What You Can Expect

Every relationship is different, which is why I tailor the therapy process to your unique goals, context, and lived experience. I use evidence-based approaches that foster emotional connection, deep insight, and meaningful, lasting change.

Each model I incorporate is grounded in research and selected with care, based on what we uncover together in your story and patterns. Below, you’ll find a closer look at the therapeutic frameworks I draw from and how they can support growth and healing in your relationship.

What is Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy?

Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) helps couples recognize and change unhelpful patterns while also fostering greater understanding and acceptance of each other. It focuses on:

  • Identifying the root of recurring conflicts instead of just surface disagreements

  • Improving emotional connection and reducing reactive arguments

  • Helping couples balance change and acceptance—recognizing what can shift and what requires a new perspective

Unlike traditional approaches that focus primarily on conflict resolution, IBCT also helps partners develop deeper emotional responsiveness, so they feel heard, supported, and understood in their relationship.

    • Recurring arguments that feel unresolved or circular

    • Emotional disconnection, withdrawal, or reactivity

    • Difficulty balancing acceptance of differences with a desire for change

    • Challenges in expressing vulnerability or emotional needs

    • Feeling stuck in unproductive cycles of blame or frustration

    • Improving emotional attunement and conflict repairescription

  • IBCT is designed to help partners move from feeling stuck in conflict to building a more connected, supportive relationship.

    Assessment Phase
    Therapy begins with a structured assessment. Couples meet both together and individually with the therapist to explore relationship history, strengths, concerns, and recurring patterns. The therapist gathers insight into each partner’s perspective and how their interactions contribute to distress. Following the assessment, the therapist provides a summary of key relationship dynamics—highlighting emotional disconnection, unhelpful cycles, and strengths that can support change.

    Treatment Phase
    IBCT focuses on two main components: acceptance and change.

    • Acceptance strategies help partners better understand each other’s emotional needs, reducing defensiveness and frustration.

    • Change strategies involve practical communication and problem-solving tools to improve interactions and deepen connection.

    Over time, couples learn to shift negative cycles and respond to one another in more constructive, emotionally attuned ways.

  • A typical course of IBCT includes 12 to 26 weekly sessions, depending on the couple’s needs and goals.

    • Assessment Phase: 1–3 sessions to explore relationship dynamics and set a treatment plan

    • Treatment Phase: Focused sessions to build emotional acceptance, shift unhelpful patterns, and strengthen connection.

    Therapy is tailored and paced to support meaningful, sustainable change.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Couple Therapy?

Many psychological conditions—like depression, OCD, PTSD, eating disorders, and perinatal depression—are deeply connected to relationship dynamics. When one partner is struggling, both often feel the impact.

Cognitive Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT) is a structured, evidence-based approach that addresses both individual mental health concerns and the relationship patterns that may reinforce them. By involving both partners, CBCT helps couples improve communication, reduce stress, and build supportive behaviors that promote healing and satisfaction for both the individual and the relationship.

    • How relationship dynamics contribute to or maintain individual symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, eating disorders)

    • Improving communication about mental health to reduce conflict and misunderstanding

    • Supporting a partner without reinforcing avoidance or reassurance-seeking

    • Strengthening emotional connection to reduce isolation and distress

    • Identifying and shifting unhelpful thought and behavior patterns in both partners

    • Building coping strategies that actively involve both people in the healing process

  • CBCT has proven especially effective for couples where one partner is experiencing depression, PTSD, anxiety, OCD, or chronic stress. Research shows that improving the relationship dynamic can significantly support individual healing and overall life satisfaction.

    Assessment Phase
    The therapist begins by exploring how the individual’s symptoms affect the relationship—and how relational patterns may, in turn, reinforce distress. Each partner’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are considered in relation to both personal well-being and the health of the relationship.

    Feedback & Treatment Planning
    Next, the therapist identifies unhelpful cycles and offers a plan to improve emotional regulation, strengthen supportive behaviors, and modify patterns that contribute to stress or disconnection.

    Treatment Phase
    Couples work together on strategies that support both symptom relief and relational health, including:

    • Cognitive restructuring to address negative or distorted thought patterns

    • Behavioral techniques to encourage healthier interactions and reduce stress

    • Communication skills to express needs and concerns more effectively

    • Problem-solving tools to manage shared challenges

    • Exposure-based methods for conditions like OCD or PTSD where avoidance is common.

  • CBCT typically includes 12 to 20 weekly sessions, tailored to the couple’s needs and progress. It begins with a structured assessment and treatment planning phase, followed by focused work on building relational skills and supporting individual recovery.

What is Functional Analytic Psychotherapy?

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) helps individuals and couples create meaningful, lasting change by exploring how relational patterns show up in the present moment. That includes how we express emotion, seek closeness, manage vulnerability, or react to conflict, especially in our closest relationships.

Rather than just talking about change, FAP brings patterns into the therapy room so they can be gently noticed, understood, and practiced in real time. This approach emphasizes emotional presence, authentic connection, and behavior change through lived experience, not just insight.

By focusing on what unfolds in the therapeutic relationship—or between partners during sessions—FAP helps people build self-awareness, emotional courage, and more flexible, fulfilling ways of relating to others and themselves.

    • Difficulty expressing needs or emotions in close relationships

    • Feeling disconnected, distant, or emotionally shut down

    • People-pleasing, avoidance, or fear of conflict

    • Patterns of self-criticism, shame, or relational insecurity

    • Repetitive dynamics with partners, friends, or family members

    • Struggles with intimacy, trust, or fear of abandonment

    • Healing from past relational trauma through corrective emotional experiences

    • Practicing vulnerability and authenticity in safe, supported ways

  • Awareness & Real-Time Feedback
    FAP starts by gently exploring how key relational patterns show up—both in your daily life and right there in the therapy room. For individuals, this might include noticing tendencies to withdraw, over-accommodate, or hide emotions. In couples work, partners are guided in bringing real emotional experiences into the session and learning to respond to each other in new, more connected ways.

    Relational Practice
    Because therapy itself is a relationship, FAP creates a safe space to practice new ways of being—like asking for reassurance, expressing hurt, or standing up for your needs. These moments, supported by the therapist, often become the foundation for change outside the therapy room.

    A Strength-Based Approach
    FAP doesn’t just focus on what’s difficult. It also helps you build on your strengths—authenticity, courage, emotional presence—so you can relate to others (and yourself) in more flexible and fulfilling ways.

  • FAP can be part of short- or long-term therapy, depending on your goals and what feels most supportive. Many individuals and couples see meaningful progress in 12–20 sessions, especially when therapy starts with clear goals and uses in-the-moment relational work early on.

    For others, longer-term work allows for deeper emotional growth, healing, and relationship repair.

    Because FAP focuses on emotional safety, authenticity, and real change, it’s flexible and tailored to fit your unique needs and relational context.

What are Brief Intervention and Prevention Relationship Health Services?

Just like we care for our physical health with regular checkups, our relationships benefit from intentional maintenance and proactive support. Brief interventions and prevention services help couples stay connected, deepen emotional intimacy, and strengthen communication before patterns become problems.

These services are ideal for couples who want to nurture what’s already working, prepare for future transitions, or simply invest in long-term relational health. Rooted in research, these sessions offer practical tools and insight to help your relationship thrive now and in the future.

    • We’re in a strong relationship and want to invest in continued growth and connection

    • We believe in prevention and want to address small issues before they become bigger challenges

    • We’re navigating a transition—like parenting, marriage, or relocation—and want to stay aligned

    • We value intentional care and want tools to help our relationship flourish long term

    • We’re looking for structured, evidence-based support that honors both our strengths and goals

  • Assessment & Feedback
    We begin with a structured assessment to explore strengths and areas of growth—covering topics like communication, conflict resolution, emotional connection, and intimacy. You’ll receive clear feedback and guidance based on your unique dynamic.

    Skill Building
    Based on your needs, we’ll focus on targeted skills and exercises to improve communication, increase closeness, and support long-term relationship health. Sessions are practical, collaborative, and strength-based.

  • Most couples benefit from 1 to 4 sessions, depending on their goals. Some prefer a one-time consultation, while others opt for a short series of structured sessions. These services are flexible and designed to meet you where you are—offering just the right amount of support to help your relationship thrive.