Great Couples Counseling in Thomaston, NY. Therapy to heal relationships.

I work with couples to become more conscious and intentional in their interactions. I teach couples specific communication skills to break destructive patterns of relating. I encourage each partner to look and their own behavior and how they may be contributing to the problems. I explore with couples how the problems they are having in their current relationship are related to their experiences in childhood. I work with couples on eliminating reactivity by implementing self-soothing techniques. My goal with couples is to have both partners feel heard and understood by each other.

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.

Drawing close in intimacy in a couple can be challenging. Being close to another person can result in buttons getting pushed in areas of the self that were never resolved. Despite the challenge, we deeply want to feel intimacy in life. Intimacy in relationship, while often challenging, is one of the greatest opportunities for growth. Caring, compassionate communication between partners opens each person to deeper feeling, connection, and expression. These capacities are crucial for a fulfilled life. I help you learn genuine communication expressing your needs while respecting and caring for your partner. These fulfilling communications lead to a better relationship and a better life.

Our dedicated couples counselors, through the educational and insightful works of Dr. John Gray, the best-selling author of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” and the techniques of other renowned leaders in field of counseling, will actively assist and support a couple to have a healthier, more fulfilling, happier relationship through mutual respect, good communication, and trust. Our couples counselors will be there every step of the way as relationships grow and evolve for the better. Through empathetic active talking and listening, our couples counselors will promote a healthy change in the relationship and help you heal and forgive past inner hurts. You will be educated on what you and your partner really need in a relationship by learning...(view profile to read more)

The word couples suggests a sense of togetherness, meaning two people, who want to be together, get together for the purpose of experiencing something good, something meaningful, or something positive. However, coming together can be a source of pain if couples loose sight of their main reason for coming together and not resolving their conflicts. Quite often, one of the most difficult things for couples to do is to learn to communicate effectively with each other. Couples usually feel stuck and unable to express their needs. If you truly care about your relationship with each other, my intent is to help you make your connection with each other stronger.

It's important that you know that I don't take sides or engage in blaming either partner. I understand that you are in my office because you want help. I get to know the couple as individuals and as a couple. So in addition to meeting together, I would meet individually with both partners. We would come up with a treatment plan, including frequency of meeting and schedule, treatment goals, and what each person wants from the therapy. We might focus on identifying feelings, changing toxic communication patterns, and opening up communication.

In session, our couples learn to build a strong marriage and healthy relationship through improved communication, conflict resolution, managing expectation, reconnect and more. We work with couples living together or long distance. We guide them along the way implementing various methods to help them develop new attitudes towards life’s most complex matters. 

It can be so easy to fall into patterns and, over time, find that you keep having the same issues or arguments within your relationship or marriage. That's where couples counseling can help. Talking out issues and problems in a judgement-free space with a neutral third party invested in your progress and growth can help you and your relationship move forward. My goal as couples therapist is to listen to you and give you the tools and techniques to help get your relationship back on track. When you're ready to stop having the same conversations and to move forward in your relationship or marriage, let's talk.

There are countless models of healthy romantic relationships, from monogamous to polyamorous, and unique variations between partners. The scripts for dating and longterm relationships of our parents’ generations may not be applicable to your relationship, and there is no formal education in how to be a good partner or how to identify unhealthy relationships. But there is psychological research that shows that effective communication, emotional openness, intimacy, and other factors contribute to healthy relationships. Creating these conditions are skills that can be learned. I practice brief humanistic and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) to help my LGBTQ and hetero clients learn these skills.

I provide couples counseling that emphasizes that there are two separate individuals contributing to one couples dynamic. Therefore I strive to understand how each member of the couple functions and how this impacts the relationship. The goal is to determine if the couple can learn how to complement one another in a manner that will maximize relationship satisfaction.

Are you struggling to get along with someone whom you thought you loved? Are you seeking to fortify your relationship and cut get rid of all those doubts and mistrust issues which are permeating your relationship. Couples counseling can help you and your significant other learn ways to openly talk about the areas of strength and weakness in your relationship. You owe it to yourself to explore.

I use my vast experience to help couples in their early 20s to late 70s, of all genders and sexual orientations to understand each other and communicate effectively. Whether the conflicts are emotional, sexual, or financial, I am there for you to help you navigate the waters, leading to a satisfying relationship. Couples counseling and premarital counseling can empower you to bring more joy into your life and can help prevent the heartache and the tremendous cost of divorce.

Do you or your partner suffer from social anxiety and it's affecting your relationship? Social anxiety is a fear of negative judgment from others and it can lead to reduced levels of intimacy, suppressed emotions, feelings of isolation and loneliness and lack of communication. If one or both of you feels anxious socially, your relationship may be suffering too. Contact me for ways in which you can move past social anxiety to a fuller, intimate, richer, relaxed more authentic relationship.

Marriage or couple relationships are a tug of war for power and control. When the leverage of the couple becomes one sided: disappointment, fears, worries and anger become predominant emotions. At this point, you may think about leaving because you can't understand your conflicted feelings. Remember, " You can't run away from yourself". It is essential to know your contribution to the dysfunction in the relationship. When you can face your feelings and behaviors patterns and take responsibility for your actions leaving the "blame" behind, the couple begins the repair process enabling respectful listening and communicating leading to healing feelings and setting the stage for intimacy.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples focuses on strengthening the emotional bond between partners. Through structured sessions, we explore underlying patterns and attachment needs driving relationship dynamics. Using interventions aimed at fostering empathy and understanding, we facilitate open communication and emotional expression. Couples learn to recognize and address negative interaction cycles, replacing them with healthier patterns of connection and responsiveness. EFT emphasizes creating a secure attachment bond, fostering feelings of safety and trust within the relationship. By deepening emotional intimacy and building a stronger connection, couples experience wellness.

Couples, married or not, seek therapy for many reasons; including hoping to resolve differences, hoping to improve communication, and/or hoping to improve their intimate relationship. My work with couples, enhanced by my training in sex therapy, addresses these issues so as to help the individuals within the relationship more effectively express themselves and more effectively understand their partner, and so as to promote the overall strength and joy in the relationship itself.

Couples sometimes find that their relationships – once the source of so much intimacy and joy – have become disappointing, even destructive. We all reach impasses in our relationships, and these can be opportunities to overcome obstacles and grow together or to recognize irreconcilable differences and end the relationship in a healthy way. Together in therapy we can work to help you shift from criticizing and blaming to discovering individual feelings that underlie the surface conflicts. It can have a liberating and transformative effect on both you relationship and yourselves.

Anger is not an aphrodisiac nor is it helpful in getting more of what you want. Couples in conflict often focus too much energy on changing their partner. The problem is that each partner does not have direct control over the other. The way out is of this dilemma is to learn how to not get so upset over what you dislike in your partner. I teach each partner how to improve their relationship by first modifying their own behavior. By having better control over your emotional and behavioral reactions you can more constructively communicate, negotiate and influence your partner. I teach you how to get your message across and positively influence your partner so that you can enjoy the results!

Couples therapy is a mode of treatment that aims to enhance to enhance the connection between two adults engaged in a long-term relationship. We will discuss the main problems you are both experiencing, and what causes most of your stress within the relationship. Some aspects of relationship stress may include parenting conflicts, intimacy issues, and communication issues (or other types of distress).

It wasn't always this way. There was a time you looked forward to being with each other. You both trusted and enjoyed each other's company. You felt understood and accepted for being yourself. In couple's counseling, Hal offers you the opportunity to find the hidden strengths in the heart and soul of your relationship. Hal has helped hundreds of couples to improve communication and increase trust. Hal is very well respected and experienced in couple's counseling. In addition, he is a published author and was invited to appear on David Letterman's Late Night television program. Hal's schedule is flexible and appointments are available on evenings and weekends. Call Hal at (516) 439-4282

I aim to create a safe space where you and your partner can explore your feelings and concerns, as well as identify negative communication and behavior patterns that may be causing conflict. You can learn new skills for resolving disagreement and strengthen your connection. You can talk about your expectations, values, and goals for the relationship, as well as any past hurts or resentments that may be impacting your current dynamic. Together, we can focus on promoting healthy communication, building trust and intimacy, breaking unhealthy cycles, and ultimately enhance the quality of the relationship.

You know relationships are meant to offer love and care...Yet your connections are rimmed with insecurity, worry, doubt and a feeling of instability. You're not sure if there's something about way you interact in relationships or if it's related to the people you're around. Research proves that the biggest predictor of a happy, long life is the quality of relationships you're in. You're ready to clear the fog, and build solid connections.

Why do we seem to have the same arguments over and over again? How do I know if we are really supposed to be together? Are there things we could be doing to better support each other, to help each other grow and be our best selves? If we really love each other, why do we so often hurt each other? How do I know if this is real love, anyway? Relationships are hard. Even more than desire, they require effort and understanding to make them work. Often, even if two people really love each other, one or both may need help to maintain the right effort or understanding to keep the balance necessary for long-term success. Having outside, objective support can make all the difference.

It can take us a lifetime to learn to accept the person we have chosen to live with, but it could also take us the same time to try to change that person and not be successful. Couples Therapy can help us understand that even though we all have the potential to change, we cannot change the other. We can learn how to accept the other person, live together or decide not to, and explore what are our own contributions to the dilemmas that we present.

Careers and children each place enormous stress on a couple’s ability to be together in an intimate and satisfying way. Every couple has different ways of dealing with the challenges, and counseling can provide the perspective and encouragement to re-create a shared vision for the future. For something as important as this, it is surprising how little training and preparation is provided; family therapy fills in the blanks, and resolves the confusion.