within the relationship. So often we have expectations of how our partner or spouse is supposed to be, how we are supposed to be with them and there are unspoken expectations to navigate between us. These assumptions can easily lead to very destructive patterns that we act out with the person we want to feel the closest to. Our work is to strengthen ourselves from the inside out so that we can meet our partner "full of ourselves" and then find ways to be together that are a win win!

Relationship with "other" (meaning really anything outside of ourselves) is probably the most important aspect of living. The better this relationship is, the more fulfilling a life can become. More specifically, the relationship with a human partner is probably the most important of all relationships. Is it true to you that your heartfelt relationship with your partner is truly an integral "need" in your life? Some say that we all need connection, acceptance, and love in order to be whole human beings. Are those three essentials present in your relationship? Do you want to find ways to bring them more fully into your life?

Winnie provides non-judgemental and compassionate couple therapy. In dealing with Couples counselling she primarily draws from her training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT is the most progressive and well researched therapeutic interventions used in Couples Therapy. By using this practical and effective method, the goal is to help couples to identify their cycle, how they are connecting in their distressing patterns, and how they can be helped to reconnect again in a new pattern. Winnie has also attended the Intensive Sex Therapy course at University of Guelph.

Using highly specific, research based treatment interventions, I help couples deepen their knowledge of one another, understand and work with solvable and difficult problems, build friendship and trust, and maintain their relationship. Couples are supported and encouraged to be open to influence one another, recognize and respond to invitations for emotional connection and how to effectively go through conflicts.

What are the most common couples' issues? If you are thinking "communication, conflict, sex, money, child rearing" you are correct. However, most therapists will go after the symptom on each side of the couple fence thinking that the way to effective change is by getting each party to "work" on their respective "issue". Many times the parties don’t agree but comply. Imagine if you could align the unconscious brains of a couple and stop the "working on your issues" part that has become so popular in therapy settings? Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com to learn how! Or call 877-606-6161. DR. FLEMING'S NEW RELATIONSHIP/COUPLES INTENSIVES. www.kevinflemingphd.com/marriage-couples-retreats.php