Couples therapy (sometimes referred to as marriage counseling) is for partners in a relationship, married or not. The goal of couples therapy is to improve the relationship.

This type of therapy helps couples decide whether they should continue to stay together. Although couples therapy focuses on the couple, sometimes one or both parties’ psychological issues need addressing.

Therapy often includes sessions designed to improve problem-solving, build communication skills, and identify life goals and relationship responsibilities. Other common issues are infidelity, financial problems, illness, and other life changes – as well as anger.

I offer both Gottman's Method of Counseling and Emotionally Focused Therapy.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East
• Aetna
• Out-of-network
• Private Pay

What is Discernment Counseling?

Discernment counseling is a short-term therapy (five sessions or fewer) designed to help couples on the brink of divorce gain clarity and confidence about deciding on a direction for their marriage.

Couples decide whether they’d like to stay in the marriage as-is, pursue a divorce, or reconcile and repair the relationship.

What makes Discernment counseling powerful is that it meets spouses where they are.

This form of counseling honors the fact that one spouse is “leaning out” or unsure of the marriage while the other spouse is “leaning in” or wanting to make the marriage work.

Couples openly explore their problems.

• Discernment counseling lasts up to five sessions. At the end of every session, the couple decides whether they’d like to return for the next session.
• In each session, the counselor meets with the couple for about 45 minutes. Then, each partner meets individually with the counselor for about 30 minutes.
• Most couples find the format of both conjoint and individual sessions quite relieving and useful because it allows them to bring up issues together and discuss how they feel about them.
• Individually, they explore how they contributed to the problem and what they need to correct the problem.

Many factors lead couples to consider divorce.
Nobody gets married hoping to be divorced one day.

Unfortunately, people change. When hardships occur, many couples find themselves faced with deciding if divorce is the next step for them.

The reasons couples consider divorce may be as simple as personality conflicts that seem irreconcilable to cases of abuse.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East

What is group counseling?

Group counseling is a very positive experience for most people because the therapist and group members build a safe place to explore the problems surrounding their relationships.

Through the sharing process, members develop a level of trust that allows them to be honest, open with one another, and accept each other despite any faults.

Group counseling usually is effective because members behave in ways that reflect how they are outside of the group. Other members can support the individual by changing those unproductive patterns through feedback.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East

What is individual counseling?

Individual counseling (sometimes called psychotherapy, talk therapy, or treatment) is a process through which clients work one-on-one with a trained mental health clinician in a safe, caring, and confidential environment.

The counseling focuses on everyday issues that come with development – issues where a helping hand or leg-up would resolve the issue before it became a problem.

Counseling seeks to help people before the problem becomes heightened or when the problem becomes overwhelming.

Individual counseling’s expectation is to…

• Help improve the relationships between two people.
• Typically, the relationship is a critical part of what makes counseling successful.
• Counselors assist individuals with expressing emotions, solving personal problems, and understanding oneself better.
• They also offer support and resources.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East

Recovery from an affair is hard.

After an affair has happened, the challenge becomes recovery.

Is it possible to put the past behind you when the past includes you or your partner’s affair?

Recovery after upsetting events is a skill set that all couples need – one that they especially need to use after the trauma of infidelity.

The good news is that full recovery, even after long-standing or multiple affairs, is possible. Ideally, recovery ends up with everyone having learned and grown.

Does counseling help with recovery?

The aftermath of betrayal can be long and painful. Healing after an affair might seem to be a harrowing task.

Working with a trained counselor helps with surviving infidelity.

Counseling is an effective way to recover after an affair. Through counseling, both partners regain trust in one another.

So, if you ask, does a marriage survive infidelity, or does marriage counseling work in healing from infidelity in marriage? The answer is yes, but only if you are determined to do the work!

Deceiver – explore your relationship.

• Understanding and clarifying personal decisions and problems in the marriage need to be explored by both partners.
• Become aware of the deeper problems within yourself and your marriage and commit to making active changes.
• You need to understand if there was a long-standing sense of inadequacy that the affair partner soothed.
• Did underlying anger regarding your partner cause your marital distance? Was there insufficient prioritizing of the marriage?

The Deceived needs to heal from the betrayal.

• Recovery for the Deceived begins with healing the pain caused by the marital breach itself. Healing begins when the Deceiver expresses genuine compassion for the pain that the betrayal has caused.
• Demonstrating real empathy over the pain and hurt created by the Deceiver helps prevent long-term resentment by the betrayed partner.
• Over time, the betrayed spouse/partner must explore their feelings of shock, rage, hurt, confusion, and sadness. A safe place allows the betrayed spouse/partner to be heard and listened to by the Deceiver.
• Clarity regarding how and why the affair happened needs exploration while using empathy and support.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East

What is Sex Therapy?

Sex therapy is simply a specialized way of treating sexual concerns from a psychological perspective, including addressing any mental health conditions that may relate to or arise from these concerns.

Sex therapy never involves sexual contact or sexual behavior in front of the therapist.

A sex therapist supports a person with any issue related to sex and sexuality and explores sexuality, sexual identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and general mental health issues associated with a healthy sexual life.

I am currently in-network with:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Humana
• Cigna
• Tricare
• Tricare East