Couples Counseling in Nashville
In working with couples, while I definitely do focus on communication skills, I have found that what seems to be most helpful, the crux of the work, is to strengthen the attachment bond in the relationship, often impacted strongly by each person’s earlier attachments as young children. I support the two of you through this process largely by helping you say, and feel, ‘the most true thing’, which is often hiding underneath the anger and frustration which has brought so many to seek couples counseling.
I can help you express yourselves, hear your partner, and be heard by your partner, from the heart. So often we hear from our minds only and the stories and beliefs they create about both who we are, and who our partner, husband or wife is. When we do this, we aren’t able to truly connect in relationship. This can create all sorts of struggles and often deep pain and longing in relationships. This disconnection can end up looking like feeling quietly bored or annoyed around each other, ready to fight at the drop of a hat, cheating on your spouse, or feeling anxious and depressed when you are in their presence.
I want you to know that there is help. I love helping people find out first-hand, in a deep and lasting way, that the one they’re with, and they themselves, are worth investing in. What gets in the way of that happening is not your fault, and yet, only you can change it. Working together in your relationship, there is not only hope but a strong chance of lasting repair and a true reclaiming of your hearts in action. I enjoy working with all phases of relationships, from pre-marital to recently married, to married long ago, with or without children. I am also experienced in working with LGBTQ couples and am very much an ally.
Some Issues that bring couples to therapy are:
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Communication issues
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Infidelity/Trust
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Excessive fighting
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Parenting
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Premarital Counseling
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Boredom in the relationship
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Choosing to have children or not
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Sexual & Emotional Disconnect
Finally, my primary goal is for each of you to feel safe in expressing and exploring both your greatest fears about the relationship as well as your greatest longing. With the foundation of a safe space in which to explore, and myself as a professional guide who holds utmost respect and care for each of you, I invite you to gain more compassion for both yourself and your partner. Stuckness and pain can now begin to loosen and move, and resentment can be replaced by newfound respect and intimacy. This happens most easily when both of you are given the space and support to express and listen from the same heart that brought you together in the first place.