Marin Couples and Marriage Counseling

My Marin County marriage and couples counseling services address a number of common areas of relationship distress. My areas of special focus include:

• Couples communication
• Infidelity
• Emotional safety
• Resentment
• Healthy boundaries

If you’re seeking marriage counseling – or any kind of couples or relationship counseling – you’re likely finding there’s something not working between you and your partner. Perhaps you have grown apart – or there has been conflict or infidelity. Maybe the communication has deteriorated in your relationship or marriage, leading to a build-up of resentment and increased distance between the two of you.

I have found that the most securely attached relationships have a strong relationship foundation and a high level of emotional safety. One of the most important areas I address is the quality of your communication. A relationship needs good communication like a plant needs water. I will look for negative cycles occurring in the relationship – and work towards disrupting them, encouraging a healthier and loving dynamic between the two of you.

Part of my couples counseling approach involves assessing what you and your partner learned about relationships from your parents/primary caregivers – and past partners.

• Did each of you have loving, supportive role models?
• Are you able to be open and vulnerable to each other in your relationship – or are there emotional blocks to intimacy and trust?
• What was the quality of your attachment to parents/primary caregivers (as research has shown the connection between this how we “do” intimate adult relationships)?
• Do either of you have unresolved trauma that impacts the relationship?
• What have your prior intimate relationships looked like?

My therapy approach weaves together concepts from attachment and imago theories, the research of John Gottman and the latest in neuroscience.

The following are some of the basic goals that I will help you strive for in couples therapy:

• Learn healthy communication skills and conflict de-escalation techniques.
• Identify and disrupt negative cycles occurring in the relationship.
• Identify attachment styles and educate.
• Increase emotional safety in the relationship.
• Explore and work through built up resentments (including serious breaches in trust like infidelity, etc).
• Increase relationship intimacy.
• Explore family of origin influences.

Want quick tips related to marriage and relationship health now?  See my “Relationship Minutes” in my Therapist Notes Blog.

Not ready for couples counseling just yet?  See my e-book, The Marriage Refresher Course Workbook for Couples for those wanting to get closer to their spouses again. This e-workbook is a cost effective alternative to face-to-face counseling but not appropriate for marriages experiencing high levels of distress and conflict.

SCHEDULE A COUNSELING APPOINTMENT NOW