couples therapy

Relationships are essential to our life and wellbeing. Knowing ourselves is the foundation for healing and change, and it includes understanding how we relate to others, how we navigate shared space and time, and how we honor dialogue, dreams, and differences.

Our relationships can be affected by trauma in its various manifestations: Perhaps we dissolve when in relationship, we lose our sense of self, put our partner’s need first and have an intense fear that we might lose the relationship. Or we may identify as basically self-sufficient, needing no-one, and finding it hard to soften ourselves to the presence of another person. Trust, ambivalence, self vs. other are common topics in couples therapy. 

Couples therapy includes and ideally transcends learning healthy communication skills. It is the re-learning space for interdependence, which includes re-learning the nature and importance of boundaries. Entering and maintaining a shared field is an integral part of healing trauma. We get to co-create reality and experience true emergence. To arrive here, we need to make conscious the illusions we project onto our partner, and storylines we play out but didn’t author.

I use a blend of trauma-informed approaches in my work with couples, including Jungian / Depth Therapy, Systems Theory, Gestalt Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, the Gottman Method, and Non-Violent Communication. 

I offer therapy for couples at all stages of their relationship, including premarital counseling.