Couples Therapy

When a relationship becomes difficult, it can be hard to know how to move forward.

You may find yourselves having the same arguments over and over, struggling to communicate, feeling emotionally or physically distant, or wondering whether your relationship can become the relationship you once hoped it would be.

Couples therapy provides a place to slow things down, understand what is happening between you, and begin to make meaningful changes in the relationship.

My work with couples focuses on helping partners communicate more openly, listen more deeply, understand each other’s experiences, and develop healthier and more functional ways of responding to one another.

We look not only at the immediate conflict, but also at the patterns and experiences that may be contributing to the difficulties in your relationship.

What Do You Do in Couples Therapy?

Together, we explore the ways each partner communicates, responds to conflict, seeks closeness, and protects themselves when they feel hurt, threatened, misunderstood, or disconnected.

Sometimes intention does not match impact. You may not intend to hurt, dismiss, control, or distance yourself from your partner, yet your partner may experience your behavior that way. We explore both sides of that experience so that each person can better understand what is happening between you.

What Are the Benefits of Couples Therapy?

Couples therapy focuses on the relationship between two people while also recognizing that each partner brings individual experiences, expectations, strengths, vulnerabilities, and struggles into the relationship.

Relationship difficulties often involve both individual concerns and patterns that develop between partners. Together, we identify the challenges creating conflict and explore the changes that can help the relationship become healthier and more functional.

Using a systems approach, we explore the influence and impact of each partner’s family of origin, personal experiences, and relationship patterns to better understand where change can happen.

I help couples learn to communicate more effectively, listen more closely, validate each other’s experiences, develop greater empathy, and become more emotionally attuned to one another. Couples can learn to identify shared goals, reduce destructive patterns, and create a healthier balance of responsibilities within the relationship.

Couples therapy may include elements of psychotherapy, education, and sometimes mediation. It is the combination of these approaches that can help couples better understand themselves, each other, and the relationship they are building.

As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I work with couples at many stages of their relationships, including dating, engaged, living together, married, separated, and couples who are divorced or navigating separation.

.I provide Couples Therapy and work as a Couples Therapist on the Upper West Side of New York City.

When to seek help

• Affair or betrayal
• Lack of mutual sexual interest
• No special “dates” or time together
• Little interest in your partner’s life