*Please note I am not currently taking new couples clients at this time.

If you would like to work together on an individual basis, please feel free to schedule a consultation here. Otherwise please feel free to check back for future updates in the future.

You’re probably familiar with the dance. That one where your partner touches something vulnerable in you. Then, from a place of defense, you respond in a way that further closes them up, too. No longer are you in deep and loving connection, but armor to armor - unable to really touch. When couples seek help…

• Fighting about the dishes… is almost never just about the dishes

• Sexual problems… are almost never just about sex

• Infidelity… is almost never just about an affair

Each issue is a window into the intricate dynamics of your relationship itself.

• How do you fight?

• How do you communicate?

• How do you love?

I see couples both in person in Pasadena, and virtually throughout California, and frequently use Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) as the foundation of my work. Together, we’ll create a space outside the stress of work, the kids, and the car payments, where you can finally slow down, understand and shift the cycle you’re currently in so that you can communicate better, have conflict better, and even bring your sex life back to "life."

Work with me

Find out if couples therapy is right for you

Approach to Couples Therapy

As a couples therapist, I integrate several approaches to couples therapy, including Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), PACT, Gottman, and more. It’s my experience that by helping couples increase each member’s own ability to stand on two feet, understand one another and more deeply connect, and become better able to work as a team to approach their issues, and problems begin to melt.

The dance does its job of keeping you attached (consider that as long as you can get under each other’s skin you know they still care), but it usually comes at the expense of a more secure and healthy functioning and the deep connection they may have had before.

Work with a Couples Therapist

In addition to using EFT and attachment theory as the core of my work, I also take great care to work individually with each couple to honor the uniqueness of each relationship that walks through the door. No single one is like another. I therefore also use a highly integrative approach that tailors to each of my couple’s particular needs, often incorporating tools and research from other modalities including The Gottman Method, sex therapy, and more.

As a practitioner, I am sex-positive, LGBTQI+ affirming, kink-inclusive, culturally-sensitive, and trauma-informed.

Online Couples therapy Faq

Do we have to dial in from the same place for virtual couples therapy?

Couples therapy works best when both of you are in the same room, as a great amount of the work we’ll be doing is around connection and has a physiological component to it. I understand that from time to time work travel and other commitments may require that you dial into a session separately, but these are typically the exception.

Is online marriage counseling as effective as in-person marriage counseling?

Research suggests that online therapy can be as effective as in-person therapy. There are both advantages and disadvantages to doing couples counseling online; however, most couples I work with have not felt that meeting online created a hindrance to their progress.

Can we do a hybrid virtual / in person model?

I frequently offer virtual clients who are in the LA area the chance to come into the office from time to time when I have openings due to client cancellations and other intermittent availability. This allows us to do some of the work in person, while still allowing for the convenience of virtual sessions the majority of the time.

Do I have to live in California?

Yes. Both members of the couple must be current residents of California to move forward with virtual counseling.

Books:

• Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, by Sue Johnson

• Passionate Marriage, by David Schnarch

• 8 Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, by John & Judy Gottman

• The Seven Principles for Making a Marriage Work, by John Gottman

• Mating in Captivity, by Esther Perel

• The State of Affairs, by Esther Perel

• Come As You Are, by Emily Nagoski

• Set Boundaries, Find Peace, by Nedra Glover Tawwab

• Attached, by Amir Levine and S.F. Heller

• All About Love, by bell hooks

• The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm