Even though we’re individuals, our relationships with each other are what make life meaningful. Sometimes, though, we need help navigating and managing those relationships, making couples and family counseling a valuable means of enhancing our overall well-being.

Marriage and family counselors take a holistic approach to treatment, being concerned with the overall, long-term well-being of both individuals and their families, as well as the dynamics between the individuals in them. Because how we think and feel about our relationships and our role in them has such a dramatic impact on our behavior, couples and family counseling is often used in conjunction with individual therapy. This approach ensures everyone is heard and supported in treatment, increasing the likelihood of success for everyone.

It’s also essential to treat and manage the effects of an individual’s condition, like substance abuse disorder in a child or adult in the family, depression, or challenges in an elderly family member, on a couple and the family unit.

The goal of couples and family counseling is to improve the patterns or symptoms within the group, and give those in treatment a set of strategies for changing their interactions and relationships. To do this, our clinicians use approaches such as systemic family therapy, structural family therapy, and imago therapy. We also have clinicians specially trained in the Gottman Method. 

Your clinician will work with everyone to determine the most effective approaches, and adjust the treatment plans as needed. Because couples and family counseling is solution-focused, it typically takes place over a shorter period of time. You can be sure, though, that your team will work with you for however long is necessary for everyone to feel you’ve reached your goals.

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Some of the modalities we utilize include:

• Gottman Method: a research-backed approach that teaches couples specific tools for managing conflict, deepening friendship, and building shared meaning.

• Imago Therapy: helps partners understand how childhood experiences shape present-day relationship patterns, and teaches structured dialogue to reduce reactivity.

• Systemic/Structural Family Therapy: looks at the family as a connected system, focusing on roles, boundaries, and communication patterns rather than any one person as “the problem.”