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

Conflict exists in everyone's lives, and all around us, even siblings from the same backgrounds experience conflicts and couples are no exception. Having a licensed professional that is focused on your journey together. But even seeking therapy when everything is going on well helps with communication and understanding your partner and a fulfilling relationship.

Couples face all sorts of unique challenges and I believe in creating a safe and inviting space where both parties can share openly what they are experiencing. From there, we can determine a plan to help both parties work towards a common goal, this may include repairing/healing, rebuilding, reconnecting, focusing on better communication, among other things.

Saint Paul University’s Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre welcomes a diverse clientele, for individual or couple’s therapy. Services are provided by counselling interns at the Master of Arts and Doctoral level in Counselling and Spirituality at Saint Paul University. *Services in French available

Couple Counselling Therapy involves learning how to do the following and much more: love your partner and be loved in return, reconnect with that person you fell in love with, communicate and be heard, transcend the spoken words to truly understand the meaning and importance of your partner's communication. This process necessitates a vision that neither partner is right or wrong and that the other has very different needs that we will probably not understand but that we will need to make central. Visit www.newhorizonscounselling.com for extensive information.

As a 'poly' positive therapist, I celebrate all the ways couples and people in relationships may live and love. I welcome people of all genders and non-gender identifying experiences, polyamorous and non-monogamous people, 2SLGBTQ+ community members, and families of all identities. Often sessions with both individuals and the family unit are required. Together we will discuss everyone's needs and work out a customized plan to address the unique path of each group/couple.

Communication skills are particularly useful for couples but often need to be learned and practiced. Past hurts need to be mended and cuts need to heal before trust and commitment can build a new foundation on which to move forward. Sometimes the early months of a relationship spark excitement and feelings of euphoria; however, these euphoric feelings give way to familiarity, and we start taking each other for granted. Relationship counseling promotes individual growth and awareness and works towards improved intimacy and deeper connection. Using the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can help partners bring back the spark and give you new reasons to celebrate.

Couples are sometimes stuck in their cycle of communication where the "dance" has stopped and no one can move smoothly. Negative patterns have taken hold and both partners are caught in a rut. In a supportive and empathic environment I help clients understand and experience where they have been caught in their cycle, where they no longer hear or understand their partner. With new insights and understanding they become able to hear the music again, join the flow and move ahead with new choices in a clearer channel of communication.

As a marriage and family therapist, having focused my Master’s degree on interpersonal relationships, I work well with concerns regarding attachment, overcoming conflict, and ruptures of trust (e.g., infidelity). If you are tired of experiencing the same arguments or problems, we can work towards understanding and interrupting the pattern you may be experiencing. My goal is for partners to feel validated and heard. If you are interested in this approach, reach out to me to set up a call.

Couples can often feel disconnected and can have long standing patterns of interaction which feel like they can't move away from, no matter how hard they try. Couples work can help unlock this feeling of 'lock down' and help people understand the pain and fear under the behaviours -their own and their partner's. Through exploring together couples can heal old wounds and begin to feel safe, understood, connected, engaged, and fulfilled bringing vitality back to the relationship.

Working on the relationship requires an openness to learn, grow and reflect as a couple. The focus in sessions is to shift the oppositional energy, allowing the couple to come together as a team trying to overcome challenges. In sessions you'll learn to regulate emotions, communicate more effectively, understand the underlying parts of you that are getting triggered, and bring intentional joy into the relationship to strengthen your bonds as a couple and breed deeper connection for longer lasting, healthier love. Monogamous and polyamorous couples of all genders, sexual orientations and cultural backgrounds are welcome.

Much of life satisfaction depends on our ability to create and maintain meaningful and mutually satisfying relationships. Our attachments to partners can be a great source of love, comfort, soothing, and pleasure. Emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy together form the cornerstone of couple bonds. The CFIR couple therapist will create safety in the therapeutic environment. He or she will not ‘side’ with any one partner, but instead will explore how emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy has been blocked and how each member in the couple inadvertently may be contributing to the disconnection.

I often see couples when one side is experiencing an addiction. This can cause relatively predictable effects in the other half of the partnership. The person addicted needs their own recovery and the partner needs their own healing. The couple also needs to heal by restoring trust and dealing with underlying issues. At OWA Therapy, I focus on overcoming those underlying issues.

We all strive to have healthy, loving, and supportive relationships where we can have the space to be ourselves, while also feeling connected to our partners. Our daily lives, major life transitions, and difficult individual circumstances can create challenges in relationships and leave us susceptible to getting stuck in unhelpful patterns. Working together, as a couple, in a therapeutic environment involves shifting these patterns of interaction and developing healthy communication to work together, as a unit to resolve problems and conflicts you may be experiencing while gaining deeper insight of ourselves and our partners. Schedule a free consultation with me to see if we are a good fit.

Loving, successful relationships need to be carefully and skillfully nurtured in the following five areas: Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Sexual, Financial. Couples who are ready to do ongoing work on their relationships are richly rewarded with a loving, meaningful and joyful life together. Committed relationships that have the possibility of morphing into long term relationships benefit greatly by being guided by the Gottman research on relationships as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Premarital Counselling prepares a couple for a new stage in their relationship by identifying potential areas of conflict and strength and developing tools to create a strong foundation.

Romantic relationships can be hard work. They require regular care to keep them functioning well. Many couples expect romance to go on forever without doing the necessary work only to face the realities of relationships. Relationship issues become more magnified when one or both parties carry a history of trauma. Couples counselling can help individuals learn about one another, communicate effectively and grow as individuals while becoming loving partners. The therapist is an unbiased party who is there to help both partners function together well as a unit by providing solution-based interventions.

Couple therapy is a broad term for those who wish to address relationship concerns or would like assistance in navigating their relationship. Presenting topics may include breaches of trust, infidelity, (co)parenting, sex and intimacy, separation, exploration of relationship structure or general conflict and arguments. Often times, at nobody’s fault, couples may get caught in patterns of interaction that bring a lot of pain to the relationship. I will assist you in identifying these harmful interactions and work towards breaking that cycle with new ways of relating to each other. I am affirming of polyamorous and ethical non-monogamous relationships. Contact me to book a free consultation.

By participating in couples sessions, you and your partner can address a number of pieces of your relationship in a safe, non-judgmental space. Topics that may be explored include: conflict reduction and/or resolution, communication skills, emotional expression (and lack thereof), distance within the relationship, unfulfilled or unmet needs, as well as transitional challenges.