As a Certified Gottman Couples Therapist, I use Dr. John Gottman's research-based assessments and counseling techniques to help you reduce negativity and rebuild the intimacy in your relationship. I also have advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy and integrate this approach in my work with couples. Getting to emotion is an important part of this work, and my job will not be to soothe you but to teach you how to self-soothe and soothe your partner so you can be a port in the storm and create a safe haven for each other. It is my firm belief that we can get to the root of your relationship problems without either of you feeling as though you're about to be identified as the “pathological partner” or the one who is deficient or bad. Instead, we'll work in a respectful, collaborative way to help you deepen your understanding of each other as well as strengthen the friendship that is a vital part of repair.

 How the therapy is structured:      
       We need to do a thorough assessment of relationship strengths and weaknesses so that the areas we target are not based on guesswork. With this in mind, we will have several sessions devoted solely to information gathering. Our first two sessions will be spent exploring your hopes and fears about therapy; the history of your relationship; and some areas of current difficulty. At the end of the second session, I will give each of you a detailed questionnaire to complete on your own and bring back to an individual session. During your individual session we will discuss your individual history as well as any other topics you consider relevant. Anything discussed in an individual session can and maybe brought up in later couple sessions. Once I've reviewed the completed questionnaires, we'll schedule a third couples meeting to give you feedback from the assessment process, to go over the treatment plan, and to jointly decide which issues to focus on first.

Time commitment
        I recommend an initial 10 session commitment after the assessment period with additional sessions as needed. Time in between sessions is also very important. Couples use Gottman exercises to improve their friendship and intimacy, soften their startup of discussions and spend time each day having a stress reducing conversation. In sessions we focus on helping you and your partner understand each other better and teach you ways to turn your conflict into emotional connection. You will begin to understand the emotional triggers inside your arguments and learn ways to stay out of emotional flooding which can lead to the emergence of the four horsemen (predictors of divorce). You will be able to understand the personal dreams and longings that are hidden inside your gridlocked arguments and use them to improve your emotional connection. Finally we teach you how to have a recovery conversation after your arguments and how to create shared meaning and rituals of connection in your daily lives to maintain the gains you have made in therapy and avoid relapse in the future.
        If there is enough progress over time, we may be able to move to less frequent sessions and eventually, when therapy goals have been met, we will begin to phase out treatment over time. Beyond that, we will schedule 2 sessions for follow up: 1 session after 6 months and another after 12 months. Research also shows that these type of "tune-ups" significantly reduce the chance for relapse.  
        At the end of therapy, most people tell me that our work was a positive emotional experience and that they enjoyed the sessions as well as the homework and exercises.