Marriage Counseling and Couples Therapy

We all have the innate ability to create happy, life-affirming and passionate relationships. Couples therapy offers the knowledge and tools to actualize this potential and achieve meeting the needs of both partners. I work with both heterosexual and same-sex partners.

The method of therapy I offer is called Imago Relationship Therapy, and is a deeply-felt and powerful process that helps partners create a sense of safety and respect between themselves . Partners learn to develop communication skills that enable each to deeply listen and by that process learn to understand each other more fully. Partners learn both new awarenesses and new skills which enhance the relationship as they continue to grow as individuals. They learn to find a safe way to resolve frustrations and conflict and develop a more loving, respectful, romantic and passionate relationship.

Couples Therapy Can be Useful to You if:

  • You are in a good relationship and want to deepen your connection.
  • You are uncertain whether to make your relationship a committed one.
  • It seems like you keep having the same arguments over and over again.
  • You feel like you and your partner are drifting apart.
  • You are considering ending the relationship.

For Couples Whose Relationship Has Additional Challenges:

In addition to managing the issues all couples contend with – issues regarding finances, responsibilities, intimacy, trust, and often parenting – are many couples who have additional pressures in their lives. My practice includes gay and lesbian couples, veterans and their partners, interfaith couples, couples who are hoping to heal from an extramarital affair, and stepfamilies.

After an Affair

When one partner has had an affair, the trust in the relationship is badly damaged. Imago Therapy is a process that can offer healing through helping partners learn to reconnect and, over time, to develop a sense of safety in the relationship. Most affairs don’t just happen. They are almost always the result of serious problems in the connection between the partners. Imago Therapy helps you to learn to communicate more fully and honestly, to develop more empathy, and to identify pre-existing problems and find solutions. The end result is to achieve a better relationship than had existed before the affair.

Veterans and Their Partners

Reintegration into civilian life is often a challenge both for a veteran and those who stayed at home. During the time apart both had to learn to handle new challenges and often have changed and grown. It can be difficult to explain your experiences or to understand those of your partner. Couples therapy can help you to reconnect.

Interfaith Couples

While all partners, because of their dissimilar experiences and family backgrounds, have to struggle with integrating their differences, couples from diverse religious backgrounds often have more profound differences with which to contend. Dissimilar expectations about what will be observed in their home and taught to their children and how life cycle events will be celebrated can arouse strong feelings. Pressure from families of origin can increase the difficulty of resolving these issues. Couples therapy can help partners respectfully address these issues.

Gay and Lesbian Couples

In addition to the issues faced by every couple, same sex couples contend with the added pressure of living in world that is often hostile to them. Lack of understanding and sometimes rejection from family and friends can place enormous stress on partners. Making a commitment in a social environment that doesn’t always honor that commitment takes a tremendous amount of courage and inner strength. Couples therapy provides additional support for partners to build and maintain their connection.

Step Families

Relationships to which one or both partners bring a child or children from a former relationship have many emotional issues with which the new couple has to contend with. Sorting out and putting into practice the roles and responsibilities for parenting step-children is often an extremely emotional matter. How these issues are dealt with sets the tone of the new relationship. Couples therapy helps couples resolve step-parenting issues in a safe and respectful environment.