Kelley Hopkins-Alvarez, LPC,CST,BCC,MS,MSEd

Working with me is a little different! I provide direct feedback and strategies and work primarily with clients in my office vs teletherapy.

My practice specializes entirely in working with couples and co-parents. If you are coming in to see me, you are most likely stuck and need help communicating with your partner or your co-parent. Many of my clients describe a negative cycle that keeps occurring despite their best efforts. The cycle tends to be around communication, parenting, money, career, and/or health, and if they are still in a relationship, intimacy/sex. 

Testimonials:

http://www.kelleyhopkinsalvarez.com/Testimonials.en.html  

Couples Therapy (can include Intensive 2-4hr sessions)

·       Affair Recovery Specialist – grief and trust fractures from secrets in the relationship

·       Assistance in identifying and responding to feelings and triggers in healthier ways

·       Learning how your negative communication cycle causes impasses in your relationship and ways to find common  

·       Tools to self-regulate when you are not being heard

·       Your relationship bond needs the essential tools of active listening, repair, and validation 

·       Each partner learns to identify their part in how relationship got to this point vs blame

·       Refocus on prioritizing your relationship, even though you may be parents

·       Stop putting your relationship last!

Training for Couples Therapy:

• Emotionally Focused Therapy-Advanced Level, facilitated-George Faller, Greenwich, CT
• Emotionally Focused Therapy- Externship,    facilitated by Dr. Sue Johnson
• Gottman Method Therapy, facilitated by Drs. John and Julie Schwartz-Gottman   
• Doherty Approach Couples Therapy Method-   facilitated- Dr. Bill  Doherty
• Certified Sex Therapist -  AASECT & Institute for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment

Discernment Counseling:

·      Certified Discernment Counselor  

·      Assist couple in getting clarity and confidence about the direction of their relationship, based on a deeper understanding of what’s happened to their marriage and each person’s contributions to the problems 

·      On-going trainings with Dr. Bill Doherty, creator of Discernment Counseling

Discernment Counseling Outcomes are framed in terms of 3 paths:  

• Path One - Status Quo (stay married)
• Path Two - Separation/Divorce
• Path Three - Six-month commitment to couples therapy, with a clear agenda for personal change and with divorce off the table during this time.  

Healing Separation:

·      Healing Separation Specialist, model created by Dr. Bruce Fisher 

·      Healing Separation is an honest effort between the partners to take hold of their own separation and co-create it; so that it remains non-adversarial and protective of their emotional and physical health, and that of any children

·      An immediate need of most separations is to “cool-off” an overheated relationship 

When a relationship is in trouble, partners have essentially three choices:

1.    Continue the relationship as is (status quo). 

2.  End the relationship due to it seeming impossible to fix. Partners have run out of ways to try and fix the  

     negative cycles, so most feel their only remaining option is to end the relationship. 

3. Engage in a Healing/Therapeutic Separation which offers a process where each partner can work on themselves while separated. Healing/Therapeutic Separation is structured time apart which may help partners heal a relationship. For many, after going through this process, it results in transforming and relaunching the existing relationship. Thus, moving it from conflict, emotional distance, lack of trust, and/or lack of intimacy, to a more connected and loving relationship. For some though, Healing Separation results in one or both partners moving forward to end the relationship in a more mindful and non-adversarial way.   

Co-Parenting Counseling:

·      Ongoing Training by the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce

·      Mediation Course

·      Collaborative Divorce Course

·      I specialize in helping co-parents find ways around their co-parenting impasses, which can be partly fueled from “leftovers” from their unsolved negative marital cycle from their relationship.

·      I provide developmentally appropriate, child-focused information on kids to help educate and support co-parents.

·      I teach positive co-parenting strategies and tools.

I help couples understand how the quality of their bond and attachment with each other may be impacting their sex and intimacy issues.  

I Also Work Carefully and Respectfully Regarding:

Mismatched sexual desire, issues with orgasm, hormonal issues, trauma & trust issues from infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual trauma, perimenopause and menopause, andropause (for men), chronic pain, sexuality and/or gender concerns, empower you to speak with your doctor to discuss if your medications are impacting you sexually, identify the effects of excessive drinking or smoking in regard to sex, how lack of exercise impacts sex, and to identify how medical issues such as diabetes, surgery and/or cancer, can affect sexual functioning, 

Training for Sex Therapy: 

·       I am an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, the requirements include:

These requirements are in addition to post-graduation with a Master’s in Counseling and post-licensure by the State of CT Department of Health as a Licensed Professional Counselor. I have gone above and beyond my LPC license to fulfill the requirements for a specialization in  Sex Therapy. 

·       *90 hours of courses in 15 core areas of human sexuality 

·       *60 hours of training in seven specific disciplines related to sex therapy 

·       *Treated a minimum of 300, peer-reviewed, sex therapy cases 

·       *50 hours of clinical supervision by an AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor. 

 Coaching:

I am a Board-Certified Relationship Coach (BCC) from the Center for Credentialing and Education. The BCC is a mark of excellence in the field of professional coaching. As your Relationship Coach, we will partner on setting goals and determining objectives to meet these goals using techniques that build on your current strengths. I draw inspiration from disciplines that include leadership and ethics training, psychology, systems therapy, positive development, and mentoring.   

I am Licensed Professional Counselor and Board-Certified Coach 

Working with me includes email support outside of your session at no additional fee, which is not something that you will find most therapists offer. Research supports that change requires regular exposure to support as well as positive, change-based messages.

YouTube:   

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoGaGLogaG1b7dhJjOj5rOw

What I Am Proud of:

My background includes over 30 years of combined experience in psychotherapy, business, and education, in which I draw from. I have been a guest speaker for the Connecticut Counseling Association, CT Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce, Post LIU University and Western, Southern and Central Connecticut State Universities, where I have provided essential mental health training to therapists, educators, attorneys, and finance professionals. 

I also developed the concept for, co-curated, and presented at the conference, Building Resiliency to Prevent Lethal School Violence that was held at Post University. This was the first of its kind conference that brought together professionals from the law enforcement, mental health, and education fields. 

Education:

• Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
• Master’s Degree in Counseling
• Master’s Degree in Education
• Board Certified Coach (BCC)
• National Certified Counselor (NCC)
• Connecticut State Department of Education: School Counselor and Teacher Certification

Professional Memberships:

• Member Connecticut Counseling Association  (CCA)
• New York Center For Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy ( NYCEFT)
• American Counseling Association ( ACA)
• American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy
• American Association of Sexuality Educations, Counselors and Therapists ( AASECT)
• Member of CT Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce (CCND)

My Office is Distinctive and Therapeutic:

I believe that part of this process is having a session and waiting room that is motivating, elegant and non-clinical.

My office is conveniently located at 100B Danbury Road, Suite 201D, Ridgefield, CT (building is behind Union Savings Bank, Building B, on Route 35, about 15 minutes from the Danbury Mall).   Nearby, there is a gentle walking path around a pond at the Ridgefield Rec Center and shopping and dining in Ridgefield's quaint downtown. 

Personal Joy:

I have been married for 32 years to my husband and we have two girls, 17 and 27. I enjoy concerts, our dog, comedy, nature, fitness and travel.

I’m looking forward to connecting with you to discuss how to successfully get the changes that you want in your life. 

Respectfully,

Kelley Hopkins-Alvarez

LPC, CST, NCC, BCC

http://www.kelleyhopkinsalvarez.com