Great Couples Counselling in New Westminster, BC. Therapy to heal relationships.

Intimate relationships are not easy. To have a fulfilling relationship, it takes the work of two people to build and sustain a loving, caring & harmonious relationship. I can help you to understand that there will always be arguments, but the arguments don't need to destroy your marriage. Together we can work on ways to resolve the reasons why you fight and to learn to talk to each other in ways that can help you understand each other. You and your partner have your unique views, beliefs and values. These will need to be discussed so you can both go forward creating the relationship you want. My approach is to work with you in a sensible & practical way to help you get a meaningful outcome.

I understand that navigating relationship issues can be incredibly challenging, affecting both your emotional health and the quality of your partnership. In our couples counselling sessions, we'll establish a safe environment for open dialogue, employing the Gottman Method to identify and address the root causes of your conflicts. This evidence-based approach focuses on improving communication, building empathy, and fostering mutual respect. While the journey to a healthier relationship may take time and commitment from both sides, there's genuine hope for renewal and happiness. Together, we can work towards a more harmonious and fulfilling relationship.

We are proud to offer couples/relationship counselling as we all know that relationships can be both incredibly rewarding and tremendously difficult all at the same time. We believe that trust and safety create a solid foundation from which a relationship can grow. Through both the Gottman method and Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy we are confident that we can support the growth of healthy, secure attachments characterized by healthy attunement and respect.

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.

Couples counseling provides a supportive space to strengthen your relationship, enhance communication, and resolve conflicts. My approach focuses on understanding each partner’s perspective, identifying patterns that may be causing tension, and fostering deeper emotional connection. Together, we work on building trust, improving intimacy, and developing tools to navigate challenges constructively. Clients benefit from a renewed sense of partnership, greater empathy for one another, and the skills to create a more harmonious and fulfilling relationship.

Couples therapy. I am trained in solution focused couples therapy to bring the issues at hand right out at the first appointment. I ask clients to prepare for their first appointment by bringing in a wish list, what each partner wants the other to get better at, to stop, to do more of, and to do less of. These take us right to the couples' goals and then we begin to work on the most important issues on their list. A successful, peaceful relationship can bring great joy to our lives.

Couples can learn strategies to better the relationship and how to interact with each other more functionally. This can be done by better learning about your partner’s expectations, navigating the separate way you demonstrate emotions and communicate, how to listen to one another more effectively and also how to hone in on the other’s love language.

In couples counselling, I would use a combination of an EFT approach as well as the Gottman Method which validated extensively couples, and has been shown to be two of the most successful approaches to help manage couples problems. Using these evidence-based techniques, we would explore the attachment style of each partner, determine the patterns of behaviour between the two individuals and the negative cycle that they are in. We would evaluate cultural factors if there are any, and of course focus on the core issues that the couple presents with. As a marriage counsellor, I would also use EFT and Gottman techniques to identify keys interactions and cycles in the relationship.

I am passionate about this work and will invest deeply in helping both of you succeed based on your engagement in the process. My approach: -Focus on the positives as well as the negatives - Hear from each individual about the positives and the negatives in the relationship -Teaching new skills that can help the couple based on the problems that are coming up in the relationship - Going over what's resolvable and not resolvable in the relationship - Have exercises the couple can work on each week