Great Couples Counseling in Clearwater, FL. Therapy to heal relationships.

Dr.John Knight ,PhD, LMHC www.coastalcarecounseling.com APA Certified Relationship Specialist PhD emphasis in Family ,Marital and Domestic Relations Counseling Psychology Dr.Knight has helped many couples find relief from relationship difficulties including poor communication, anger issues, infidelity, intimacy, codependency and cross-cultural issues. His empathic style is warm, receptive, and direct, helping people reach their true relationship potential through a step-by-step approach for change. His goal as an APA Certified relationship therapist is to help people have sustaining and satisfying relationships.

Are you feeling lonely in your own marriage? Disrespected? Misunderstood? It doesn’t have to stay this way. Far too often, high-achieving men feel disrespected and lonely within their own marriages. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I help men and their wives to rediscover the incredible value they bring to the marriage, and help them negotiate a hopeful path forward. I will help you identify destructive patterns in your marriage and provide healthier alternatives. I’ll help you improve communication, learn to fight fair, and increase understanding and connection. While it’s not easy work, there is hope. If given the chance, I would be honored to help you fight for your marriage.

Couples work is unique and interesting. What a lot of people don't understand it that of course you have different viewpoints - you are in different bodies, have different life experiences and are actually looking at different views! Many times the problem is simply communication: no matter how many times you tell your partner what you need, they just don't hear it. That is where I come in- helping people to get heard and also to hear clearly! In this way there can be a softening and a coming together, with both partners feeling loved and understood. You don't have to continue fighting, and counseling doesn't mean you failed. It is a gift you give your relationship to help nurture it.

Do you have the same argument over and over again? Are you feeling alone, misunderstood, or disrespected in your marriage? I can help you work through these issues through couples counseling, and help you break the unhealthy patterns that aren’t working. Renewing trust, improving communication, and regaining the spark are all possible. Being married myself, I know that marriage is work, and that love is a choice. But even intelligent, loving couples sometimes need support. You deserve better than what’s happening now. If you’re willing to put in the work, I can help. Our mission is to help you escape the cages that hold you back and become the lion you were created to be.

Couples therapy is one of my specialties. I utilize the evidence based therapy "Emotionally Focused Therapy" (EFT). The emphasis of this therapy is for a couple to learn how to manage conflict, be supportive of one another's dreams and goals, and to feel connected. The idea of connection is one which couples identify with and immediately endorse as a mutual goal. While I may point out individual areas for improvement, I am always on the side of the couple, not one individual over the other. I want to see the couple succeed. Having a partner in life is meant to be a joyful, rewarding journey.

We are passionate about and skilled with helping couples to repair and strengthen their relationship by utilizing techniques from evidence-based practices such as Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy and the Gottman Method. These techniques help get to the heart of the matter to increase relationship satisfaction and heal emotional injuries that may have occurred throughout the relationship or as a result of previous trauma. Individual therapy for each partner is also recommended as best practice for helping each person to work through their personal traumas.

Balancing life’s multitude of stresses can be a significant challenge. It might involve dealing with the demands of a career, the unique complexities of raising children, the weight of managing finances, facing major loss or the emotional trials of facing retirement. Betrayal, realization of childhood trauma or experiencing the fading of the initial sparks of a your relationship can worsen things. These combined pressures can exert tremendous strain, on any relationship. This can create numerous emotions or impasses. I work alongside you to address current challenges and explore deeper issues. I equip you to navigate complexity and grow as a closer, stronger couple.

Build a strong, resilient, flourishing relationship. Conflicts are a natural part of being in a long-term , intimate relationship. Learning to turn destructive interactions into creative tension is critical for maintaining or discovering healthy bonds between each other. Couples counseling is an opportunity to identify and address the common pitfalls to destructive relationships and create patterns of healing and growth.

Let me guess. One partner feels alone and like they don't matter and the other feels they are always being criticized and can't get anything right. The more one asks for the other to show up, the more the partner disappears physically and emotionally. You both bicker and fight and the idea of sitting and just hanging out seems elusive, if not impossible. Something like this? Often we crave connection but are blocked by the pain and the history that gets in the way. Small fights about little things become battles that highlight our struggle to have our basic relational needs met. I can help you get under the bickering to the parts crying out for connection- to an enriching relationship.