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

Healthy relationships should include communication, respect, safety, compromise and intimacy. The goal of couples counselling is to guide the couple to improve how to interact in their relationship. Couples counselling will provide a safe environment for the couple to identify problems in their relationship and work together to change things. The couple will learn that the opposition is not each other but rather the negative cycle and perceptions that couples have of each other which heighten the problems. The couple will work together to identify this cycle and make appropriate changes in the relationship; concurrently each partner will be working on themselves.

We all long for connection. Many of us feel great in the times when a relationship is new and the connection is just developing. The problems come when we have to repair distance/rifts in that connection, or when we need to sustain and deepen our connection to our partners. Maybe we never learned how. Maybe we carry scars and trauma from past relationships. Maybe we have patterns in our histories that we never really dealt with. Maybe all of the above. Our work together will take all of that into account and in a non-judgmental environment, we will hold space for you both to learn how to repair, strengthen and maintain your most important relationships.

Everyone wants to feel heard and understood, that's why arguments are hardly ever about chores or childcare. Sessions will help you and your partner cut through the resentment and find a shared language that will help you see each other for your true selves. Communication will focus on expressing your needs in a safe environment and learning how to be able to meet your partner's needs with gentleness and validation.

Healthy relationships take commitment & work. I help couples increase emotional intimacy & connection. I help them stop unhelpful ways of interacting, achieve resolution to their unresolved conflicts, & take responsibility for their negative contributions to patterns. Couple relationships require re-committing ourselves to each other repeatedly throughout the length of our relationship. I will help you to learn to "turn towards" one another. I will also help you to eliminate the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a phrase coined by couple researches John and Julie Gottman. Lastly, all couple relationships include pursuer-distancer patterns. I will help you identify these and work to stop them.

Couples Counselling Most relationships will become strained at some point and will begin producing maladaptive patterns. Relationship problems are rooted in our distorted egos, insecure attachment, emotional immaturity etc., which create to the many issues that develop for couples - infidelity, financial stress, poor communication, ill health, sexual divergence, household responsibility conflicts, addictions, etc., .... or just simply growing apart. Relationships can often be restored if help is sought soon enough. A counsellor can help reorient perceptions and emotions (how we look at a situation and how we feel about it) and assist the couple in adopting conscious structural changes.

I provide a safe and empathetic space where both partners can explore and address the challenges they are facing in their relationship. Through a combination of evidence-based modalities such as EFT, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and communication skills training, I assist couples in enhancing their emotional connection, improving communication, and resolving conflicts. By fostering understanding, promoting effective problem-solving, and facilitating healing, couples can experience increased intimacy, stronger bonds, and a renewed sense of love and partnership. Together, we work towards creating a healthier and more fulfilling relationship that supports long-term growth and happiness.

Intimate relationships can be the most rewarding, and at times, the most painful relationships we experience. Couples often engage in pattern like communications which prevents them from expressing the love and tender emotions they feel for one another on a deep and intimate level. The goal of couples therapy is to enable partners to reconnect and express themselves, stepping outside of negative interaction cycles. Couples therapy helps willing participants to feel heard and understood by their spouse. Learn to listen with your heart and find each other again.

Our couples counselling approach include increasing closeness and friendship behaviours, addressing conflict productively, and building a life of shared meaning together. Therapy is more structured and involves customizing principles from research to each couple’s particular patterns and challenges. It focuses on developing understanding and skills so that partners can get their needs met (especially when they are hurting), manage conflict, and learn how to repair their relationship when necessary, even in cases of infidelity. Overall, the goals of Meristem's approach is to assist couples in achieving a greater sense of understanding, respect, awareness and empathy toward each other.

As a therapist, I work primarily from an attachment perspective with individuals and couples. My training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) allows me to provide evidence-based interventions to support both individual clients and couples to create lasting change in their lives. **EFT Externship, EFT Core Skills, EFiT (Individual EFT Therapy), Applying Polyvagal to EFT In individual therapy, this type of therapy is an attachment process (the formation of safe connections) between the therapist and the client, as well as between the client and previous and current relationships; and in Couples Therapy, within and between the couple, where your relationship is my client.

This service is not solely for romantic partners, which is why I use the term 'Relationship Counselling' and not 'Couples Counselling'. The relationship involved may be between co-workers, family members or two individuals in a professional or business arrangement. Relationship counselling involves guiding the members of a human relationship in order to enhance what is working, improve communication, and address areas of disconnect or conflict.

When communication breaks down in relationships it can often lead to a disconnection from our partners which can seem irreparable. This can lead to a lack of intimacy, resentment, or mistrust towards each other. When a couple agrees to reach out for help, it shows a commitment to each other and an openness to change. When doing couples work it is a priority for me that each partner’s concerns and feelings are heard and addressed. This involves ensuring equal time for each person to talk about their concerns and needs as well as their goals for our work together. I have experience in working with heterosexual as well as same sex couples. Book a free consultation today.

We do couples therapy differently..........If you go to our web site and read our history you will find we were in the worst of marriage relationships. We have now been married 42 years in 2020 and are having a great relationship with each other. The secret of our success was in how we dealt with the resentment and bitterness which was keeping the arguments alive constantly.

Dr. Van Blyderveen offers Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples. This approach is evidence based and has a greater success rate than traditional couple's therapy. Therapy will focus on improving communication through creating and strengthening your emotional bond with one another. During therapy sessions Dr. Van Blyderveen will guide you and your partner through emotional conversations with one another with the goal of improving closeness, connection, and acceptance of one another.