Article by Kate Ernstrom, LCSW, PMH-C, CST and Gabby Pendley, LCSW, CADC, PMH-C Infertility is a highly personal journey, impacting not only one’s hopes for the future but also emotional, relational, and sexual health. In today’s world, an estimated 10-15% of couples experience infertility (ASRM, 2023), a reality that often creates a ripple effect across…
Couples Counseling
How Individual Therapy Can help Couples Therapy
If you are struggling in your relationship, couples therapy can be an incredible tool to build communication skills, closeness, and intimacy. Couples therapy gives both you and your partner a space where the focus is on your relationship. This approach to therapy can help both you and your partner join forces to improve your relationship…
Couples Therapy: How to Maintain Success
Source: Photo by AllGo on Unsplash The beginning of couples therapy tends to create a lot of positive change in the relationship. You will learn how to change your cycles of conflict and improve your communication. In some of my previous articles, I have shared some of the skills that you can use to strengthen…
Insights from Couples Therapy: Family Logistics Meeting
Source: Photo by Laura Margarita Cedeño Peralta on Unsplash Successful relationships are built on effective communication and working together. Unfortunately, the stresses and pressures from daily life can get in the way, resulting in both of the individuals feeling like they are not getting the support they need. However, the time when we feel busiest…
Couples Therapy: A Daily Conversation That Can Reduce Stress and Improve Connection
Source: Photo by In Lieu & In View Photography on Unsplash In any relationship you are present as both a partner and as an individual. While you live together, you also have a life that is separate from your loved one. We spend time apart from each other and simultaneously want to be a part…
Couples Therapy: The State of the Union Conversation
Source: Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash Once we have been in a romantic relationship for a long time it is easy to fall into a rut or to switch to autopilot. By the time we notice that we have fallen into a routine or begin to stagnate, it can feel incredibly difficult to break…
When Should We Come in for Relationship Counseling?
One of the most common questions I hear early on in relationship counseling is, understandably, “Can you help us? Is there hope?” The feelings of fear and doubt are clearly present behind these questions, and the answer is never a simple “yes” or “no.” One of the biggest determinants of positive outcomes in couples therapy…
Conflict in Relationships: The Importance of Language
There is simply no way to avoid conflict in a long-term relationship with an intimate partner. Conflict is an intrinsic part of relationships. You are two different people who are spending a lot of time together. As you are each your own person, you are bound to find things about your partner that do not…
Demystifying Gottman-Based Couples Counseling
We are inundated with relationships-focused books that offer a variety of often contradictory advice. The multitude of perspectives can be overwhelming. It is easy to feel paralyzed. Which advice is right? What will actually make a positive, sustainable difference in a committed relationship? The Gottman Method of couples therapy provides couples with accessible, evidence-based blueprint…
