Couples Therapy
Couples counseling is for all couples –not just couples in distress and despair, but also for couples who want to build and maintain a strong foundation for their relationship so they can grow old together. Relationships are living things, and they require care and attention to keep growing!
But let’s face it – even the best couples have conflicts. What makes a relationship sustainable is not the absence of conflict, but it’s how a couple deals with it. In therapy with me, couples learn to understand what’s going on underneath the conflict and discover tools to handle conflict in the moment.
How Couples Therapy Works
For couples therapy to be effective, both partners need to feel heard and validated. Even when we talk about difficult topics, the focus will be on improving your connection – not on pointing fingers or assigning blame.
Together, we’ll make sense of where you’ve been stuck and find a way through the chaos. As we work through the painful emotions fueling your negative cycle, you’ll develop understanding and empathy for yourselves and each other, creating a safer, closer, and more satisfying connection. We’ll explore what each of you truly want and need, and discover new ways to define who you are in relation to each other. You have the ability to reconnect and rebuild a deep bond, in whatever form that takes, and we’ll navigate that path together.
Common Topics in Couples Therapy
Communication/Conflict
Infidelity/Betrayal
Pre-marital/Commitment
Sexual Intimacy/Concerns
Divorce/Uncoupling
Blending Families
Is Couples Therapy Right For You?
Whether you’re in the middle of a painful rupture or simply feeling more like roommates than partners, couples therapy offers a structured, supportive space to slow down and actually hear each other again. I offer couples therapy in Nashville at my Music Row office, as well as via telehealth throughout Tennessee and South Carolina.
My work with couples is emotionally focused and attachment-based — meaning we go beyond surface-level communication tips. Together we’ll explore the underlying emotional patterns and cycles that keep you stuck, and build a new foundation of safety and closeness.
My approach is also informed by Relational Life Therapy (RLT), a direct, results-oriented framework developed by renowned family therapist Terry Real. RLT combines psychotherapy, family systems theory, feminist therapy, trauma work, and neurobiology to help couples identify and break harmful patterns - designed to get to the root of things rather than spending months circling the same issues. Unlike traditional therapy models, RLT integrates deep personal transformation directly into the couples session itself. I’m currently pursuing formal RLT training and bring this framework into my work with couples here in Nashville.
Couples therapy may be a fit if:
• You keep having the same argument and nothing ever resolves
• One or both of you feels chronically unheard or dismissed
• You’re navigating a breach of trust and don’t know where to begin
• You’ve grown apart and want to find your way back to each other
• You’re entering a new chapter — marriage, parenting, midlife — and want a strong foundation
• You’re considering separation and want to make a thoughtful, intentional decision
Sessions are typically 50 minutes and begin weekly, moving to biweekly as progress develops. For couples who need more intensive support, therapy intensives are also available.
My enthusiasm for couples work began…
…after a cycle of crisis and healing in my own marriage. After over twenty years of building a life together, raising a family, and believing things were just fine, we suddenly recognized how disconnected our relationship had become. That realization brought our relationship to a crossroads, forcing us to ask - do we walk away, or do we dig in and see what is possible?
I am incredibly grateful for that experience and the relationship we have today. It’s not perfect, but after nearly thirty years together, we are so much more connected, vulnerable, and quick to make repair.
