Marriage & Couples Counseling
Rekindle Desire • Address Ineffective Communication Patterns • Build Intimacy
Please note that couples sessions are offered in-office, in Austin, TX only.
Relationships Matter
The quality of our lives are deeply affected by the quality of our relationships. In our relationships we have the ability to find deep connection, fulfillment, and energy. Likewise, when our relationships are a source of pain, the effects are far reaching. Couples counseling is about uncovering what comes between you and the relationship you want.
What to Expect from Couples Therapy
Increased Awareness
Learn more about yourself, your partner, and your interactions. Increased awareness can help interrupt difficult patterns and can create space for compassion and agency in your relationship.
New Skills
Learn and practice new ways of being and communicating in your relationship. Changing patterns requires changing behaviors. Skill building is an important part of this process.
Defined Goals
Explore the life you want to build together and the barriers towards that vision.
Healing of Past Hurts
Address relationship wounds and unspoken conversations that affect your ability to connect now. Witnessing and Repair are important elements of healing AND skills that can be build.
The Somatic Piece
When two people come together they bring their minds, their hearts, their histories, AND their nervous system. All of these elements play a part in the verbal and nonverbal conversations couples have daily. While traditional couples therapy addresses many of these important pieces, the “body’s” part of the conversation is often missing.
As a somatic therapist, I understand the value of naming and working with the physiological components of communication and connection - and barriers to both. When we are navigating difficult conversations or intense emotional experiences, our nervous systems are activated and often need support. By getting curious about what’s happening at a somatic level, we can begin to open the door for increased overall insight, increased capacity for uncomfortable interactions, and quicker relational repair.
In couples therapy, this looks like slowing down, getting curious about what’s happening with the body during communication, and learning how to put words to internal experiences that may be interfering with our ability to share our story or feel heard.
Resources for couples
The 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work: A practical guide from the country’s foremost relationship expert; John M. Gottman, PhD
The New Rules of Marriage: What you need to know to make marriage work; Terrance Real
The Five Love Languages; Gary Chapman
Mating in Captivity; Esther Perel
How to Get the most out of Couples Counseling; The Couples Institute
Gottman Card Deck App; Questions, statements, & ideas for improving your relationship
“Love is a vessel that contains both security and adventure, and commitment offers one of the great luxuries of life: time. Marriage is not the end of romance, it is the beginning.”
— Esther Perel