Great Couples Counseling in Westport, MA. Therapy to heal relationships.

Your relationship has the potential to become a place where you can bring more joy and happiness into your life. Couples therapy is the most challenging of therapies due to the emotional intensity of the couple’s dynamics. When both members of a couple are committed to repairing the relationship, working with a skilled clinician is highly rewarding and successful. Couples entering counseling who have a mixed agenda where splitting up is a possibility, need help to discern and determine their goals. I see couples together as well as individually, and work with them to determine what would need to change for them achieve increased affection and the closeness they had when they first met.

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.

What are the most common couples' issues? If you are thinking "communication, conflict, sex, money, child rearing" you are correct. However, most therapists will go after the symptom on each side of the couple fence thinking that the way to effective change is by getting each party to "work" on their respective "issue". Many times the parties don’t agree but comply. Imagine if you could align the unconscious brains of a couple and stop the "working on your issues" part that has become so popular in therapy settings? Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com to learn how! Or call 877-606-6161. DR. FLEMING'S NEW RELATIONSHIP/COUPLES INTENSIVES. www.kevinflemingphd.com/marriage-couples-retreats.php

Each individual comes from a rich background of experiences and cultural messages which ultimately leads to misunderstandings in communication. Couples counseling allows for a place for each person to explore and present their views in a safe and validating environment. From there it is then possible to map out goals as a team and address those underlying issues which show up in a relationship over and over.

I see couples of all different variations and types, both alternative and mainstream. The same basic skills are critical to teach. Communication, positive appreciation of one another, compassionate listening, and finding ways to experience joy with one another. I help them be able to experience vulnerability with one another in a safe manner so that they can become closer and strengthen connection.