Couples Counseling

Relationship As Path

“Relationships are a path to
become who you are.

Seeing relationships as a path, helps you reframe partnership as a journey,
instead of a destination.

It allows you to relax knowing that the sole purpose of your partner (in your life) is to awaken to who you really are.”

- Jayson Gaddis

Two women sitting on a couch and smiling, engaged in conversation in a cozy room with a plant in the background.
A happy elderly couple standing close together outdoors in a grassy field with hills and mountains in the background, smiling and looking into each other's eyes at sunrise or sunset.
A young man and woman sharing a hug in a grassy field with yellow flowers, the man with his eyes closed and the woman smiling with curly hair.
Two men are embracing and smiling outdoors, wearing colorful clothing and glasses, with a blurred green background.
Three women standing together outdoors, holding bouquets of white flowers, with green trees in the background. All are dressed in casual clothing with jeans.
An elderly woman and a middle-aged man share a joyful moment on a bed, embracing and smiling.

Get Really Good at Conflict

Large sculpture of a crawling baby made of intertwined metal wires with smaller baby figures inside, set against a desert landscape with mountains in the background.
  • Learn to communicate effectively, utilizing the technology of mindfulness, Compassionate Communication, and secure functioning.

  • Understand what is behind the conflict; including past wounds or underlying values, needs, and longings.

  • Practice self-regulation and co-regulation

  • Engage with relationship challenges as a path to healing and growth.

Secure Functioning

Silhouettes of a man and woman riding bicycles at sunset, reaching out to hold hands against a sky with orange and purple clouds.
  • Strengthen your ability to rely on each other, utilizing your precious energy and resources for a relationship that contributes to your life, rather than depleting.

  • Create clear agreements and visions. Define purpose and effective action.

  • Practice engaging your choice-full self rather than your reactive self.

“Between stimulus and response,
there is a space.

In that space
is our power to choose our response.

In our response
lies our growth and our freedom.”

- Viktor Frankl

Psychological Approaches to Couples Therapy (PACT) teaches couples to be successful and skillful partners to one another through the principles of secure functioning. Secure functioning means that two adult individuals come together as full-functioning, autonomous agents, sharing power and authority to create an interdependent relationship, fully conditional, based on shared purpose, shared vision, and shared principles. Developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, author of Wired for Love, PACT is a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation.

PACT has been proven to be effective in helping couples:
- Recover from betrayal and infidelity
- Reconnect after some period of disconnection or stonewalling
- Enliven a boring, routine, or flat relationship
- Navigate conflict quickly and confidently, increase connection after conflict
- Improve sex life, play, and ability to not take ourselves too seriously
- Negotiating lifestyle difference, desire discrepancy
- Parenting challenges

All Relationship Structures and Orientations
are Welcome

I am trauma-informed, sex and body-positive, and committed to increasing my social awareness. I believe it is essential to consider how systems of power and privilege relate to each person’s experience in the world and welcome these considerations and inquiries in my office.

I support all gender expressions, sexual orientations, and relationship structures, including monogamy and non-monogamy. I will aim to meet you within the intentions of your relationship.

Rates

My couples sessions are either 65-minutes or 80-minutes, depending on the needs and preferences of the couple. I generally do not bill insurance, but would happily send you a “superbill” for you to submit to your insurance.

Out-of-pocket discounted rates:

65-minute - $215

80-minute - $260