Couples Counseling
It’s never too late (or too early) to start putting more effort into your relationship. Couples therapy can be a great way to reconnect with your partner or mend the fences between you. It can provide couples with an opportunity to work through their most difficult or emotionally challenging problems. Using an approach based on The Gottman Method offers couples the benefit of realizing their shared relationship goals.
What can I expect from sessions?
An initial Gottman session is planned for the couple to attend together. This includes a structured interview conducted conjointly. A follow-up session is divided for individual work including respective personal histories. The third session rejoins the couple with the therapist and is devoted to the process of treatment planning, where areas of concern are targeted for specific intervention.
What are some commonly occurring relationship issues that are addressed?
Emotional distance
Rekindling intimacy and increasing connection
Recurrent conflict and arguments
Communication difficulties
Difficulties of nontraditional relationships
Specific problems such as infidelity, parenting, and finances
The end of a relationship
What is The Gottman Method?
The Gottman Method is a specific approach to couples therapy that was founded on research-based work by Drs. John & Julie Gottman. Dr. John Gottman is most well known over his 40-year career for his marriage of math and science with the study of relationships. He and his team were able to identify the precise elements that were the predecessors of divorce, and was eventually able to predict with 94% accuracy which couples in his research study got divorced after a predetermined amount of time.
The Sound Relationship House Theory serves as a guide for identifying and developing key components to a healthy relationship. Interventions that target various areas in a relationship have been curated to address improving friendship, working through conflict and creating shared meaning together. These include:
Build Love Maps.
Express Fondness and Admiration.
Turn Toward One Another.
Accept Influence.
Solve Problems That Are Solvable.
Manage Conflict and Overcome Gridlock.
Create Shared Meaning.
Expect to learn more about this in therapy when you sign up for a couples session.