Mindful Couples Therapy
Mindful Couples Therapy
Goethe said: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” Often, when we first enter into intimate relationships, we feel a quality of boldness and magic. Unexpected feelings of joy light us up for a moment, a day, or the first years of our relationship.
There is a quality to experiencing an intimate bond with another person that has been described by great artists and writers as one of the most profound experiences a human will feel. These same artists have written as frequently of intimacy as one of the most painful human experiences, fraught with confusion and suffering.
Creating a lasting intimacy that invigorates us is possible, is not easy, and, requires our vulnerability every time.
If you feel stuck in your intimate partnership, or tired of dredging through repeated patterns and arguments, you’re not alone. Successfully navigating intimacy and experiencing love and appreciation in your relationship is possible, with support.
How I work with Couples:
Pragmatic Experiential Therapy for Couples
In my therapy practice, I use a powerful and tested method (Pragmatic Experiential Therapy for Improving Relationships (PEX) developed by Brent Atkinson that takes discoveries in the fields of neurobiology and relationship science, and translates them into strategies for improving relationships. This method helps couples build skills of emotional intelligence that are designed to transform stuck patterns and/or a field of repeating arguments into a satisfying and enduring partnership.
Most of us never learned the skills that can help us to meet relationship challenges with fluidity and effectiveness. These skills take practice; Brent Atkinson refers to this as “rewiring our emotional habits.” We do not change just because we want to. We change because we want to, and, because we practice until eventually, our brain clicks into being able to do something new. Then, this new way becomes part of our capacity. In sessions with me, couples practice skills that can support you in developing intimacy, care and relational commitment.
“Partners who succeed in their relationships recognize that conflicts are not usually about right or wrong, they’re about legitimately different expectations.” Brent Atkinson
Read more about Brent’s work here.
“For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
I welcome all genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, religions and other demographics to my practice.
