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Couples Therapy
My work with couples is an especially dear part of my practice to me. There is little that is more rewarding than facilitating a couple moving from disconnected, avoidant or with intense and spiraling conflict to more connected and able to attend to each other's experience and needs. My work with couples is informed by Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, psychodynamic frameworks and solution-oriented therapy. I am able to work with couples who are monogamous as well as ethically non-monogamous couples. Though I can work with couples experiencing a wide range of issues, the issues in which I have a particular specialization include:
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Infidelity and other types of betrayal
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Relationships in which compulsion or addiction is present
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Intense and frequent conflict*
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Couples in which one individual may have narcissistic or borderline features
*Couples therapy is generally not recommended when there is violence or the threat of violence in a relationship. If you are in a relationship in which you fear for your safety, please consider individual therapy first.
My Therapeutic Approach
My focus in couple's therapy is helping the couple understand the dynamic underlying conflict and disconnection and helping each member work on their pieces of the dynamic. I am direct and empathically challenging in my approach. I do not blame a particular member of the couple for the conflict but rather help each individual understand what needs they are trying to meet, how they might have learned through early life experience to meet these needs in unproductive ways and how to be more direct and vulnerable in their interactions with their partner. My particular strength in couple's therapy is hearing between the lines, helping clients name what is not being said and helping the couple integrate newly discovered truth in a way that feels connecting.
