Washington DC Marriage & Couples Counseling for Gay and Straight Partners

Conflict • Sex • Intimacy • Communication • Affairs • Commitment

Struggling in your relationship and looking for couples counseling in Washington DC?
I Can Help The Two of You Become Generous, Resilient Partners in a Strong, Loving Relationship.  

Don’t feel bad or hopeless if you are struggling. We all begin our relationships with love, excitement, and the hope that we’ll have a great life together. We don’t anticipate how difficult it is, at times, to be a couple.

In my Washington DC practice, I work with both gay and straight relationships:

• Partners in committed relationships/marriages of any length
• Dating couples
• Engaged couples
• Newly married couples
• Separated or divorcing couples

My aim as a couples therapist is to assist each of you to figure out how you can do your best in your relationship.  When both people work toward this goal, relationships can thrive.

In couples therapy, I address the unique issues Washington DC couples face, including:

• Learning how to resolve conflict productively
• Communicating with each other
• Difficulty in talking about important matters
• Sexual and intimacy issues
• Infidelity
• Improving trust
• Staying calm at difficult times
• Beginning a new relationship and getting it right
• Premarital issues and counseling
• Enhancing an existing relationship
• Deepening commitment
• Resolving imbalances in money and power
• Improving teamwork
• Considering and planning for parenthood
• Parenting effectively
• Separating amicably

Maybe you are fighting over seemingly small or petty issues that you know aren’t worth fighting about, and hoping that through couples therapy, you can communicate better, and find ways to stay calm rather than blow up at each other.

Maybe you can’t agree about some important issue, like whether to marry or have children, and are seeking to figure out how to come together.

Maybe your sex life isn’t what it was, or what you would like it to be, and you are hoping to make things better.

Maybe one of you has had an affair, or trust has broken down between the two of you, and you hope that you can heal and come together again.

Perhaps you’re struggling over how to parent; who makes the decisions; or how the money should be spent…or not.

You may be seeking couples counseling simply because you’re frustrated and scared about how hard it seems to get along with your partner and build a life together.

Or perhaps you’re feeling distant from each other and hoping to deepen your commitment.

I can help you achieve these relationship goals:

I have a doctorate in clinical psychology; many years of specialized training in couples therapy; and many years of experience helping couples here in Washington DC.

I am passionate about working with couples and I love helping couples transcend their difficulties and develop a strong, vibrant relationship.

These principles guide my work with couples:

• All relationships are challenging at times.
• The challenges you face in your relationship are opportunities to become closer, stronger, more caring, and more flexible.
• To be happily coupled, we all need to find ways to deal with the conflicts, differences, and disappointments that are inevitable in any relationship.
• I encourage each partner to figure out how you can do your best without waiting for your partner to make the first move.  One positive step can be transformative.
• I will help you work on issues that may seem unsolvable or that you have been afraid to tackle.
• Changing the way you do things in your relationship can be scary even when you see the benefits. I will help you learn ways to calm yourself, so you can choose new behaviors that will lead to a stronger relationship.

Here’s what to expect from a couples therapy session in my Washington DC Office:

In our first meeting, we’ll start by talking about what is bringing each of you in.  I will be asking questions to get a sense of the big picture of your relationship, and of course you will also have a chance to ask me questions so that we can get a good sense of whether we’re a good fit to move forward working together.  My aim is that you leave with a bigger understanding of your difficulties so that you can begin thinking about how you might address them.

In future sessions, we will work together to help each of you get clarity about your part in building a stronger relationship, and how this work can help you to be more solid and resilient.  Of course, we’ll also address how difficult it can be to make change and how you can deal with your own discomfort around doing things differently.

I have been providing couples counseling since 1995 and encourage you to check out my blog posts to get a sense of my work as a psychologist.

Additionally, I write an advice column in the Washington Blade.

Whether you’re an individual or partnered, gay or straight, living in Washington DC or beyond, I look forward to working with you.