Therapy for Intimate Partners

 

What will you learn in IP therapy?

  • Clear, compassionate communication

  • Conflict resolution

  • How to be closer and more intimate

  • How to create domestic equality

  • Parenting skills

  • Infidelity recovery

  • Balancing connectedness and autonomy

  • Collaborative separation and divorce

  • How to successfully blend families

  • Effective sexual communication

  • How to set and maintain boundaries with love

  • How to have difficult conversations, about sex, money, children

 

I personally love working with loving life partners. It’s a privilege and an honor to watch as intimates learn to drop their defenses and let each other back in again. In my office I’ve witnessed great acts of forgiveness, generous shows of compassion and acceptance, and the emergence of hope and trust. I’ve also seen my clients assert their needs, boundaries and limits — often for the first time — in a clear and loving way. And I’ve seen people liberate each other from unrealistic expectations that can’t be met. Couples learn to stop hiding behind sarcasm and silence and to begin really listening to each other.

Counseling is appropriate for life partners at any stage of their relationship. Too often, partners wait for a crisis to seek help. I could throw out some tired metaphors about waiting for your car to run out of oil to take it to the mechanic, or treating your cholesterol after you have a heart attack . . . but you get the point. Trying to heal a relationship after a crisis — an affair, financial catastrophe, emotional infidelity, or the devastating realization that you just can’t stand your partner anymore — is like trying to stop a speeding train while you’re lying under it.

But all relationships have the potential to heal. You can learn the skills that increase warmth, love, connectedness and understanding, and decrease anger, resentment, distance and confusion. If you are reading this and wondering if couples therapy is for you, why not contact me or another counseling professional to find out more right now?