Great Couples Counseling in Carnation, WA. Therapy to heal relationships.

Having a third party present can make it much easier to talk about what is troubling your relationship without descending into fighting or avoidance. In a supportive environment, your therapist will help you understand how your history as individuals as well as a couple is contributing to your current disconnection, breaches of trust, lack of intimacy, and inability to communicate and reach workable agreements. Learn skills to better understand and respect one another, be able to reach toward each other for love and support, have fulfilling experiences of intimacy and connection, and create a life that represents each of you and both of you.

As a couples therapist, I draw upon my training as an Emotionally Focused therapist, an approach based on the study of adult love and bonding processes, designed to address distress and cultivate healing in intimate relationships. This therapeutic modality is an evidence based approach to healing backed by extensive empirical research. Outcome research has consistently validated the effectiveness of this model and its ability to create lasting change.

Our work together encourages open and honest relating • increases listening without judgement and speaking without anger • decreases fighting, bickering and cold shoulders • enhances intimacy, sexuality and satisfaction • dissolves hurtful and dysfunctional patterns of behavior. The process is available to anyone willing to invest time and energy. All that is required is an open mind.

Couples therapy is both challenging and rewarding. Providing a safe place for couples to talk about intense issues and to learn new ways to manage conflict and build or rebuild a strong relationship is my primary goal. I have taken Level 1 and Level 2 of Gottman Methods Couples Therapy so integrate these concepts into my work with couples. I have evening and weekend hours to accommodate the needs of most couples.

There are countless models of healthy romantic relationships, from monogamous to polyamorous, and unique variations between partners. The scripts for dating and longterm relationships of our parents’ generations may not be applicable to your relationship, and there is no formal education in how to be a good partner or how to identify unhealthy relationships. But there is psychological research that shows that effective communication, emotional openness, intimacy, and other factors contribute to healthy relationships. Creating these conditions are skills that can be learned. I practice brief humanistic and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) to help my LGBTQ and hetero clients learn these skills.

You can be happy in your relationship. We can help! Being a couple can be hard these days and couples counseling is very helpful in solving relationship problems, teaching positive and effective communication, encouraging intimacy and healthy connections with each other, recognizing and stopping destructive relationship behaviors, and promoting understanding, love, acceptance, and compassion for each other and yourselves. Being a couple takes knowledge, skill, and practice. It takes a willingness to be open and learn new ways of talking with and seeing your partner. For most people change is possible. We can guide you on this journey of discovery and growth.

Healthy relationships are central to our well-being in life. Couples in distress are stuck in unproductive patterns that overshadow the love that brought you together. Couples counseling is neutral ground to deal with challenges, from infidelity to finances. Our time together will help you develop communication skills, solve problems, and improve intimacy. I use Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman techniques to help you repair and restore attachment bonds in your primary partnership.

Building a relationship on a firm foundation is key to long-term success and happiness. Whether you and your partner are struggling with communication difficulty, trust issues, intimacy challenges, or any other aspect associated with relationships, I am here to help you work through your concerns. Being in a relationship can bring great joy and also enormous frustration. Let's do everything we can to set your relationship on the right track and learn how to keep it there.

Each person in a relationship brings their own unique set of experiences and strengths. That’s part of what makes an intimate connection so fulfilling, and at times, so challenging. Couples work often focuses on increasing the awareness of these experiences and differences and how they may influence interactions with our partner. By increasing each individual’s awareness of the patterns within the relationship, you become more able to make distinct choices around how you communicate with and respond to your partner. Our therapists are trained in research-based therapeutic approaches that teach communication skills, help bridge the gap between differences and repair breaches of trust.

If you are tired of the same old argument with your partner, and are ready to make some lasting changes, give me a call at 425 652-1413. I love working with couples and have the unique ability to see both sides of the situation, and to help each partner better understand what the other is trying to say. I bring a sense of humor to the whole process. Call me today.

I specialize in working with couples on their relationships issues, and I am certified in a Couples Communication Program. I work with couples on issues such as: Communication Barriers, Intimacy Issues, Restoring Trust, Infidelity Issues (including sex addiction and internet pornography), Developing Healthy Boundaries, and Preparing for Marriage / Premarital Counseling.

Relationships are complicated, to say the least. Even healthy relationships experience moments of doubt and hardship. I’ve helped couples overcome a wide-range of issues including mistrust, infidelity, guilt, poor communication, intimacy issues, and life changes. Building a life with someone is difficult. Sometimes it helps to have a mediator who can offer unbiased support and guidance. We’ll talk about your concerns, needs, and future goals. If you’re thinking about counseling, then there’s still hope. You obviously care deeply about your partner. I can offer help undoing negative patterns and behaviors so the both of you can build a happy future together.

I help couples move from unproductive rehashing and painful interactions to productive, healing communication and attachment. I do this by reviving emotional connection and getting to the root causes of dysfunctional patterns, such as early family dynamics and the thousands of interactions with mom and dad which became your earliest "love language." As children in our families growing up we learned answers to such questions as "How do people connect? How do we deal with sad, mad, afraid? Are relationships the place to go to when I'm in need? Am I lovable? Will others love me?" For those facing an affair, I have a proven path of recovery toward a renewed relationship and restored trust.

In working with couples, it's important to recognize that each individual brings their own unique experiences and backgrounds into relationships. As I work with couples, I meet you where you are and provide a safe environment to explore different topics and how they relate to the overall health of the couplehood. This will include looking at your family of origin, working to increase positive communication, and discovering ways to be intentional about maintaining a health relationship.

Try relationship coaching! You can have support and guidance in order to enhance your relationship or learn how to have a healthy and fulfilling relationship. Experience the power of having an open dialogue as we work on communication. Coaching with me can facilitate the connection you two have and help you have a more loving and joyful relationship.

Relationships are difficult and many relationships can be healed if given the opportunity. I believe in addressing core issues in a relationship that address the couple itself. Why is the couple acting in this cycle and what can I do to help you identify your cycle and find a healthy way of interacting. I draw much of my work from Dr. John Gottman's research on healthy relationships and am not afraid of giving frank feedback when I feel couples are being verbally or emotionally abusive to each other. I believe in setting clear boundaries so couples learn to fight fairly so both sides can communicate their needs with each other without feeling shamed, degraded, or criticized.

I deeply appreciate working with couples. Discovering the gifts and teachings you have for each other, supporting the deep love that is so often part of the pain between you, deepening the continuing journey of more authentic awareness of each other, and even working to let go of a relationship that no longer serves you is often magical. We explore the patterns that support and undermine your relationship, the constructs of belief, habit, and expectation that these hold in place, the ways to shift your part in them, and what is core to those fights about "stupid things". Working with how you communicate and moving you away from blame and shame builds a foundation for relational healing.

When we choose a partner in life we hope for good times shared together--and to have someone to lean on and mutually support through the tough times. That's why it's so deeply painful when your relationship is strained or broken. Our counselors at Mill Creek Family Services help you get to the heart of the matter and rebuild the relationship you desire. Through the counseling process you find that you're communicating more effectively, resolving conflicts much more quickly, and deepening the love and fulfillment that first brought you together.

I am a Seattle couples counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist working with couples in conflict and marital distress. We all hit road blocks in our close relationships.I focus on the emotional connection between partners. When relationships experience a stress such as a betrayal, illness, financial crisis, or struggle with parenting, it's common for couples to get caught in cycles of negative interaction. I use an evidence-based approach based on the work of the two most influential psychologists in marriage and couples work today, Dr. John Gottman of the Gottman Institute here in Seattle and Dr. Sue Johnson, known for her work on emotion-focused therapy.

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

Every couple is unique- what works for some, does not work for all. In a nonjudgmental and non-pathologizing space, I help couples of all kinds to create the relationship that will meet both partner's needs. Through thoughtful, heartfelt and insightful discussions, we will arrive together at the model that works best for you and your relationship, and together we can resolve old wounds to help you come together again to support one another with love and kindness.