Therapy for Couples in Texas
Tired of the same fight in different clothes.
It starts with the dishes, or the calendar, or a tone of voice. Twenty minutes later you're somewhere much older and much worse, and neither of you can say how you got there.
That's not proof the relationship is failing. It usually means something between you is stuck, and stuck things can move.
You're probably the one who went looking.
Most people find a page like this on their own, at night, after something went wrong. One person usually starts this, and the other one takes some convincing.
If that's you, a few things are worth knowing. Wanting counseling doesn't mean you've decided the relationship is broken. Bringing it up isn't an accusation. And your partner isn't going to walk into a room where two people gang up on them, because that's not how I work.
If it helps, send them this page. It was written for both of you.
I'm not here to decide who's right.
Almost every couple arrives quietly hoping I'll referee, and half-afraid I'll rule against them. I don't do that. Not because I'm avoiding it, but because in my experience the fight is almost never the actual problem.
What I'm watching is the pattern. One of you pushes to resolve it now, the other needs space, and the harder one pushes the further the other goes, and around it turns. Neither of you invented that loop. Both of you are stuck in it. That's what we work on.
I'll be honest with each of you about what I see, including things that are hard to hear. But you're not going to leave a session with a score.
It's rarely the thing you'd put on a form.
The same argument on repeat, about something different every time
You've become roommates who coordinate well and don't really talk
Something happened, a betrayal or a breach of trust, and you don't know how to get back
Sex has become complicated, or absent, or a thing you avoid discussing
You're managing a big change together and need support
You fight fine, and you can't seem to repair afterward
You're planning a life together and want to stay connected
Something is off, and neither of you can name it
The pattern between you is the client.
How I work.
My doctoral specialty is relationship counseling, and the frame I keep coming back to is that couples don't usually have a communication problem in the way people mean it. You both communicate well at work. What's happening at home is that a nerve gets touched, something protective kicks in, and the two protective reactions feed each other.
So we slow the loop down. We look at what each of you is actually afraid of underneath the argument, where that comes from, and what happens in the seconds before it goes sideways. We work on how you talk to each other, but from the inside out rather than by handing you scripts.
I'm direct. I'll name what I notice in the room as it happens. When a familiar loop starts up, I'll step in and we'll look at it together while it's still fresh.
Not just married couples.
I work with partners at every stage and in every configuration. Dating and figuring out whether this is it. Engaged and wanting to build well before you're tested. Married thirty years and unrecognizable to each other. Unmarried and committed. Living apart. Non-monogamous. Newly reconciled.
I'm LGBTQ+ affirming, and that's been part of my clinical training and my advocacy for years, not a line added to a website. You shouldn't have to spend the first session explaining your own relationship to your therapist before you can start using it.
You're not sure why you're staying.
You’re allowed to ask that question.
Some couples come in to repair something. Some come in genuinely unsure whether they wish to continue, and feel like they can't ask for help until they've decided.
You can bring that here. Working out honestly whether to stay, with both people in the room and the truth on the table, is real work. I'm not going to push you toward an outcome in either direction. What I'll help you do is make the decision clearly, rather than by attrition.
Where I practice.
I see couples across Dallas-Fort Worth in person, and virtually throughout Texas. We can meet together, and sometimes individually, depending on what the work calls for.
You don't have to know what to ask for yet.
Most couples can't articulate the problem on day one. That's not a reason to wait. It's usually the reason to come in. If you are ready to get to the root of your concerns book a free consultation today.
Other ways to start.
Your partner isn't ready, or it feels like you should work on yourself first?
