Great Couples Counseling in Potomac, MD. Therapy to heal relationships.

Every relationship has its challenges. Sometimes it takes an outside person to help you and your partner work through these challenges in an empathic and objective way. I use techniques that have been proven to work. Together, we will create a trusting and safe environment where you and your partner can talk openly about the issues that divide you. I don’t take sides or place blame. Instead, I work to understand each of you as individuals and as a couple. Our work will focus on building better communication skills, having more positive experiences as a couple, and coping more effectively with challenges. Together, you and your partner can build a stronger relationship.

I work with couples to help them create new and stronger avenues of communication--allowing them to find, once again, the joy each partner had in the other. Whether work has stressed your relationship, or children have created the gap, we can reimagine ways to find closer connections. Perhaps you feel as if you're roommates more than a couple. Or one of you has been tempted to stray--or has strayed--but you want to do the work to come back together. Therapy helps you find the new ways you need to communicate, leading to a stronger bond between you.

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

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with years of training and experience helping couples to navigate the most painful and difficult chapter in their relationships. I will guide you with compassion, empathy, and a skill set that is born in working with couples across the country in their healing journeys. I have been featured in Forbes, the Knot, and other leading media outlets discussing relationships, intimacy, and communication. I’d love to connect with you and your partner about the unique circumstances that you are facing and how I might be able to help.

Training and experience matter for couples therapy. Therapists should not choose sides. We can help you work through difficult issues with better communication and understanding of how and why you experience conflict. Your relationship patterns are our focus. We will meet with you together, then individually, and then come back together with a plan.

Our team of therapists can help you face your specific relationship issues as a couple and tailor a treatment plan specifically for you. Our team of counselors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, so we're confident we can find you help that's best suited for your unique challenges and goals. Working with us, you'll get results. Please don't wait, we're ready to help you today.

Couples counseling, which includes marriage counseling, tends to be at least 50% of my work as a therapist. I have had post-graduate training in couples counseling and working with couples after an affair. I am also certified to provide pre-marriage counseling using the Prepare Inventory. There is great benefit in seeing a counselor when your relationship is fracturing. In therapy, each person is given the opportunity to express his or her concerns, communication and conflict resolution skills are developed, and new patterns of relating are established.

Communication is the key in any coupe's relationship. And communication is usually the reason why many couples fight. Are you having a difficult time communicating with your significant other? Do you feel like you are not being heard? Couples counseling may be of use in your relationship to not only help communication improve but also to ensure there are shared goals to work towards the next step in your relationship.

My "Treasure Therapy" helps couples to become aware of themselves and their partner and to appreciate our inherent worth. I use different lenses to analyze how our social identity and sense of worth is shaped by society. This is important for helping couples have a sense of mutuality. John Gottman, an expert in couples therapy, talks about how power differentials can actually impede trust in his book, The Science of Trust. My own PhD research looked at 91 couples and found 12 common factors that influenced the balance of power in heterosexual romantic relationships, summed up with the word "TREASURES" because it summarizes how we approach people as precious treasures.

Given the many challenges that can lead to divorce (money problems, adultery, differences in raising children, etc.) the wisest thing couples can do is to seek Christian counseling before they say "I do." No matter how solid a couple’s relationship may be, problems and differences will inescapably arise. Therefore, pre-marital counseling really operates as the best security system a couple could ever purchase. Our Christian counselors can be beneficial by familiarizing couples with targeted areas of conflict that often lead to divorce. These areas are: • Communication • In-Laws • Money/finances • Sexuality • Spiritual Intimacy • Roles (delegation of responsibilities)

There are two most basic fears of intimacy that we all have: one is fear of abandonment, the other is fear of being taken over, of losing my autonomy. In a relationship, people often become polarized with one clinging and the other seeming distant. With awareness of our fears and how to take care of ourselves and each other, we will bring out the best in each other. Everyone knows how to speak and listen, right? Not so. The most difficult skills to learn are to speak self-responsibly about your own experience and to truly listen and understand the other person's experience even when you don't like it. To learn these skills enables love. I can help.

One of the most prevaling issues with one or both is to not feel "heard". Much emphasis has to be on the word "feelings". If one or the other has been abused in some way, they are very sensitive to "feelings". The word "being" is a key for stabilization of the relationship. I have done much research on the "Keys to Life" and one of the necessities is to trust. Listening and trusting are probably the glue that holds any relationship together and is foundational. A couple learning their primary function is not about themselves, but the common good of the family unit. After all, what will be your legacy? What will you be known for?

Committed and loving connections with a partner are probably the most challenging and potentially healing of all relationships in life. Deep fears of closeness tend to get in the way of realizing such potential, often without being consciously recognized as fears. I help partners in couples to find ways of being gentle and honest with each other and with themselves as they confront and overcome their fears.

Ashburn Psychological Services has therapists available for couple's therapy. Couple's therapy can be effective in addressing emotional conflicts, intimacy and communication struggles that may be negatively impacting the relationship. Separation, divorce, blended families and step parenting, and one's individual problems are some of the factors that can contribute to relationship problems. Cognitive-behavior therapy and interpersonal therapy are approaches that can be successful in bringing about positive change for couple's. Ashburn Psychological Services is here to help.

Often the relationships we cherish the most are also the places where we experience the most discomfort. We can feel all sorts of variations of misunderstood, unheard and uncared for (and often our partner feels similarly). The good news is that growth and healing are possible. Our brains are built for relational healing--we just need help getting unstuck sometimes. I would be honored to walk with you and your partner in helping you both to better understand yourselves, and each other, in the places where you are experiencing difficulty. And in so doing help you both to experience each other in richer, more meaningful ways.

Communication. Trust. Connection. All three are important to any committed relationship, but they require teamwork to develop and maintain. I think of your relationship as a team of two. Sometimes one of you can pursue individual goals that cause your relationship to improve - like a star quarterback on the football field. But to experience the greatest change in your relationship, I’ll encourage each of you to explore and pursue individual objectives that promote the success of your team of two. Working as a team, you can discover ways to improve communication, build trust, and reconnect. This is how I help couples, and if the approach appeals to you, please contact me

Are you frustrated with your partner's career or life plan? As your career or life coach, I can help you get a plan to help decrease your stress. Together we navigate the path to realizing your ideal life vision. During the coaching process, we work to identify your core values, enhance your strengths, increase your self awareness and to ensure that we find you and your partner a career or life plan.

Working with couples is a dynamic process that requires the therapist to maintain a safe space where both people can feel heard and understood. I am a certified Imago therapist and use a dialogical process to increase the emotional intimacy between the two people. I have worked with straight, bi, gay and lesbian and transgendered couples, and many different ethnic groups---and find that the challenges are essentially the same---to create a bond of trust that allows for all parts of the two people to show up and be accepted in the relationship. I share helpful handouts that people can use when they are home, to be able to deal with conflict more skillfully.

Your relationship with your partner is the most important relationship in your life. Relationship issues touch every area of our lives. Learning healthy relationship skills is a fundamental building block of a successful life. Through therapy, you will learn how to achieve intimacy, manage conflict, how to give and receive love, and to create the relationship you have always wanted.

Are you engaged and need premarital counseling? Or, perhaps you are married and simply "fell out of love". Is there an infidelity that needs to be forgiven, and the desire to repair the marriage? Is arguing the norm between the two of you? Through faith-based counseling a healthier "couple" will emerge and manifest. In a nonjudgmental and safe environment, exploration will take place to identify and eradicate the problematic circumstances. I look forward to working with you, and I applaud you for taking the first step toward a happier state of co-existence! Let's start your tomorrow today.

Couples usually go to therapy when they are feeling distressed. Maybe they are also feeling isolated from each other, distrustful, or like they just can't communicate with each other. I like to start by getting to know what is is like for each of you to be in your relationship and how each of you understands how your relationship ended up in this distressed place. When I work with couples, I use a model called Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT). EFT provides me with a map, a way to help couples out of their stuck places. I have earned my Certification as an Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist and Supervisor.

Working with couples is my area of expertise and passion. I have seen relationships transform through the power of mutual understanding and increased sensitivity. Often couples become so entrenched in certain communication patterns that they can't even really see when and if their partner is trying to do something different. This is one way working with a good couples therapist can be so powerful - they can act as "translator" for partners, and dig through the years of pain and pattern to what's really in each other's minds and hearts. If both partners are willing, it's amazing what can happen; and even if only one person is willing, change is possible. I hold the hope until they can.

Like all psychotherapy, couples therapy is a process, but one in which I work to help both members of a partnership to feel heard while also working for measurable change that couples can notice and know when they are making progress. I use attachment models to inform my work with couples–helping couples to develop a safer, more fulfilling and secure partnership. I focus on both present circumstances while also working to understand how problems develop and providing ways to prevent their reoccurrence. Some of the issues that couples often seek treatment for include the following: Communication Managing Difficult Life Transitions Separation/Divorce Loss/Grief Parenting Saving your Marriage Pre-Marital Counseling Managing Conflict

Relationship counseling for couples is our primary specialty. How can you tell if couples therapy is right for you? Consider calling if you: * Find it hard to stop criticizing your partner * Feel defensive when asked for something by your partner * Find yourself avoiding your partner or family * Are developing emotional attachments to other potential partners about which you would not want your partner to find out * Are thinking about your partner or your marriage makes you depressed or anxious * Are not able to be sexually intimate with your partner We have relationship experts that will speak with you today.

As marriage and family Therapist, I have specialized training to work with couples. I assist couples in more than communication. I help them build connection, which is the glue of a relationship. All relationships can get into a negative pattern, but without a secure bond the relationship can spin out of control. I assist couples in learning about each partners attachment style and help the couple build healthy problem solving skills through bonding. I offer premarital counseling with an online assessment. If you want to improve a longterm relationship, or heal wounds of infidelity, lets get to the heart of the matter. We all want to know we are important to our partner.