Couples Therapy
You feel disconnected and lonely in your relationship even when you're together. You're constantly anxious about the relationship and preoccupied with worry even when you’re apart. You find yourself pulling away or engaging in arguments and behaviors you know are only pushing you and your partner further apart despite wanting to experience more connection. You may have found ways to cope that only worked temporarily and are now drained and exhausted from engaging in these painful cycles and feeling so alone in them.
Maybe you are unsure of where the triggers and negative patterns originated from or maybe you know very well where they come from but feel powerless to change them. Maybe you can see the cycles you are caught in but are unable to stop them from continuing. There may or may not have been identifiable injuries within your current relationship that are contributing to the disconnection. Maybe you are reaching out for help for the first time or maybe you've tried other traditional behavioral couple therapy approaches in the past that haven't produced the results you were looking for.
Whatever your experience, if you are struggling within your relationship and wanting to find your way back to a place of secure bond and connection with your partner, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) can help.
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Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
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Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy created by Dr. Sue Johnson is well researched evidence-based method designed to help couples who want to stay in the relationship but are finding themselves stuck repeating negative patterns and cycles again and again, no matter how hard they've tried to break out of them.
EFCT goes beyond traditional behavioral couples therapy to help you understand what is happening within the relationship and focuses on changing the ways you interact with one another on a much deeper level in the present. EFCT can further help you to better understand yourself and your partner in a way that fosters experiencing personal growth together and disrupts a cycle that was previously promoting growing apart.
In traditional couples therapy you can learn all the basic communication skills there are, but if you are not able to become regulated enough to use them together when they're needed most, they most likely will not be effective in the ways you want them to be. Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy goes beyond the basics to formulate a more secure bond between partners, with research demonstrating in follow-up studies that the improvements made in sessions are lasting over time once the sessions are completed.
In EFCT it is not the needs, wants, or emotions themselves that are problematic but rather the way they are expressed and responded to within the relationship cycle that needs to be examined and shifted with the help of the couples therapist who acts as your relationship consultant throughout the process.
No matter your attachment style or early childhood and other past relational experiences, we know that a safe and connected relationship promotes health and healing and helps you move toward secure attachment in relationship. Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy focuses on increasing trust and a felt sense of safety within the relationship in order to change painful relational cycles and create an authentic and deep connection within your relationship.
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For more information on Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy:
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The Process
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During the initial 90 minute intake session, we work to begin understanding the unique relationship between you and your partner with myself as a consultant to your process. It is of the utmost importance to me that all partners feel safe, comfortable, and heard in working with me, all necessary aspects in order for the process of couples therapy to be effective.
Following the 90 minute intake session I meet with each partner individually over the next week in order to obtain a detailed history of past relational experiences and attachment. From there we reconvene all together to determine the best collaborative goals for our work together.
The frequency of sessions and duration of therapy will be determined collectively based upon the specific needs of the couple and each individual following the initial intake and individual sessions.
I may recommend increased individual sessions with myself or another therapist in order to utilize other methods for processing through past trauma or other adverse experiences, however most of the work we do will be completed all together. The rate for couple's therapy sessions is $145 for the initial 90 minute intake session and for all following 55 minute sessions thereafter.
As research shows fit with therapist is one of the most important aspects of the process in couples therapy, I offer a complimentary 15 minute consultation call to determine if we would be a great fit to work together before we meet in person. Please fill out the inquiry form below and I will contact you directly to schedule the call. I look forward to hearing from you soon!
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