HELP FOR

Couples & Family Dyads

I practice Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFTc), which focuses on calming conflict, deepening the emotional and sexual bond between partners, and establishing the type of trust, connection and love that can go the distance.

Couples

I am a seasoned couples therapist with years of training and supervision in Emotionally Focussed Therapy for Couples (EFTC). EFTC is a rigorously researched, empirically-validated psychotherapy that de-escalates conflict, addresses old and current pain, soothes fears, and makes room for newer, healthier behaviors. Couples find that this modality leads them to greater closeness, connection and security. 

    • are in crisis and need intervention and stabilization

    • have a strong foundation and are looking for a deeper, more intimate connection

    • need help recovering from an ‘injury’ such as an affair, concealed addiction or financial infidelity

    • are just starting their relationship and want to head off negative patterns

    • are considering marriage or divorce and want more clarity

    • have decided to separate or divorce and would like support in saying goodbye

Parents & Adult Children

The transition from parenting a child to parenting an adult can be incredibly rewarding and confusing. Adult children want to be respected and treated as competent and capable, while often still longing for some of the care and guidance more common to childhood. Moreover, adult children often want to talk to their parents about negative experiences from their childhoods, a worthy project that can test even the strongest parent-child bonds. With estrangement becoming more common in families, Emotionally-Focussed Family Therapy (EFFT) can help prevent such unwanted outcomes. EFFT provides a safe, affirming context within which family members can name and acknowledge old, often buried pain and recognize how that pain continues to be re-enacted and re-experienced in the family. Using EFFT, family members learn how to interrupt painful cycles, safely and truthfully share their feelings, and try new, more affirming ‘moves’ with one another.

    • the child feels over- or under-responded to by their parent

    • the child feels stuck in an old role and cannot grow

    • the child struggles to express sadness, anger, or disappointment to their parent

    • the child needs to disclose their experience of trauma to their parent in a safe setting

    • the parent fears separation and disconnection from their child 

    • the parent feels rejected or taken for granted by their child

Adult siblings

Your relationship with your sibling is incredibly rich, complex and full of meaning. It’s likely that if you grew up in the same home you profoundly influenced one another’s very personality and identity development. Things often don’t get less complicated after childhood, as your early sibling rivalries and dynamics often continue long after leaving home. Emotionally-focussed family therapy can help you understand, honor and change these old dynamics, allow for new emotions and relationship patterns to emerge, and free you and your sibling from some of the confining stories and rigid roles from your earlier years.