Great Couples Counselling in Bowen Island, BC. Therapy to heal relationships.

A couple refers to two individuals in a relationship. We live each day as one half of a couple but often we struggle to find a way to maintain who we are, while actively working to be part of a duo. We work with you to establish healthy methods of communication and develop confidence in appropriately articulating what you need, how you experience love, and what is imperative for you to have a supportive, loving relationship.

Relationships usually start with lots of love and passion. After a while, however, the miscommunication between partners, their previous traumas, and the everyday stresses of life lead to an unhappy couple. With training in evidence-based approaches to helping couples, I help my clients become mindful of the repeating patterns in their relationship and their roots. We will then work together to change these patterns and create new loving healthy patterns. We will work on helping you communicate your true feelings to your partner without blaming, stonewalling, or criticizing. We will focus on helping you become more vulnerable with your partner so that your emotional bond becomes stronger.

In Couples Counselling with me, I blend therapeutic approaches, including Gottman Couples Therapy, to create a safe, nonjudgmental space for partners to openly communicate and address relationship concerns. Through evidence-based techniques like Gottman assessments and proven strategies, couples can enhance understanding, develop healthier communication, and rebuild trust. The benefits include improved communication, emotional intimacy, and a renewed connection. Whether resolving conflicts, reigniting the spark, or enhancing the bond, I empower couples to build a fulfilling partnership.

Each relationship faces unique hurdles and holds unique potential for growth. By skillfully tuning in to each other's inner worlds, learning new ways of being together and strategies for navigating conflict, we'll resolve what is hindering you. We’ll get creative and collaborate on new possibilities. Intimate relationships can bring out the deepest parts of ourselves and ignite personal transformation. Learning about how we relate is key to learning about ourselves and each other.

I love working with couples as we get to explore together what the challenges and relational ruptures look like right in our sessions together. I prioritize creating a safe space where the partners feel heard and seen equally as we explore the different needs and perspectives present. My training is an Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) and AEDP with a focus on attachment and what the attachment dance looks like for you. Once we realize what the typical steps we take are, we can intentionally adjust them what tends to help resolve many of the ongoing communication issues.

Are you and your partner stuck in unsolvable arguments? Does one of you tend to ‘demand’ more while the other shuts down and withdraws? Are you feeling less connected and actually adding stress to each other’s lives instead of reducing it? While frustrating, these are perfectly normal patterns of partnership and there is hope. I would be glad to help you untangle the knots, learning to team up together instead of entering battles over who is right. In doing so, we will unpack past traumas and patterns of behaviour, learning to better communicate and to be safely vulnerable in a way that stands your relationship on solid ground.

We specialize in providing essential support to couples through the effective utilization of evidence-based therapeutic approaches. We employ Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Attachment-Based Therapy, and Gottman Therapy to assist clients in recognizing and understanding the unique dance and patterns within their relationship dynamics. By fostering awareness, we enable clients to break free from ineffective communication patterns, promoting healthier and more fulfilling connections between partners.

I offer Gottman Method Couples Therapy which is an evidence-based practice derived from decades of collected data with effective tools for couples to address areas of weakness and strengths within the relationship. This will entail a rigorous assessment process to determine treatment plan. I will be guiding the couples throughout the session and will be supporting couples coping tools during sessions.

EFFECTIVE COUPLE AND MARRIAGE COUNSELLING I specialize in helping couples resolve those painful relationship struggles that no matter how hard you try, leave you feeling desperate and alone. In a safe and compassionate environment, you will discover new communication patterns that calm fears and strengthen warm connection. Research shows that 86% of couples completing the Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) approach - my approach - report experiencing greater happiness in their relationship that lasts. BOOK A FREE 15 MINUTE VIDEO OR PHONE CONSULTATION at francesbrowncounselling/janeapp.com or call 604.219.2690

Couples counselling offers a safe environment in order to begin the process of making decisions for the future of your relationship. Many people often find it easier to say the things that they need to in front of a counsellor. Sometimes it is impossible to step back from the problems in the relationship with a view of moving forward when you are embroiled in turmoil. Having an objective helper in the room can allow each party to release themselves for healing and growth. Whether you have a specific problem or are just feeling disconnected, counselling can help.

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.

In times of conflict we feel attacked and unsafe. We are flooded with emotions and act out of a sense of being overwhelmed: "Attack," "Run!" "Comply!" and "Hide!" are some of the ways we respond to conflict. In counselling, couples learn to see themselves as separate from each other and therefore less threatened. Once the emotional storm is diffused, couples can learn specific skills and perspectives that heal the relationship. But we do not seek simply to return to the status quo. Couples can then learn to hear, value and enjoy each other. Life with your partner can be fun and every day a day of discovering the pleasure of the person you are with.

Relationships are a crucial component of human health and happiness, and my passion involves helping people develop better connections with others as well as with themselves. By offering a setting that is based on trust, empathy, and collaboration, counselling can provide you with a safe and supportive space to explore your thoughts and emotions while creating a deeper, more authentic understanding of who you are, what you need, and the dynamics that you are navigating. Whether you attend alone or with a partner, I believe that there can be great value in processing relationships from the past or present as well as exploring the relationship that you're maintaining with yourself.

My role as a couple's therapist to create a safe haven, a calm bay, for you to make the repairs as needed, for you to re-embark on your journey together, stronger, more connected and back on the same team. The storminess of relationships is as natural as waves in the ocean, our ability to stay connect during the swells and crashing waves is what makes or breaks a marriage, not the wave itself. Our work together focuses on identifying our patterns and our partners patterns as we run for cover in the tumult of the wave. We then work on understanding, supporting and staying reconnected.

Relationships are hard work. Sometimes it gets overwhelming. I offer inclusive relationship counselling, including triadand non-monogamous relationships. I will work with you to address your struggles and undesirable patterns. I am trained in Terry Real Couples Therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy. I take a very direct yet solution-focused approach to couples therapy.

I have been trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, the Gottman Method and Family Systems. Typically I meet with the couple together for the first session to get an understanding of the presenting problem from both perspectives. From there I meet with each person individually to take a brief relationship and family history and to form a relationship of trust and safety with each partner. The goal is to identify the negative cycle of communication between partners, identify underlying feelings and fears that drive this cycle and finally to create a more secure bond between the couple. I am very experienced with working with couples where one or both partners have experienced trauma

I have extensive experience in marriage and couple therapy. In any relationship, both people play a role in the problems and concerns, and it take two to find solutions. I work with couple dealing with communication issues, fidelity, divorce and separation, co-parenting and commitment issues. I promote mutual support, and a collaborative approach to problem solving which builds trust in the couple and the counselling process. I help couples move through the old, repetitive cycles of arguing towards new and healthier communication and connection.

I have extensive experience in working with parents and their child or youth on a wide variety of issues. For example: dropping grades, school absenteeism, communication breakdown, anger issues, control and power, oppositional communication, self-esteem difficulties, and self-harming behaviours. I specialize in helping parents better understand their child/youth and youth better understand their responsibilities. My goal is to help child/youth and parents have better communication in order to live happier and healthier lives. I look forward to working with you and your child or teen.

Couples come together in love and many expectations too. Often, after the honymoon phase has passed couples experience a loss of the tight and sacred bond that they once had. Sometimes affairs have happend or fights and arguments are destroying the relationship. Yet couples are attached and want to re-build the relationship and find a way to stay together. I work hard with the couples I see to help them understand the dynamics of their unique partnership, using Emotioally Focused Therapy and Satir Model I help couples get back to where they want to be. Regardless of the issues bringing a couple in to therapy the most significant measure of their sucess is how much they want to be there !

If you are wanting to work on communication, managing conflict and improving your connection I would love to work with you. Couple relationships are hard work, and more than simple learning how to talk and spend time together. We will learn, in our work together, your relational style, your emotion processing styles, raw spots and how you both prefer connection to be experienced. We will also learn skills of healing relational ruptures when they occur.

The first step with my approach to couples therapy is for us to establish rapport as you inform me of the problem that has brought you to therapy. I use a Choice Theory approach which includes defining more closely what each of you want for yourselves as individuals and the relationship as a whole. From there, we get to work on rebuilding trust in the relationship by enhancing communication skills so each of you feel listened to, heard, and respected. Then we can build on trust to establish the changes needed to restore the happiness that brought you together in the first place.

I work with couples using Gottman Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy and Attachment Therapy. I will help you identify your maladaptive patterns of behaviour and improve your communication skills. There is no shame in getting some coaching in how we connect with each other and how we can better meet each others needs. I use a strengths based approach to help you see the positives and remember why you fell in love.

IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP DIFFERENT THAN IT ONCE WAS? ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO RECONNECT OR GROW STRONGER TOGETHER? Relationships can be complicated. Despite being in a partnership, you may find yourself feeling lost and alone. You may be struggling with communication difficulties, trust issues, conflicts, or feeling emotionally disconnected from your partner. These challenges can impact your daily life, causing feelings of sadness, frustration, and anxiety. Therapy can offer you a supportive and safe space to work through your challenges, develop healthy communication skills, build trust, and address conflicts in a constructive manner. Learn to set healthy boundaries and develop tools needed.

Sue Johnson teaches in her emotion focussed therapy that there is a specific emotional process - a dance - that occurs between each couple. This cycle of relating (which can start with not getting one’s needs met and be followed by some protective response, for example), is largely informed by each partner’s early attachment wounds. When our relationship does not offer enough safety to be vulnerable, or when the more honest we are with our partner the more our connection is threatened, it’s time to reach out for support. In couples therapy we work to establish safety, vulnerability and connection, as well as learn the practical skills of effective communication and conflict resolution.

Do you look at your partner and wonder what happened to the sense of connection and intimacy that you once enjoyed? Have the stresses of life, career, and parenting gotten in the way of your relationship? Would you like to learn how to be heard and to hear what is really going on in your partner's heart of hearts? Couples counselling is an opportunity to re-connect and re-discover yourself and your partner. It is a safe forum to air difficult issues , develop skills for effective communication and enhance emotional and physical intimacy.