Couple Therapy

It is possible to get unstuck quickly and find each other again.

To couples entering into therapy together, I offer the hope of significant change. I am trained in PACT: the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy, a method that will help you feel safer and more secure as a couple. When this happens, just about everything feels more workable. In our work, you will get to know your significant other in important ways: How can I read my partner to understand what's going on?  What makes them better and what makes them worse?  How can I help them in a way that also really helps me?  What are we really up to, anyway?

You will find in the process of our work together that we are “Wired to Love” (Tatkin, 2012) Our nervous systems and bodies are designed, by evolution, to bond. I help you to feel how subtle changes in how you are with your partner can create profound effects in how it feels to be together. These profound effects change your nervous systems, help you to feel safer and more grounded, more alive, and better able to navigate the unavoidable stresses of life together.

Many couples come into my office in distress. I often tell couples that the first step in our work will be to establish safety. If there is a threat to the relationship, this creates instability and a state of fear in both partners’ nervous systems. Under this stress, it is normal to behave badly. The biological drive to protect oneself first arises like a reflex, much faster than thought. We then have two people performing not at their best, trying to make important decisions about the relationship, but using data from this skewed situation of self protection. I like to say this is like creating your own weather, that will consistently follow you, as long as the threat to the relationship remains. Our work together will begin with ending this cycle. From there I can help you make good decisions about the relationship, whether it’s to get closer or move apart.

Couple therapy sessions are 120 minutes long.  My fee structure is also different than individual therapy.  Please see my contact page for further information. PACT is a couple therapy method created by teacher Stan Tatkin, MFT, PhD, with whom I have studied at length. Please see my resources page for more information about the method.

Click on Request Appointment button to schedule a free 15 minute consult via telehealth.