Couples Counseling
Believing strongly that attachment theory provides the deepest understanding of love and relationships, I achieved certification in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples*, which emphasizes the most therapeutic and effective aspects of being:
Non-Blaming: in sessions, we focus on how each person reacts to cues from the other and how this interaction can get hi-jacked by past events, misinterpretations, assumptions, and defense mechanisms; no one person is ever to blame.
Non-Shaming: we also strive to deeply understand and validate the emotional drivers of peoples’ behaviors holding firmly to the belief that we are all trying our best to deal with really difficult situations and feelings.
Client-Centered: we move at the pace in which each partner is willing and able; there are little to no prescriptive rules, agenda, skills, or dialogs.
Personal & Interpersonal: the process helps each person understand her or his own personal relationship pattern and how that interacts with others’.
Experiential: EFT uses exploration of the hardest moments we face with our loved ones to then encourage expressions of our deepest longings, worries, and needs.
About Real Change: EFT aims to create change at the core level of our beliefs about ourselves and others making intimacy safer, freer, and more open to the deep connections we all crave.
Courageous: the aim is to grow the strength of your bond so that it can handle whatever life throws your way by dealing openly with all that is there now.
Rounding out my knowledge about what can get in the way of truly loving connections, I have training and experience in the following:
Using Imago dialog and other interpersonal skills
Anxiety disorders that affect couples such as hoarding and trauma
Verbal abuse and anger
Reviving intimacy in low/no sex relationships
Recovering from infidelity (emotional and/or physical affairs)
Polyamory
Bi-cultural relationships
Porn addiction
Conflict resolution (certification as a General Civil Mediator)
*”Couples” counseling is intended to include marital and premarital counseling as well as LGBTQ, kink, and polyamorous relationship counseling. For more information, please check out this articles: FAQs of Couples Counseling.
Individual Counseling
As a firm believer that our troubling emotional states are a product of our relationships and vice versa, I extend my relational focus into the work I do with individuals, which includes:
Helping people learn to be effective in their relationships at home, in their community, and at work;
Creating a framework for awareness and understanding of troubling emotions and how they impact our abilities to relate;
Providing reliable and consistent support for those facing the hard challenges of loss, past hurts, and growth, and
Using unconditional regard for clients to foster a more affirming belief about self.