Couples & Family Dyads

Couples present in therapy with complaints about poor communication and repetitive conflict. Underlying these complaints is almost always the presence of a deeper, repetitive, negative emotional cycle that feels out of their control and leaves each of them feeling hurt, confused, lonely, incapable, worried, frustrated and angry. Couples have almost always tried everything they can before coming to therapy, and feel exhausted and defeated by the time they do. Couples therapy offers a safe, non-judgmental, compassionate space in which couples can name their pains, fears and worries about their connection and learn to share these with their partner in a way that promotes closeness and intimacy rather than conflict and disconnection.    

The transition from parenting a child to parenting an adult can be incredibly rewarding and confusing. Parents have invested an enormous amount of love, hope and energy into their children and most long to continue a close relationship after the intense years of child-rearing. Adult children often want to be respected and independent, while often still yearning for some of the care and nurturance more common to childhood. Moreover, adult children often want to talk to their parents about negative experiences from childhood, an important healing project that can test even the strongest parent-child bonds. Family therapy provides the safe, supportive context in which these among other fears, needs and longings can be discussed between parents and children.

Your relationship with your sibling is incredibly complex, full of meaning and history. It’s likely that if you grew up in the same home you profoundly influenced one another’s personality and identity development. And even after you leave home, your early rivalries and dynamics often continue to shape your sense of yourself and how you relate to each other and the wider family system. Family therapy can help you speak honestly about these dynamics, what’s been helpful and hurtful about them, how they’ve supported or limited you, and how you’d like to reimagine your adult relationship to be more reflective of who you both are now, today.