couples therapy
Couples therapy acknowledges that every couple sometimes needs an outside voice to guide difficult conversations and increase understanding. Often, our vulnerabilities show up the most in our closest relationship. In couples therapy, couples work together to process their relationship challenges and highlight their strengths together and individually. The couples therapist encourages awareness of how day to day interactions, past experiences, and families of origin may be shaping the relationship. Couples might seek therapy due to for many reasons, including but not limited to: infidelity, communication issues, frequent conflict, discussions of separation, before becoming parents, navigating parenting a newborn, or dealing with changes caused by the birth of a second child. The goal of couples therapy is to track the cycle of interaction that leads to impasses and conflict. In a typical session, the therapist might assist by giving each person a chance to process their feelings, helping to map out the contributing factors that lead to conflict, or by encouraging more productive patterns of communication.