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Couple & Relationship Counselling
Common Reasons Couples Seek
Relationship Therapy & Couples Counselling:
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Pre-marital Counselling
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Communication difficulties
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Infidelity and loss of trust
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Family challenges; children and extended family
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Blended families
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Difficulty maintaining intimacy
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Lack of closeness through life challenges
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Feeling alone in your relationship and/or withdrawing
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Family of origin issues and/or trauma
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Emotional Issues, such as grief, loss, and bereavement
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Repetative Cycles of Arguing without resolution
What is Couple & Relationship Counselling?
An intimate partnership is a strong and powerful connection between two people, and it is often a complex dance of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. In couple and relationship therapy my goal is to assist couples in resolving problems and conflicts that they have not been able to handle effectively on their own. Therapy involves both partners sitting down with me to discuss their thoughts and feelings. My aim is to allow each partner to gain a better understanding of themselves and their partner and help them to decide if they need and want to make changes in their lives and in their relationship. I provide a supportive environment to help couples learn new ways to communicate and establish an open and honest relationship. In helping you to navigate challenges and resolve your conflicts, I hope to create opportunities for you to both learn and grow within your relationship and within yourselves.
People seek therapy for a range of problems and every couple is different. Some of the most common issues include:
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Lack of communication
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Frequent or constant arguments
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Unfulfilled emotional needs
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Financial concerns
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Relationships outside the partnership
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Conflicts about children
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Betrayal Trauma
You may wonder why these problems sound like common issues that many couples resolve without professional help. Partners often seek help not because their problems are different from those of other couples, but because they are unable to resolve them. Sometimes, this is because of a buildup of frustration and disappointment over time, and sometimes because there is some other issue or meaning underlying the conflict. Other couples seek help as a result of a crisis in the relationship, such as infidelity or apparent loss of affection and caring, or a traumatic event, such as an illness or loss in the family.
As a Registered Psychotherapist, with training in couple and relationship therapy from the University of Guelph, I provide a "third" space to listen to both partners as they express their thoughts and feelings and help them identify and clarify problem areas. I will start with a psychotherapeutic assessment, where I ask about the problems in the relationships, how each partner sees the problem, the history of the relationship, and the individual histories of each partner. This enables us to develop a deeper understanding within a therapeutic safe space.
Once the couple enters therapy, the therapist may offer an interpretation of issues and may offer the couple a new perspective, which permits a change in thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. The therapist may act as a mediator, attempting to clear up misunderstandings in communication, and/or help the partners consider alternative ways of handling problematic situations and communication. This is often difficult for the couple to do themselves because they are emotionally caught up in the situation. I use Emotionally Focused (EFT), Gottman, and Psychodynamic approaches to relationship work.