Services | Breakthrough Family Therapy

Individuals

My work with individuals does not follow a scripted format. I meet individuals where they are, following their lead on what they want to work on. As a therapist, I am extremely flexible; I am able to challenge my individuals when that is what they are needing, teach them specific skills, or sit back more quietly and let them vent and work through on their own. I work collaboratively with my clients, and provide a supportive, safe space in which they can process whatever they are struggling with.

Individual therapy is a unique experience of problem-solving and personal growth that occurs within the special relationship between therapist and client. I particularly enjoy my work with individuals because I am able to be witness to their personal development and evolution. Sometimes our work together is relatively short and focused on a few specific goals, and in other instances therapy is a longer, more involved, process. Whether we are working on healing deep trauma, trying to manage ongoing mental health challenges, learning new skills, or just trying to make a plan for life, it is such an honor to be a part of someone’s developmental journey.

Couples

My work with couples is more structured than my work with individuals. I have found that couples usually need to see very specific changes in a relatively quick amount of time. By the time couples seek counseling, they are very frustrated and often on the brink of separation. Because of this, I usually push couples quickly and try to accomplish the fundamental needed changes early in the beginning stages of therapy. Typically, my work with couples begins with us meeting 1x per week for 1 month and then I assess the progress they have made. At that point, I usually like to move to every other week while the couple work to solidify needed changes. Once improvement has been sustained, we will reduce our meetings to 1x per month until we decide that the goals have been reached and the changes appear stable.

Sometimes couples only require a few sessions to make some minor improvements, at other times, therapy can be ongoing for quite some time. As a marriage therapist, I am always striving to work myself out of a job…meaning, my goal is to help you as a couple, improve your communication and problem-solving skills as quickly as possible so that you no longer need me. My goal is to have you fire me because you no longer need my help.

Although all relationships are unique, I have found that couples tend to struggle with similar problems. The most common issues between couples tend to be the following: communication, lack of intimacy, chronic fighting, different parenting styles, trust, substance issues, porn addiction, infidelity, and general disconnection. Often, individual mental health challenges are making these issues worse. Most commonly, past trauma, family of origin trauma, depression, anxiety, addictions, and ADHD tend to seriously impact a relationship. When I work with couples who are LGBTQ+ or are living any type of “non-traditional” lifestyle, I have found that the relationship issues that they are struggling with are usually fairly typical, however there is almost always a societal context which makes their relationship more complicated.

As a final note, I want to be very honest with you: couples counseling can be hard work. You will both have to show up willing to make some changes. My job as a couples counselor is to make sure that the sessions are safe and productive and I take this seriously. I will not allow the dialog to become too escalated, mean or toxic. My job is to support both individuals and make sure that everyone is heard and understood, because both sides of the story are important and have validity. Although initially hard work, couples counseling can produce amazing changes that can turn a relationship around. Most relationships can be saved if both parties are willing to actively participate in improving it.

Breakthrough Family Therapy

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Individuals

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Couples

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