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

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.

Difficulties can arise in intimate relationships and can be challenging to resolve. Couple therapy can help you talk about the issues in your relationship, better understand and process feelings and emotions that might lie behind the conflict or misunderstandings and find ways to reconnect, find common ground and meet your relationship goals. In your work with me, I aim to provide a safe space for you to openly share your thoughts and feelings while finding ways to be present and open to your partner’s experiences and perspectives. Schedule a free consultation with me to see if we are a good fit.

Taking time with your loved one can be a beautiful and fulfilling experience. However, it can feel challenging when you and your partner are stuck in previous patterns of behaviour, communication, and interaction. As a couple therapist, I will support you in better understanding yourself, your loved one, and your relationship to navigate challenges (e.g., communication, attachment, trust, etc.). I seek to enable you and your partner to work as a team in navigating whatever struggles come your way and developing your own unique toolkit. Speak with me today for a free consultation to begin your journey.

My specialized practice is prioritizes couples. I use Emotionally Focused Therapy, the gold-standard of evidence based treatment for couples. When you invest in couples therapy, my guess is that you want to know your therapist is experienced and can fully focus on your journey together. All of my energy, time, and continued training is focused on supporting people to organize, understandm and deepen emotions internally and in their most intimate relationships. I not only believe in this approach to therapy, but I also live it in my daily life and relationships. EFT truly gets the heart of our adult attachment needs, and helps us to chart a path forward for a preferred future.

All relationships hit rough patches from time to time. However couples who have the skills to identify and talk in a mature and calm manner are able to manage these rough patches before they become mighty marriage mountains to scale. When couples struggle to communicate, be active and present participants in their relationship, take responsibility for their part of the problem and the solution we end up with a breakdown of the relationship. It is possible to learn the skills that will improve your relationship. Working on improving communication skills, conflict resolutions and negotiating skills, stress and self management skills and much more will help grow your relationship.

Over the course of your relationship, you are going to face its ups and downs. Learning how to meet all that life may throw at you, together as a couple and grow stronger in each experience are just some of the many benefits of couples counselling I provide. I help you develop the tools you need for when your relationship goes through a tough time. You'll learn how trust and open to your partner and feel safe, how to respond to your partner's needs during the good and the bad times, keep moving forward and blooming as the time goes by.

As human beings we are hard wired for connection, yet many of us struggle in our most meaningful relationships for many reasons including betrayal, infidelity, blended families and other conflicts. Through 30 years of work we have recognized that often couples leave their relationship at the time they have the most to learn. Our team of therapists are trained to implement a variety of skills and techniques when working with couples, such as active listening skills, Imago, Gottman’s principals, managing emotions, and positive communication skills.

In 2015, I began studying the PACT (Psychobiological) Model for Couples Therapy. Using this model, I am passionate about working with couples. Based on "secure-functioning", you discover exactly, what you wanted but didn't know how to get there. Increasing your awareness on many levels gives you many more options. Discover how you and your partner can feel the way you long to feel and experience a warm safe loving relationship. Rediscover the promise held within the love and attraction that brought you together.

Your marriage is in crisis, or you feel "stuck". Perhaps you are dealing with one of many common relationship issues, Infidelity, Frequent bickering and fighting, Inability to stop destructive patterns of behavior, Feeling taken for granted, Unsupported or misunderstood, No longer enjoying time together, Damaged trust or jealousy, Loss of intimacy, Challenges with parenting, Difficulties with the stress of work and family. Learning new communication skills which replace the old repetitive patterns, using Imago and Emotionally Focused Therapy are two strong amongst various approaches to reignite and/or deepen the connection that restores trust, safety and security, and harmony.

If you are feeling disconnected, angry, hurt, and unfulfilled in your relationship I can help. I listen carefully to both partners in an unbiased manner. I can help you to reconnect through techniques that improve the content and quality of communication. I will address the needs of both partners in the relationship and help you to establish a deep intimacy. I can help you to overcome infidelity and in turn, create a brand new and ultimately fulfilling relationship.

I use both Gottman method and Emotional Focused Therapy in supporting couples in the sessions. We will learn to spot and recognize the blind spots and patterns in their communications. We will work on sorting out and express feelings and needs between couples. We will address trauma and hardship in the relationships and heal as a couple before building on mutual goals for you.

If you are finding yourselves stuck in the same 'merry-go-round' (although not so merry!) of poor communication and accusation/defensiveness, winners and losers, your marriage probably feels like you're going nowhere fast! You think you've married the wrong person and feel that you've tried everything in your 'tool-bag' to do. If you don't have 'win-win', what you essentially have is 'lose-lose'.. I will advocate for your marriage...I will be your cheerleader and your coach combined, showing you how to get out of this destructive cycle and move forward to something much more satisfying. I will help you rebuild when hurts have been deep. Don't delay on this...sooner is better!

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.

Couples benefit from working on communication, on practicing healthy skills, on unpacking the ways in which personal issues and triggers are interfering with active listening and healthy partnership. Clients benefit from being able to express their needs and feelings, from learning how to be assertive, and from witnessing that they are being heard, both by the therapist and their partner. Finding compromise without losing oneself, setting personal goals as well as relationship goals, learning to nurture oneself, as well as the relationship, are all benefits of therapy. Examining co-dependent patterns can lead to opportunities for growth. The therapist models respectful relating.

I use 9 steps of Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) to help couples identify their negative interaction cycle and each partner's role in that cycle. Steps 1-4 entails empowering the couples to access unacknowledged emotions underlying the interactional positions and to reframe the challenges in terms of underlying feelings and attachment needs. Steps 5-7 entails supporting and mediating couples to change interactional positions and creating new bonding experiences. Steps 8-9 entails encouraging the couples to integrate new solutions to old relational problems.

If you are reading this profile, you are probably concerned about your relationship and want to seek help. You and your partner may be arguing all the time. You likely feel you are no longer connected and feel supported in your relationship. You may feel you are losing trust in your partner and in the relationship. Relationship, like everything else, requires a great deal of effort to build and cultivate. Rupture are inevitable but can be repaired/restored through the help of couple therapy. With over 12 years of clinical experience, I humbly want to support you to repair or restore your relationship. Please don't hesitate to reach out and get the help you need at this moment.

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.

You are at the end of your rope. You love your partner, you don't want to end the relationship but your partner is so distant and disconnected, so you are looking for help. Perhaps you just found out the awful truth that your partner is having an affair. Maybe you have tried couple therapy before and things improved a bit then you found yourself back in the same sad stuck place. Couples often need help to find their way back to each other. Please visit my website or call me to find out how I can help you heal wounds and create the strong loving connection with your partner that you deserve.

Do you or your partner suffer from social anxiety and it's affecting your relationship? Social anxiety is a fear of negative judgment from others and it can lead to reduced levels of intimacy, suppressed emotions, feelings of isolation and loneliness and lack of communication. If one or both of you feels anxious socially, your relationship may be suffering too. Contact me for ways in which you can move past social anxiety to a fuller, intimate, richer, relaxed more authentic relationship.

My interest lies not only with how we can remove problems in the relationship but what sort of potential can be unlocked? Romantic relationships are one of the most common issues people come to counselling for and experience issues in. My approach is to fully understand each individual and the dynamics of the relationship to figure out what optimal improvement can look like.

We’ll use the top two evidence-based approaches to marriage counseling: the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Using these approaches, you can rebuild your friendship and create emotional safety for and with each other again. You’ll discover: How to replace entrenched patterns of arguing or retreating from communication. New conflict management strategies will dissolve the dread of confrontation. How prior relationships impact your current one and what to do about it. New ways to manage anger and anxiety, and to communicate your needs in ways that get heard. Finally, you’ll practice the non-judgmental, safe listening that you both crave.

In the downtown Toronto area, people come to see me for help with marital and couples-related conflicts. I am very comfortable helping couples who are in straight, gay, or lesbian relationships. Conflicts often come up between partners in relation to difficulties with intimacy, conflicts surrounding extended family members, and disagreements around family goals and priorities.

Relationship’s dynamics can be challenging to navigate even during the best of times, and couple therapy can help partners find new ways to relate, connect, and communicate with each other. Asking for what you want and need in a relationship can be scary, so therapy should be a safe space where you and your partner feel comfortable exploring your needs and expectations together. I work collaboratively with clients to identify and explore patterns of interaction that they want to strengthen or change in their relationships, as well as holding space for vulnerability and connection. Book a free consultation to learn more about my approach and explore if we are a good fit.

Intimate relationships are like a dance – they can be quite joyful and energizing but when facing obstacles, partners need to find the steps and rhythm to move more freely. Couple therapy can provide a safe space in which you and your partner can gain a deeper understanding of one another and what contributes to difficulties within the dance of your relationship. Should you decide to attend sessions, I will work with you to facilitate honest conversations, help you to better understand what you may need from one another, and support you in finding a way to step toward more acceptance, intimacy, and connection. Contact me or book a free consultation if you wish to learn more.

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