Our Services
Couples Therapy
You might be curious about couples therapy because…
- you are in a new relationship and want to build solid skills for the future.
- you and your partner are at a crossroads.
- you are new parents, and this new chapter has shifted your dynamic; you want to get back to your old selves.
- you are in a monogamous relationship, and there has been an affair.
- you are in a polyamorous relationship and want space to talk about a conflict.
- you and your partner are empty-nesters and are trying to reconnect.
Couples therapy can help strengthen the bond between you and your partner and improve your well-being no matter what makes you want to improve your connection.
Emotionally Focused Therapy can help improve your connection with your partner and ease any one of these issues and many more.
It does not matter how you define your relationship; couples therapy can be helpful if you are in conflict or want to improve your communication, no matter how you label your connection. What matters is that you want to work on that connection, that love, to grow and strengthen your bond.
I have worked with couples with many different gender identities and sexual orientations. I love attachment-based Emotionally Focused Therapy [EFT] for Couples because it focuses on our connection to one another and love and teaches us how to have more connecting conversations with our partners or other family members.
What is Emotionally Focused Therapy [EFT]?
I have studied and have advanced training in providing a specific type of couples therapy called Emotionally Focused Therapy or EFT. I am currently in the process of working toward an international certification in this method.
EFT is a method of therapy that has been researched and proven highly effective, and it is an evidence-based practice of couples therapy created by Dr. Sue Johnson. Not all types of treatment are backed by scientific research to prove their effectiveness, but EFT is and has been shown to improve couples’ lives.
“Research studies find that 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvements.” –International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy [ICEEFT]
What is the process of EFT with Carrie?
First Session – Joint session with both partners
When I meet with you as a couple for the initial session, we will begin by discussing the problem that brought you into counseling.
We also review opening paperwork and explore whether I might be the best fit to support you as a couple. Although this work of determining “fit” begins in the first session or phone call, we will continue to check in around this as we move forward in the therapy so that I can best serve you in your work.
Second/Third Session- Individual Session with each partner
After the initial session with you as a couple, I meet with each partner for one individual session. The purpose of the individual session is for me to get an overview of each partner’s perception of the presenting problem, their relationship/attachment history, family history, and their hopes for our work together. It is important to note that I cannot keep any “secrets” that might come out in the individual session. If one partner shares something in this session that the other partner is unaware of, we can work together to figure out the best way to share this information with your partner.
After we complete each partner’s individual session, we come back together to meet as a couple for the rest of our sessions.
Ongoing Joint Sessions
Stages & Steps of EFT
What are the stages and steps of EFT?
- STAGE 1: Assessment and Cycle De-escalation
- Step 1: Creating an alliance & conducting an assessment
- Step 2: Identifying the negative interactional cycle and attachment issues
- Step3: Accessing underlying emotions supporting the reactive moves in the cycle
- Step 4: Reframing the problem in terms of the negative cycle, underlying feelings, and attachment needs
- STAGE 2: Restructuring the Bond- Creating Responsiveness
- Step 5 Promoting identification with disowned needs, fears, and aspects of self and integrating these into interactions. Deepening experience
- Step 6: Promoting acceptance of the partner’s experience and new interactional responses
- Step 7: Facilitating the deeper expression of attachment emotions and needs and creating open emotional engagement bonding events
- STAGE 3: Consolidations/Integration
- Step 8: Facilitating the emergence of new solutions to differences and problems
- Step 9: Consolidating new positions, cycles, and stories of secure attachment
