Great Couples Counseling in Live Oak, TX. Therapy to heal relationships.

Relationships take many forms and are as varied as we are as human beings. Couples work is not always husband wife, but can range from premarital issues and preparing for life together to same sex couples. Learning the best way to communicate with each other and gain greater levels of intimacy is one of the main goals when working with couples and I strive to move your relationship to the next level.

I facilitate constructive and open dialogues to strengthen relationships. Through effective communication strategies and conflict resolution techniques, I guide couples in addressing issues and enhancing emotional connection. My goal is to help partners rediscover shared goals, improve mutual understanding, and cultivate a healthier and more fulfilling partnership.

Living together as a couple can enrich your life. It can also being challenging and sometimes exhausting. The challenge of living in a way that nourishes both partners is ongoing as circumstances and people change. It requires courage and focus to face your role in the relationship. Typically each person is convinced that it is the other's "fault," and if he or would change then we could live happily ever after. Sometimes it may be that simple but personally I have not seen that. Working together we can explore the flow of your particular relationship and enhance the areas where it thrives as well as release the energy around the areas where it grinds and halts.

Couples benefit from focused work on issues of importance to them. Personality inventories, couple check ups, family-of-origin surveys with charts diagramming similarities and differences are fun, illustrative ways to understand, label, measure, and improve relationships. Gaining insight together in an understanding environment improves the way we live with each other.

Are you surprised how fast, intense or frequent arguments start? Have you started avoiding talking about what is important to you because you are almost always misunderstood or it never goes well? There are lessons and practices of communication that everyone can learn to turn down the volume and tune-in to hear the real message with higher fidelity. You don't have to jump into the same argument dance over-and-over again, but you do have the responsibility and ability to do your part to be a better listener and speaker. You will learn ways to deescalate each other and be calmer in tense moments, which probably sounds difficult but we start off easy and add more with progress.

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.

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.

We specialize in couples counseling. Our approach is one which acknowledges the emotional aspect of both individuals. We listen intently and provide a critical analysis so that all involved have a clear understanding of the issue and where there is possible miscommunication. We have found that there are typically areas in which both individuals can improve, and we focus on where those areas of improvement are needed. We also understand the delicate nature of couples counseling in that each is typically passionate in their own beliefs. We are very skilled communicators in getting buy in to where personal growth is needed.

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