Couples & Family Counseling

Our philosophy about couples and family therapy has a strong resemblance to the approach to individual therapy. As your counselor, or therapist, we observe what dynamics are happening between you and your spouse (or between your family) and we work together to discover how those habits may be blocking you from being happy.  Honest communication is indispensable.  The goal as a therapist is to create and cultivate an environment where you feel comfortable confronting things about each other that you haven't been able to do at home.  One thing that may interfere with happy families and couples is transference.  We are all greatly affected by relationships from the past and it's important to be aware and feel comfortable in confronting how our current relationships are impacted.  Through couples and family therapy, we can begin addressing all of these factors so a new path can be paved.

One of the most important aspects of couples and family therapy is establishing ground rules.  This alone can be enough to spark a change in our familiar, unproductive patterns.  Agreeing on what is the issue, in and of itself, may also be revealing.  Are you and your partner both on board to see a couples therapist?  Are all members of the family on board?  If not, why?  And how can we establish goals that serve all of you?  All of these issues contribute to friction between couples and families.  Through this structure we can build a new pattern of behavior and communication that encourages genuineness.  When we aren't genuine and we withhold things from one another, whatever that may be, it can give us a false sense of safety.  Whether it's avoidance or dissociation, we all choose to ignore things for one reason or another.  In reality, withholding those thoughts and feelings may actually amplify our problems.