Couples therapy

I very much enjoy working with couples – heterosexual, gay and lesbian. I believe it is very rewarding to be in a partnership and it can also be very difficult.

One of the primary approaches I use with couples is to help each of you speak about your honest experience and then listen empathically to the other’s experience. We often come into a couple with historical baggage and with templates and assumptions. Sometimes the hard work in couple’s therapy is to let yourself and the other out of the outdated, no longer useful, box.

Although I may meet at times with each individual separately, my main role is to meet with the couple together and act as an emotional mediator of sorts. My neutrality within the couple can be the key to everyone feeling heard. Learning to fight well can be very important.

I also believe that helping couples use humor to talk about their issues can be very beneficial. The ability of both sides to joke about their stuff, their humanity, can help bring healing to the relationship.