Couples counseling is the process of working, as individuals and a unit, towards what a relationship itself needs – whether harmonious reconcilement or respectful dissolution – while honoring the needs of individuals within a relationship.

THERAPY PROCESS
Our approach to couples counseling is based in both systems theory and an individual-joint treatment model. Systems theory means that your relationship is essentially the third person in the room; it has its own history, personhood, needs, and weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and addressed in therapy. Joint sessions help retrieve your relationship’s own voice and meaning from beneath layers of hostility, inflexibility, and pain. At the same time, one-on-one therapy can help you address and resolve the personal traumas and negative cognitions that hurt your relationship.

The healing of a relationship, or the preparation for a new phase of a relationship – such as the transition to co-parenting – is like the forging of a chain. Any weak link can destroy the whole. Unresolved personal trauma can impede healing just as surely as the negative interaction patterns that spring up between two people locked into a cycle of ill will. That’s why, in our approach to couples counseling, healing is conceptualized in terms of each partner and the relationship itself. We’ll help you, your partner, and your relationship to get better at the same time.