Great Couples Counselling in Abbotsford, BC. Therapy to heal relationships.

I use the Gottman method to help couples work through their marital concerns to establish a friendship, nurture a stronger emotional bond, find shared meaning, and learn skills for conflict resolution. Couples typically engage in therapy to strengthen their connection, cope with crisis situations, and improve communication. I work with partners to instill a sense of understanding by breaking unhealthy patterns of communication and behaviours that may be showing up due to earlier experiences. Couples are provided with the opportunity to navigate through difficult relational dynamics to achieve happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction in their relationship.

Couples counselling can be sought at any stage of your relationship. By meeting you where you are in your journey together, I can offer several tools to enhance communication; cultivate understanding; increase capacity for connection and intimacy; adequately manage conflict and navigate boundaries. Through the use of several therapeutic interventions, I can work to uncover deep-rooted concerns that are affecting the quality of your relationship. And namely, offer appropriate, effective solutions. We can work collaboratively to resolve conflict, manage expectations and deal with various challenges including, but not limited to infidelity.

I work with couples using Gottman Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy and Attachment Therapy. I will help you identify your maladaptive patterns of behaviour and improve your communication skills. There is no shame in getting some coaching in how we connect with each other and how we can better meet each others needs. I use a strengths based approach to help you see the positives and remember why you fell in love.

Olivia is deeply passionate about helping couples at every stage of their relationship. Her true heart lies in supporting couples to enhance their connection, foster healing, and restore their bond. Olivia combines her extensive experience in counseling with practical tools to equip couples with effective communication, conflict resolution, and relationship-building strategies. She also has a unique ability to address deeper-rooted issues, guiding partners to uncover and resolve underlying patterns that may be causing strain. Whether helping couples prepare for a lifetime together or overcome hardships, Olivia is committed to nurturing growth, understanding, and lasting restoration.

Loving, successful relationships need to be carefully and skillfully nurtured in the following five areas: Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Sexual, Financial. Couples who are ready to do ongoing work on their relationships are richly rewarded with a loving, meaningful and joyful life together. Committed relationships that have the possibility of morphing into long term relationships benefit greatly by being guided by the Gottman research on relationships as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Premarital Counselling prepares a couple for a new stage in their relationship by identifying potential areas of conflict and strength and developing tools to create a strong foundation.

Are you and your partner stuck in unsolvable arguments? Does one of you tend to ‘demand’ more while the other shuts down and withdraws? Are you feeling less connected and actually adding stress to each other’s lives instead of reducing it? While frustrating, these are perfectly normal patterns of partnership and there is hope. I would be glad to help you untangle the knots, learning to team up together instead of entering battles over who is right. In doing so, we will unpack past traumas and patterns of behaviour, learning to better communicate and to be safely vulnerable in a way that stands your relationship on solid ground.

My approach to counselling typically involves emotional-focused therapy and the Gottman Method. When working with the folks in the relationship, often common issues include misunderstandings, unresolved conflict, criticism, and poor active listening. These problems create barriers to intimacy, communication, and connection. Through our work together, partners can enhance their relationship by learning to interact more openly and listen more effectively, empathetically, and assertively, as well as build trust and identify life goals and responsibilities. I also offer this type of therapy to folks with more than two intimidate partners in the relationship, non-monogamous relationships.

I emphasize creating a safe and supportive space where partners can openly explore their relationship dynamics, improve communication, and cultivate deeper intimacy. Whether couples are facing conflicts, navigating transitions, or seeking to strengthen their bond, I employ evidence-based techniques tailored to their specific needs and goals. By fostering empathy, facilitating constructive dialogue, and promoting mutual understanding, partners gain insight into their relationship patterns and develop practical skills to navigate challenges collaboratively. Couples benefit from learning effective communication strategies, conflict resolution techniques, and tools to rebuild trust and intimacy.

Couples counselling is highly rewarding work when both people are invested and willing to work. The work tends to lend itself not only to growth and healing in relationships but also in friendships, parenting and other relationships in peoples lives. On the flip side sometimes couples need support to know when it is time to identify behaviours in themselves or their partner which are incompatible with healthy relationships and to decide how best to proceed.

Many couples struggle with communication and "feeling heard". Over time a once happy and vibrant relationship can begin to decay through hurt feelings, anger, lack of attention, feeling valued, infidelity, the strain of children, childhood issues, and much more. We focus to heal the wounds of the past and rebuild the love and trust within the relationship. We work to equip both partners with a voice and ability to effectively listen and hear one another. We will work together to establish individual boundaries within the relationship, while creating a stronger and healthier connection. Our goal is to equip each couple with the tools they require for success, independent of counselling

I have been in practise for a long time and much of my training and experience is in couples counselling. It is a privilege and opportunity to work with couples and more often than not we see successful outcomes. There is never a more satisfying feeling than seeing couples making important decisions for their future while keeping a priority of each person's own emotional well being!

In working with couples, I use an emotionally focused therapy approach (EFT). Sometimes the treatment process benefits from drawing on other sources such as Narrative therapy, Gottman, or Experiential therapy however my foundation works from EFT. I have experience in working with EFT in various couple dynamics.

Couples counselling is an opportunity for two people to re-learn the art of communication and the art of love. There are several homework assignments that I use as well as cognitive strategies. I work with couples to find the value in the others actions: how do you know you are loved without hearing words. Over time there can be an erosion in respect. We work to knit the rift together again and rejoin in a united belief of their relationship.