Great Couples Counselling in King, ON. Therapy to heal relationships.

Whether you have been together for three months, three years or three decades, our conversations can help disrupt cycles of painful and negative interactions, heal past and present hurts, and create new ways of talking together. I can help you have conversations that are different from the ones you have at home and that allow you to speak to and hear one another in meaningful ways.

In couples counseling with me, the focus is on enhancing the relationship dynamics and communication patterns between partners, regardless of marital status. By providing a safe and supportive space, I facilitate open dialogue, empathy-building exercises, and conflict resolution techniques tailored to the unique needs and goals of each couple. Whether navigating challenges related to intimacy, trust, or life transitions, couples counseling offers an opportunity for couples to deepen their connection, strengthen their bond, and cultivate a more fulfilling partnership. Through collaborative exploration and skill-building, couples can gain insight into their relationship dynamics and heal.

Is your relationship feeling strained, distant, or stuck in a cycle of conflict? Maybe the routine has become mundane and you feel like you've both lost the spark. I offer a safe and nurturing space to rebuild trust, enhance communication, and strengthen the bond between you and your partner. Relationships today face unique pressures, and require a tailored and creative response. I use tools of nonviolent communication and relational psychodynamics to address the underlying issues that contribute to relationship discord. By working with me, you can resolve conflict, communicate your needs, and experience a renewed bond. Take your first step towards a happier, healthier relationship.

You can have an even better relationship! I work with you to identify what your issues are. We learn what your communication issues are, what is working and what is not in your relationship and implement practical action plans to improve this. Further, we identify your negative patterns of relating to each other and how this is a habit that hurts the relationship, and we learn how to get out of that pattern, shift behaviors, and relate in the most respectful, loving, kind manner which ultimately often improves your sex life, your happiness, and your fulfillment.

I’ve been helping people lead more intentional lives for over 20 years. Couples therapy supports you in reaching a fresh connection with your partner. You have the ability to have a meaningful relationship. I can help you learn the skills to communicate in a way that will get your needs met. I’m trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, developmental models,and anxiety and depression management. I will support you in creating a set of tools to help you discover your objective. Most importantly, you're a distinctive couple, with distinctive needs. My goal is to work with you as a unique couple, and focus on YOUR goals.

If you are finding yourselves stuck in the same 'merry-go-round' (although not so merry!) of poor communication and accusation/defensiveness, winners and losers, your marriage probably feels like you're going nowhere fast! You think you've married the wrong person and feel that you've tried everything in your 'tool-bag' to do. If you don't have 'win-win', what you essentially have is 'lose-lose'.. I will advocate for your marriage...I will be your cheerleader and your coach combined, showing you how to get out of this destructive cycle and move forward to something much more satisfying. I will help you rebuild when hurts have been deep. Don't delay on this...sooner is better!

Relationships are very complex. They have the potential to enrich our lives if we let them. They require flexibility and compromise, good communication skills, and an awareness of ourselves as individuals. A couple is made up of two unique individuals who come from very different family backgrounds and who bring diverse beliefs and perspectives into the relationship. It's no wonder that difficulties arise. It is common for partners to get caught up in negative, destructive cycles that unless stopped, can propel the relationship into greater disharmony. Couples therapy can lead to a deeper and more meaningful relationship.

When working with couples, I use several approaches to treatment including PACT and RLT. You may find that out work together is different than previous experiences you have had in couples therapy. Through our work together, you and your partner will discover how to stay connected, help each other feel safe and secure, manage each other’s emotional highs and lows, fight well and minimize each other’s stress. Longer sessions allow us to go deeper, getting to the heart of the issues you are facing and allowing time for repair to occur in session. Learn to have a secure relationship where both partner’s needs are met.

As human beings we are hard wired for connection, yet many of us struggle in our most meaningful relationships for many reasons including betrayal, infidelity, blended families and other conflicts. Through 30 years of work we have recognized that often couples leave their relationship at the time they have the most to learn. Our team of therapists are trained to implement a variety of skills and techniques when working with couples, such as active listening skills, Imago, Gottman’s principals, managing emotions, and positive communication skills.

Couples counselling in my sessions includes communication styles and changes, understanding each person's perspective, and more awareness of oneself in the relationship. Healthy attitudes and behaviours are explored together. Sometimes individual therapy is suggested alongside couples therapy if there are more severe issues in the relationship. Couples may include pre-marital, married, partners, separated, or even good friends who want relationship growth.

Couples Counselling Most relationships will become strained at some point and will begin producing maladaptive patterns. Relationship problems are rooted in our distorted egos, insecure attachment, emotional immaturity etc., which create to the many issues that develop for couples - infidelity, financial stress, poor communication, ill health, sexual divergence, household responsibility conflicts, addictions, etc., .... or just simply growing apart. Relationships can often be restored if help is sought soon enough. A counsellor can help reorient perceptions and emotions (how we look at a situation and how we feel about it) and assist the couple in adopting conscious structural changes.

In working with couples, the relationship is my client. My goal is to ensure that both partners feel heard and validated. I support the couple in creating space to have conversations that might otherwise be difficult to have. In working with me, couples will learn improved ways of communicating and being there for one another. They will also learn how to manage conflict in a way that is supportive of relationship growth. Further, the couples' strengths will be highlighted and accessed to continue to grow the relationship bond.

One of the biggest decisions we make in life is choosing our partner. And then the real work begins. Divorce rates speak to how difficult sustaining a healthy marriage can be. Evidence-based studies have shown essential elements to a healthy and nourishing relationship. Couples counselling focuses on a variety of these areas including, communication, conflict management/resolution, and connection. Presenting issues include communication, conflict, infidelity, parenting issues, separation and divorce.

When a couple is in trouble, the act of seeking out a counsellor has to be motivated by the desire to stay together through hard work. Therapy is not for those who need it but for those who want it. This is even more true when it comes to working with couples. The journey is one of finding once more what brought them together in the first place. We work with forgiveness and building trust. We find ways for the couple to once again feel a sense of warmth and compassion as we break down the walls of resentment. We look at what is triggering the couple to fight. We go through the anatomy of a common and repetitive fight. i also teach the couple some body centered techniques.

There are many reasons why couples seek therapy. You may be experiencing communication problems that keep coming, feeling constantly criticized, not feeling heard, feeling emotionally distant from your partner, fighting over the same issues, feelings of anger and jealousy, feeling controlled by your partner, and differences in parenting styles. Couples therapy can help you strengthen your bond by learning healthy ways to communicate your needs, identify stuck patterns and learn new ways to be with each other. Often a few sessions is all that is needed for a “reset”.

My approach is to help people recognize that relationships are two-sided and understand how each individual contributes to the couple’s dynamic. With that understanding, we work toward reaching a win-win situation, aiming to restore the satisfaction of the relationship. Together, we create a safe space for you to grow past the areas of “stuckness” -- that is, the old patterns that are learned when we are young and are brought to our current relationships. This is true for all of us. Therapy enables us to form new and healthy attachment patterns that are nourishing and nurturing, providing opportunities for new growth and satisfaction.

A satisfying relationship is one of life's greatest pleasures. The good news is we have the research available to know the predictors of relationship success and demise. Let me work with you to gain insight into the strengths in your relationship and provide you with the skills to overcome the challenges to create the relationship experience you each desire.

Dr. Van Blyderveen offers Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples. This approach is evidence based and has a greater success rate than traditional couple's therapy. Therapy will focus on improving communication through creating and strengthening your emotional bond with one another. During therapy sessions Dr. Van Blyderveen will guide you and your partner through emotional conversations with one another with the goal of improving closeness, connection, and acceptance of one another.

We all want to love, be loved, and connect with our significant others. Yet, it can feel daunting at times, due to repetitive relationship patterns (influenced by our childhood wounding), poor communication skills, cultural/gender differences, and inability to negotiate “me” with “we”. So be it past trauma, poor communication skills, inability to handle stress, different upbringing (thereby different ways of doing things), or sexual challenges, among other things, I help couples identify the areas/habits which challenge them, behaviors which destroy relationships, and anything else that stands in the way of them achieving an intimate connection.

Couple counselling can help you enhance your relationship. I can help you improve communication skills, conflict resolution skills, emotional and sexual intimacy and negotiate your needs in your relationship. I can assist you to reduce arguments in a safe environment and learn to better understand yourself and your partner. I can help you to understand how unresolved issues from the past get displaced into the present and how to resolve this. The need to feel loved by one's partner is at the heart of marital desires. Learn to know how your partner needs to be shown love. In this way, the more you do this, the more he/she will reciprocate. It is a win/win situation.

My interest lies not only with how we can remove problems in the relationship but what sort of potential can be unlocked? Romantic relationships are one of the most common issues people come to counselling for and experience issues in. My approach is to fully understand each individual and the dynamics of the relationship to figure out what optimal improvement can look like.

Romantic relationships can be hard work. They require regular care to keep them functioning well. Many couples expect romance to go on forever without doing the necessary work only to face the realities of relationships. Relationship issues become more magnified when one or both parties carry a history of trauma. Couples counselling can help individuals learn about one another, communicate effectively and grow as individuals while becoming loving partners. The therapist is an unbiased party who is there to help both partners function together well as a unit by providing solution-based interventions.

If you are reading this profile, you are probably concerned about your relationship and want to seek help. You and your partner may be arguing all the time. You likely feel you are no longer connected and feel supported in your relationship. You may feel you are losing trust in your partner and in the relationship. Relationship, like everything else, requires a great deal of effort to build and cultivate. Rupture are inevitable but can be repaired/restored through the help of couple therapy. With over 12 years of clinical experience, I humbly want to support you to repair or restore your relationship. Please don't hesitate to reach out and get the help you need at this moment.

Specializing in couple therapy, I can help you and your partner work through difficult times such as affairs, broken relationship, losses, etc. As I am informed by Emotion Focused Therapy (which is effective in couple therapy), I can assist you in reaching out to your partner despite your fear and uncertainty. You will experience a closer and intimate relationship.

In 2015, I began studying the PACT (Psychobiological) Model for Couples Therapy. Using this model, I am passionate about working with couples. Based on "secure-functioning", you discover exactly, what you wanted but didn't know how to get there. Increasing your awareness on many levels gives you many more options. Discover how you and your partner can feel the way you long to feel and experience a warm safe loving relationship. Rediscover the promise held within the love and attraction that brought you together.