Marriage provides the promise of a joyful life, which can be fulfilled when you co-create your relationship, sharing in joy and success as well as unhappiness and failure. Marriage can also provide a great challenge in fulfilling this promise. A relationship is tested when we experience conflict, disappointment and feelings of abandonment.

Times of crisis and difficulty provide the greatest potential for partners to learn about themselves. The decision to seek out a marriage counselor can become a mutually transformative experience, an opportunity to become allies in healing with the possibility of co-creating a deep and lasting intimacy.

Treatment Philosophy

• Safety and support are critical in creating deep intimacy.
  
• Intimacy can be anxiety provoking.
  
• Couples unconsciously create their relationship, often a stage upon which an unconscious script is acted out.
  
• Creation of a fulfilling marriage entails learning how to live consciously.
  
• Understanding your developmental history will make conscious living possible.
  
• There is no blame. Blame has to be transformed into the challenge to discover your role in creating a relationship.
• Discovery can lead to painful memories and feelings.
• Our partners are not mind readers: asking for what you want is necessary and normal.
• The art of communication involves speaking and listening. If you are told that you are not listening, believe that information.
  

What will you have to do?

• Meet as often as possible. Sessions are 90 minutes long, meeting weekly at first and then less often over time.
  
• Stay in the relationship for an agreed period of time to allow the process to move forward.
  
• Learn how to listen actively to each other.
  
• Learn how to be empathetic with one another.
  
• Commit to spending time together outside of the therapist's office.
  

What will our sessions be like?

• Sometimes we will focus on pressing issues and concerns.
  
• Sometimes we will simply listen to what the other person is saying without regard for right or wrong.
  
• Sometimes we will be present with each other without an agenda and allow the silence to lead us.

Contact me with other questions and concerns at: 404-459-0470