Couples Therapy

 Through the EFT framework, we guide couples to reduce conflict, restore trust and respect, improve communication, and promote harmony and intimacy within the relationship. By helping couples recognize these dynamics and experience their interactions in a new way, we help remove feelings of guilt, blame, and isolation to help foster restorative emotional attachment experiences that remove barriers and enhance greater intimacy and closeness.

The therapist and clients look at patterns in the relationship and take steps to create a more secure bond and develop more trust to move the relationship in a healthier, more positive direction. We are not born with the skills and tools needed to have healthy, successful relationships. Communication is something that takes work and effort by both partners and is the starting point for couples therapy.
 

EFT therapists employ a number of effective interventions to promote emotional processing and relational bonding, including:

  • Reflection: Using empathy and repetition to encourage clients to reflect on their beliefs.
  • Validation: Acknowledging and affirming clients’ emotional experiences.
  • Re-enactment: Giving clients the opportunity to re-enact important emotional experiences and arrive at healthier conclusions.
  • Reframing: Encouraging clients to apply new meanings, based on attachment theory, to old problems or beliefs.

We help couples tackle emotional challenges by enabling them to express each other’s wants and needs in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere. These sessions foster a greater sense of closeness, enabling couples to establish a more loving and supportive relationship.

Frequently Asked Questions for Relationship Counselling

We help couples tackle emotional challenges by enabling them to express each other’s wants and needs in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere. These sessions foster a greater sense of closeness, enabling couples to establish a more loving and supportive relationship.

The reasons are as diverse as the couples we see; however, some common ones: 

  • Coping with a shared loss
  • Trust issues
  • Intimacy concerns
  • Infidelity
  • Household responsibilities
  • Communication difficulty
  • Major life transitions
  • Differing parenting styles
  • Financial hardship
  • Opposing political views

Therapy sessions last between one and one and a half hours. Initially couples are assessed over four sessions: an initial session together, individual sessions with each partner, and then a second session together. At that time, they then discuss next steps. Typically, within another three sessions couples begin to notice results. Many couples are well on their way to significant changes within another three sessions. The number of sessions varies among couples, depending on the state of their relationship. Couples with a single or narrow set of difficulties may not need more than five or six sessions, whereas a couple with entrenched differences who are emotional distant may require many more sessions.

We place an emphasis on helping couples work through their past and present issues from an emotional standpoint, whereas many counselling therapists simply teach skills to resolve issues. Unlike other practices that tend to offer one size fits all, our approach is to offer couples counselling therapy tailored to the needs and wants of each couple. We also make our services as accessible as possible by including evening and, upon request, weekend appointments. We also can offer appointments beyond the regular hour to hour and a half for couples who have difficulties attending the regular appointments

Yes, the sessions are still useful, although not as useful as sessions with both partners. We can help you understand and be more aware of your own reactions and responses so that you can foster more effective responses that may allow greater interaction and better communication.

Our clinic staff have the knowledge and experience in working with individuals or couples who are unsure about continuing their relationships/marriages. We can’t solve your situation, but we can help you understand what is happening and give you the tools you need to make decisions.