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

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.

It is my privilege to have been helping couples of all manner work through relationship difficulties. As an attachment therapist informed by Sue Johnson Phd, and John Gottman Phd., Couples enter into goal directed, evidence based work toward improved attachment and friendship. Couples therapy is non judgement, supportive while also educational. Couples come to counselling looking for "skills", and reduced conflict. This is the focus while also seeking improved friendship and intimacy. It really is a privilege to work with couples and achieve these results.

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

Couples will be guided in finding a common ground in their relationships. They will learn about each others' communication styles and gain better understanding of each other along the way. They will learn to reconnect by rediscovering each other and engaging in various homework activities in the goal of enjoying spending time with each other again.

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!

I have had 5 years of training in Emotionally Focused Therapy an Attachment based modal of therapy that has been shown to be highly effective with many couples. Helping couples understand the issues which are underneath most arguments. By learning about the 'Negative Cycle' clients learn to speak to each other about their attachment needs and to become a real 'team' as they go through life together. In some instances a Psycho-dynamic approach allows a couple to move forward more quickly. Each couple is assessed and the most effective model is used in resolving their issues.

Having a love hate relationship with your partner can be very confusing. You can't live without them, and are having a hard time living with them. You end up in a cycle that seems out of control, it may be one that you have seen in previous relationships. This cycle slowly starts tearing you apart. The relationship seems to be filled with pain rather than love. Understanding the cycle you engage in and recognizing it are the first steps towards healing the relationship. We will then create a new cycle that you can engage in and improve the relationship to where you want it to be.

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.

My intention is to support you to: • speak a language of love, compassion & joyfulnes in your relationships; • strengthen your relationship & emotional intimacy; • improve communication together, & with family; • heal from childhood trauma; • rebuld after an affair; • deal with sexual issues; • recognize the impact of family of origin & attachment issues; • handle your differences & issues that lead you to conflict; • cope with transition through separation &divorce. When you ackowledge you have a problem & want to find a solution, you are much closer to resolving it. I use an EFT approach with couples. I serve adults, young adults 16+, & seniors. I am here to help.

I am pleased to support you in exploring your relationship as you strive to find more joy and fulfillment with each other or consider decisions, whether coming as a couple or on your own. As a Registered Marriage & Family Therapist I am a relationship specialist with experience with a variety of couples and will tailor my cooperative, strength-based and emotion focused approach to work efficiently with your situation in ways that can help to make the hard things easier. Experience with engaged, married, separated, second family, and military couples. Serving the greater Ottawa area with easy access to the 416 and 417 highways.

The single counsellor option is available as well as the CO-THERAPY MODEL: Two therapists - one man and one woman: a therapeutic square rather than the traditional triangle. This tends to provide a sense of equal representation in the therapeutic team and liberates each member of the couple in bringing his/her issues and positions forward. Each partner receives clinical attention and support as does the couple relationship.

Most of my practice is working with couples. I have over 30 years of experience dealing mostly with couples. Many people, including therapists, believe that couple counselling is synonymous with "double individual" counselling. Clients coming to my practice soon learn that there is a dynamic set up with a couple that is quite different than when they just list all of their respective issues, challenges and potential solutions. I teach them how to negotiate on every level of their daily lives together. I share with them techniques of how to avoid falling into the "blame and shame game". I have 25 years of experience as a divorce mediator and so I can teach couples conflict resolution.

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.