Couples Therapy includes some of the following:
- traditional female/male couples
- dating relationships
- senior couples
- gay or lesbian partners
- culturally / ethnically / racially diverse couples
Developmental stages of couples, such as moving in together, weddings, infertility, pregnancy, loss of work, illness, extended family issues, empty-nest, deaths and so on affect healthy couple functioning and become a part of the therapy.
Couple counseling and support work is often short-term. The therapy is designed to help those facing crises to work through their problems with professional intervention. The focus of the work is on helping relatively healthy couples get through difficult times and strengthen relationships. Problems and coping strategies are identified and goals are set that underline strengths and that lead to positive growth and development with the couple.
As a professional, I help provide constructs and interventions that allow the couple to break maladaptive cycles, such as difficulty in communicating, blaming and/or conflict. In the process, individual and couple strengths and sources of support are identified, and more effective coping methods are found.