Couples Therapy

Couples come to therapy for all kinds of reasons, and I work across the full spectrum. Some couples are fundamentally solid and want to deepen their connection and strengthen the foundation they've built. Others are working through real pain — hurt, betrayal, resentment, or a growing distance that's hard to name. Whatever brings a couple in, my work begins in the same place: with curiosity, care, and a genuine commitment to understanding both people.

Couples Counseling

For couples looking to strengthen communication, rebuild trust, or shift patterns that have become entrenched, I offer a relational space where both partners can be heard and understood. My primary approach is Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO), which invites each partner to explore the parts of themselves that become activated in relational tension — the ones that defend, shut down, or react — before reaching toward the more tender feelings underneath. This inside-out process creates the conditions for more honest, vulnerable conversation than communication techniques alone can produce. I also draw on Collaborative, Solution-Focused, and Gottman methods, weaving in whichever approaches best fit the moment and the couple in front of me. I welcome all couples — including same-sex and heterosexual partnerships and mixed neurotype couples — and bring the same care and commitment to each.

Discernment Counseling

For couples carrying real ambivalence about the future of their relationship, I offer Discernment Counseling — a structured process designed specifically for partnerships where one or both people are leaning away from the relationship and aren't sure whether to continue. Unlike traditional couples therapy, sessions are booked one at a time, and the goal isn't to work on the relationship directly but to help each partner arrive at greater clarity about which direction they want to move: continuing as things are, separating, or committing to a focused period of couples therapy — typically around six months. Sessions are longer than a standard therapy hour and include time with both partners together as well as individual time with each person separately, which allows for more depth and honesty than a three-way conversation alone makes possible. Whatever direction a client ultimately chooses, most leave with a clearer sense of what they want and a deeper understanding of their own role in how the relationship arrived where it did.

Co-Parenting Therapy

I also work with a limited number of couples who have already separated but share children and want to reduce conflict for the sake of their kids. This work is less about the emotional relationship between the partners and more about building enough of a functional partnership to parent well — even when that's hard. It requires genuine commitment from both parents to prioritize their children's wellbeing above the grievances between them. Because of that, I don't take on co-parenting cases where conflict is extreme or where a custody agreement isn't yet in place — a shared framework is necessary for this kind of work to be productive. I draw heavily on my training as a divorce mediator in these sessions, because the work often looks more like facilitated decision-making than traditional therapy. The goal is to decrease the stress children absorb from their parents' conflict and to help both people show up as the parents they want to be.