When you enter into therapy as a couple, you bring your individual and collective experiences, dreams and hurts, as well as the history of your relationship. Your relationship dynamic is created in the partnership based on these hopes and fears. In coming to therapy, I can help you to shift painful or damaging dynamics. At the core of every relationship, is the need to know that your partner will show up for you in a loving and engaged way.
To feel safe in an intimate relationship, you need to know that your partner will be accessible, responsive to your needs and engaged in the partnership.
In order to open up to your partner and share yourself in such a vulnerable way, you must know that your partner is emotionally available to respond to your feelings and needs.
You may not know how to reach out to your partner and your partner may not know how to support you. Or perhaps you have become stuck in your old and painful patterns, leaving you feeling closed and guarded. If you sense that your partner is not accessible and engaged with you, you may respond by shutting down or pushing away fight, flight.
While this serves to protect you from immediate pain, it also leaves both partners feeling alone and disconnected. This damages and often ends, many otherwise loving relationships. However, you can break this cycle and learn to communicate with your partner. Identify, repair and prevent problematic dynamics and negative cycles.
