Couples Counseling In Person in Seattle Washington

Why couple or relationship therapy? If you feel often irritated with your partner(s), stuck on one issue that doesn't seem to have a solution, keep having the same fights over and over, or don't feel as emotionally or physically connected as you once were, therapy can help provide the space and guidance to discover new patterns of caring for and relating to one another. You may find it incredibly difficult to recognize and name what is happening while living it day after day. Therapy can be the start of directly addressing what is preventing you from a more securely-functioning and mutually satisfying relationship. Therapy is also a space to discuss divorce or separation, if one partner is unsure they want to continue the relationship (see the Discernment Counseling section below for more information on this service).

I have training in and draw from Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) , Gottman Method for Couples Therapy, and Discernment Counseling (Doherty Institute). I have experienced my share of conflict in relationships and understand how vulnerable it can feel to ask for help and admit something is not working. Particularly when you deeply love your partner and are committed to the relationship. If one or more partners are neurodivergent, I am affirming and knowledgeable of your specific sensory, learning and relational needs.

Specialties:

Communication support for relationships, including high conflict couples and betrayal or infidelity repair and reconciliation
Mutual, collaborative, and sensitive decision-making for gridlocked or non-negotiable aspects of shared life
Discernment Counseling for deciding whether or not to pursue divorce, or commit to work on the relationship
Parenting and conflict resolution for couples and families
Pregnancy loss and parental grief for individuals and couples, including childlessness
Insecure and disorganized attachment patterns informed by childhood and developmental trauma, CPTSD, Narcissism, Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, and other mental health conditions.

Discernment Counseling

If you or your spouse are considering divorce but are not completely sure that’s the best path, you are in a tough spot. And Discernment Counseling is designed for you. It’s a chance to slowdown, take a breath, and look at your options for your marriage.

Discernment Counseling is a new way of helping couples where one person is “leaning out” of the relationship—and not sure that regular marriage counseling would help--and the other is "leaning in”—that is, interested in rebuilding the marriage.

The counselor will help you decide whether to try to restore your marriage to health, move toward divorce, or take a time out and decide later.

The goal is for you to gain clarity and confidence about a direction, based on a deeper understanding of your relationship and its possibilities for the future.

The goal is not to solve your marital problems but to see if they are solvable. You will each be treated with compassion and respect no matter how you are feeling about your marriage at the moment. No bad guys and good guys.

You will come in as a couple but the most important work occurs in the one-to-one conversations with the counselor. Why? Because you are starting out in different places.

The counselor respects your reasons for divorce while trying to open up the possibility of restoring the marriage to health.

The counselor emphasizes the importance of each of you seeing your own contributions to the problems and the possible solutions. This will be useful in future relationships even if this one ends.

Number of Sessions: A maximum of 5 counseling sessions. The first session is usually 2 hours and the subsequent are 1.5 or 2 hours.

Discernment Counseling is not suited for these situations:

When one spouse has already made a final decision to divorce
When one spouse is coercing the other to participate
When there is danger of domestic violence