Are you considering marriage and family therapy? Perhaps you are…
- Struggling in your relationship?
- Caught in a negative perspective regarding your partner and your relationship?
- Having difficulty managing conflict in your relationship?
- Caught in gridlocked, perpetual conflict?
- Feeling lonely and isolated in your relationship?
- Having difficulty with child behavior or parent-child conflict?
If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you may be a good candidate for marriage and family therapy.
Marriage and family therapists are specially trained to work with relationships: couple, parent-child, and family relationships. A good marriage and family therapists work with the relationship as a whole, as a system, while balancing the welfare and needs of all involved in and affected by the relationship.
I believe that individuals, couples, and families have the inner resources to enhance their emotional, mental, and behavioral well-being, but often get stuck in unproductive stories and/or cycles or patterns of behavior. My task, therefore, is to help them discover their resources and to identify and develop alternative stories or patterns of behavior. I employ an integrated family therapy approach based on theory and research.
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Gottman Therapist, Couples Workshop Leader, and Clinical Trainer (see my profile on the Gottman Referral Network). In addition to my training in marriage and family therapy, I have been trained and certified in a particular school of couples therapy, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, based on the pioneering work and research of Dr. John Gottman with over 3000 couples for over four decades and his collaboration with Dr. Julie Gottman. This method emphasizes a “nuts-and-bolts” approach to improving clients’ relationships and is designed to help teach specific tools to deepen friendship and intimacy in your relationship. To help you productively manage conflicts, you will be given methods to manage “resolvable problems” and dialogue about “gridlocked” (or perpetual) issues. We will also work together to help you appreciate your relationship’s strengths and to gently navigate through its vulnerabilities.
Within marriage and family therapy, I have experience working with couples in recovery from addiction, situational intimate partner violence, infidelity, parent-child conflict, children and adolescents with behavioral problems, families of addiction, and suicidal ideation. Additionally, I am Spanish-English bilingual and have a Master of Divinity in Theology and am willing to incorporate spirituality into the therapy if you so desire.