Bartlett Couples Counseling

Create the relationship you want and deserve.

You can become a master at creating a loving and supportive relationship and/or marriage.

You are here, and you are contemplating starting couples therapy. It’s a huge step. You can work your way back to each other so you can create the kind of relationship you both want and deserve.

• Are you are contemplating couples counseling because you’ve been feeling distant and alone?
• Does it sometimes seem like you are living with a stranger?
• Are you unsure how you feel about your partner and how to deal with who they have become?
• Have you been struggling so much that you’ve been thinking about separation or divorce, wondering if you would be happier if you were on your own?
• Did you recently find out your partner is having an emotional and/or physical affair?
• Are you feeling overwhelmed with having to cope and deal with your partner’s mental illness, addiction, or chronic illness?

If you can relate, it is evident you are hurting, struggling, frustrated, and unhappy.

You don’t need to continue to live under the stress you’ve been dealing with. Support and help are available to you.

With the help of relationship counseling, things can improve within your marriage and relationship and, when they do, you will begin to feel better.

Even the closest and happiest of couples face difficulties and challenges. We all have many things that demand our attention and, sometimes, our priorities change and we get off track and find that we haven’t been putting the necessary time, energy, attention, and work into our most intimate relationship.

The good news is that you realized what has happened and you know you want things to change because where you are at is not where you want to be. If you begin relationship counseling, couples counseling, or marriage therapy, it means you are willing and wanting to receive help so you and your partner can change the things that are hurting your relationship.

Having a close, supportive, and trusting, relationship takes work. To effectively communicate, you may need to learn some new skills that will help to teach your partner how to treat you while also being taught by your partner how to treat them.

How we work with couples during couples counseling

In our work with couples, we utilize the evidenced-based practice of the Gottman Method of couples therapy. We inform couples about the decades of couples research that is available to us and what we have learned in the behavioral health field about what helps people become “masters” at relationships. People who are “masters” at relationships have loving, supportive, intimate, and strong partner relationships. They have a set of skills, behaviors, and patterns that align them with their partner and help them to navigate the stressors and difficulties that arise in relating in supportive, trusting, and productive ways.

We will help you and your partner develop and gain greater understanding, intimacy, and connection.

We guide couples to create the kind of relationships they want and deserve.

Together, you, your partner, and our therapists will begin learning about
• The patterns you get stuck in within your relationship
• Why you and your partner get stuck in these unhealthy, harmful, and stressful patterns

Together, you and your partner will begin to work at
• Identifying and examining the underlying feelings, fears, core issues, and unmet needs that exacerbate these patterns
• Removing the barriers so each of you can see the other’s perspective

Together, you and your partner will practice and learn
• How to interact and communicate with each other without shame, judgment, or criticism
• How to interact and communicate together with compassion and empathy that will lead you to connect and grow closer together

Marriage therapy researcher and therapist, Dr. John Gottman, has identified that couples wait to seek marriage therapy on an average of six years before getting professional help. Thus, they experience six years of unhappiness that weren’t necessary.

That means that many couples have many years of built-up resentment, hostility, emotional pain, stress and sometimes broken trust toward each other before they begin therapy. Counseling can help them get back on the right track while repairing trust, intimacy, attachment, and learning how to resolve differences in effective ways. If that feels true for you – if you think, maybe, you should have tried therapy sooner – we encourage you to take the next step. Let’s begin helping you and your partner find your way back to each other. Let us begin helping you create the loving and meaningful relationship you want.

Click here to schedule an appointment.