COUPLES THERAPY
Our relationship with our partner is our primary attachment relationship as adults. When this relationship is strained, it can take a toll on every aspect of our world. Three Little Birds therapists take a relational approach and have specialized training in supporting couples, including Gottman, Imago and Emotionally Focused couples therapy. We have helped couples through a variety of issues including infidelity/ affairs, substance use issues, life changes ( baby/ children, job change, loss, etc), sexual concerns, communication issues, feelings of disconnection, consensual non-monogomy and parenting style differences. We can also help couples who are contemplating divorce and help them process and explore what un-coupling would be like.
Some ways that we can help:
Increase healthy communication
Decrease frequency and intensity of conflict
Process anger, resentments and past hurts
Build trust
Increase feelings of connection and shared meaning
Co parenting issues
Address concerns around sexual intimacy
Increase sexual satisfaction and intimacy
Exploring or incorporating consensual non-monogamy
Family conflict issues
Impact of trauma on relationship
Family roles, shared responsibility in household
Life changes
Building life goals and dreams
Relationship Well-Check
Lets re-think couples therapy.
Our culture often takes a reactive “sick care” approach to physical health, treating symptoms after an illness or disease is already present. Mental health care is no different, with people often waiting months or even years after symptoms are present before they seek support. In particular, couples often wait much longer than they should, with research indicating that the average delay between symptom onset and seeking support being 2.5 years on the low end and 6 years on the high end. Just like anything, the longer you wait to get support, the harder it becomes to resolve and manage symptoms, as on going relational rupture can cause significant damage to feelings of connection and safety and lead to issues like decreased emotional intimacy, low physical intimacy, emotional abuse and infidelity.
By engaging in preventative care and maintenance with your emotional health and relationship, you are identifying potential challenges before they become symptomatic, and giving you and your relationship a much better chance at a timely resolution for any issues that are present.
Katie Dolinsky, LMFT, uses the Prepare/ Enrich Assessment, The Couples Satisfaction Index, and several other assessments to get an informed picture of what is happening in your relationship. She then takes that data and provides you professional feedback and guidance in an Insight Session. During the Insight session you will also each get a copy of your Couples Report from Prepare/ Enrich, an electronic copy of the Prepare/ Enrich Workbook, which contains over 20 targeted interventions to help you through some of your challenge areas, as well as a personalized treatment plan to help inform your continued growth. Armed with information, you and your partner get to make an informed decision about whats right for you and your relationship moving forward, whether thats doing prescribed exercises at home or beginning on going therapy.
To find out more please visit: https://www.threelittlebirdstherapyandwellness.com/relationship-wellcheck
A Relationship WellCheck is a short term, targeted approach to therapy to help you and your partner identify your relationships strengths and growth areas and create a targeted plan on how you want to work through potential challenges or blocks and keep whats working going.