COUPLES THERAPY

Expanding the boundaries of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), with a little bit of Mindfulness work mixed in, our framework for Couples Therapy goes beyond each partners' moment-to-moment interactions and takes into account the personal characteristics of the two individuals, their social, emotional and communication interactions together, and influences of the couple's interpersonal, physical, and perceptual (how they think) environment. An emphasize is placed on what each partner brings to the relationship, including each person's past relationship experiences, current motives or needs, personality style, thinking styles, and mental distress or disorders, including Relationship Anxiety, other Anxiety Disorders, and Depression. Understanding how the couple's environment influences relationship functioning, including such factors as the couple's family systems, community and cultural influences, and other circumstances such as job loss, infidelity or a death in the family add more important information to the work we do. We move beyond a focus on dysfunctional aspects of relationships to provide an equal emphasis on the contributions that positive behavior, cognitions, and emotions play in bringing connection, communication and intimacy into a couples' relationship. Our Couples Therapy work integrates the twin goals of acceptance and change as positive outcomes for couples in therapy.

Research in Couples Therapy supports that those who succeed in therapy usually make some concrete changes to accommodate the needs of the other while also showing greater emotional acceptance of the other - there's a commitment to being curious about differences and accepting those differences. The couple progress through two major phases of treatment: An evaluation/feedback phase which usually occurs during the first 3 sessions and allows the therapist to acquire information about the couple's concerns and difficulties, the couple's strengths, a conceptualization of the major themes in the couple's struggles, how the couple is thinking about these issues, the reasons why the couple has these challenges, and how therapy can help. The second phase in Couples Therapy is the active treatment phase and occurs when the couple make a decision to continue with therapy. Most sessions include both partners, occur weekly, and stay focused on balancing change and acceptance as the couple work toward improving skills associated with understanding how specific thoughts are related to feelings, which then drive particular responses between couples, identifying and correcting thinking errors (cognitive distortions), enhancing effective communication, problem-solving, emotional intimacy, conflict-resolution, compassion, and forgiveness in order to strengthen commitment to the friendship and love relationship. In addition, consider the following statistics seen below:

OVER THE COURSE OF MARRIED, HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE USA, EXTRAMARITAL SEX OCCURS IN LESS THAN 25% OF COMMITTED RELATIONSHIPS.
WHEN A MAN FIRST APPROACHES A WOMAN, SHE WILL BASE 55% OF HER INITIAL IMPRESSION ON HIS APPEARANCE AND BODY LANGUAGE, 38% ON HIS STYLE OF SPEAKING, AND 7% ON WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAYS.
THE NUMBER ONE PREDICTOR OF DIVORCE IS THE HABITUAL AVOIDANCE OF CONFLICT.
40 MILLION: THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO USE ON-LINE DATING SERVICES.
44% OF THE ADULT AMERICAN POPULATION IS SINGLE. DIVORCE DROPS A PERSON'S WEALTH BY AN AVERAGE OF 77%.
752,370 COUPLES PER YEAR SEE A MARRIAGE, FAMILY, THERAPIST.
THE NUMBER OF COHABITATING UNMARRIED PARTNERS INCREASED BY 88% BETWEEN 1990 AND 2007.
AN ESTIMATED 107 MILLION AMERICANS AREN'T MARRIED - THAT'S A THIRD OF THE U.S. ADULT POPULATION.
62% OF MEN AND 80% OF WOMEN SAY THAT SEXUAL FIDELITY IN A RELATIONSHIP IS "A MUST HAVE".
WHEN DATING A NEW PARTNER, 46% OF MEN AND 26% OF WOMEN EXPECT TO MOVE IN TOGETHER BEFORE THEY’D BEEN DATING LESS THAN A YEAR.