Adults & couples
The pattern is older than the relationship it is showing up in.
Whether you come alone or together, we work on the same thing: what each of you learned to do a long time ago in order to be safe, and what it now costs.
Individual therapy
For adults.
Navigating adulthood is existentially challenging at baseline. Add to the picture any number of obstacles, and life can feel simply too hard, whether you are a young adult grappling with new pressures, or a more seasoned adult seeking deeper fulfillment.
Some of the work is coming to terms with fixed circumstances. Other people will not change for us; losses cannot be undone. At the same time, we can work together to adjust, finding the power you have to make changes and to work with the contexts you cannot change.
We provide a supportive space to explore these complexities and build a more meaningful life.
Two stages
Early adulthood, and later.
Early adulthood. Is academic, professional, or social pressure overwhelming you? We can help you navigate the anxieties of newfound independence, find balance, make significant life decisions, understand your attachment styles, and cultivate emotional maturity. New parents, early career professionals, college and post-college graduates, and people struggling to find employment are all people we work with often. Helping someone adapt at these stages of development is work we are skilled at and particularly interested in.
Later adulthood. Even with experience and wisdom, lingering issues can surface. We offer support in navigating career development, physical changes, relationship challenges, and family planning. Together, we can explore practical solutions that honor your individuality and experience.
At either stage the work is grounded in psychodynamic theory: depth, insight-based therapy in which no aspect of your history or life is off the table. We also use gestalt therapy, which works with what is happening in the room rather than only the account of it, and relational and attachment-based work, where the relationship with your therapist is part of the treatment itself.
Two commitments run alongside all of it: cultural sensitivity, which means the societal context is never taken for granted, and trauma-informed practice, which means you set the pace and nothing is pushed for its own sake. Each of these is set out on our approaches page.
What we work with
Trained and experienced across a wide range.
Several of these are described at length under problems we treat, including anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship patterns, and adult ADHD.
- General anxiety
- Social anxiety
- Anxiety and worry
- Depression
- Low mood and energy
- Social isolation
- Grief and loss
- Life transitions
- Navigating cultural challenges
- Intersectionality
- Identity, including gender and sexual identity
- LGBTIQ+ ally
- ADHD
- Autism
- Neurodivergent challenges
- Living with disabilities
- Anger management
- Divorce
- Academic challenges
- Self esteem
- Insomnia and sleep
- Men’s issues
- Women’s issues
- Stress management
- Life goal setting and organization
- Parenting
- Discovering meaning
- Sexual difficulties
- Trauma and PTSD
- Thought disorders and psychotic disorders
- Recovery from addiction
- Adapting to all stages of life
Please feel free to contact us. We can start with a brief phone call to see if we would be a good fit for you, and go from there.
Couples therapy
For partners.
Most couples arriving here have already tried communication techniques. They can identify the pursue-withdraw cycle in the abstract and still cannot stop it at eleven at night, because the cycle is not a skills deficit. It is two nervous systems, each doing something that once made sense.
So we work on what is underneath: what each of you is protecting, what the fight is actually about, and what it would take for either of you to be the first to stop defending. This is where gestalt work is particularly useful, because the argument does not have to be recalled. It will happen in the room, and we can slow it down and look at it while it is live.
We work with communication breakdown, recurring conflict, affairs and rebuilding trust, sex and desire differences, parenting disagreements, in-laws and cultural difference between partners, life transitions, and couples deciding whether to stay together. We also work with unmarried, non-monogamous, and queer relationships of any configuration.
Couples sessions are typically [60-75] minutes, which is longer than individual sessions for a reason: it takes time for two people to get past the opening positions.
Questions
Common questions.
My partner will not come. Can I do couples work alone?
You can do meaningful work on a relationship on your own, and it often shifts the dynamic more than people expect, because a cycle needs both people to keep running. It is not the same as couples therapy and we will be clear about the difference. It is a legitimate place to start.
Can we see the same therapist individually and as a couple?
Generally no, and that is a deliberate choice. A therapist holding individual confidences from one partner is in an impossible position in the couple's room. Being a group practice helps here: we can keep the couples work and the individual work in-house with different clinicians who can coordinate with your consent.
Do you work with couples who might separate?
Yes. Therapy is not obligated to produce a particular outcome. Some couples use it to rebuild and some use it to separate with less damage, which matters enormously when there are children involved. We will not push you toward either.
What are your fees?
Please contact us about our standard fee. We hold a limited number of reduced-fee spots. Ask on the first call and we will tell you what is currently open.
Take the next step
A first conversation costs nothing but a phone call.
Call us and we will talk through what you are looking for, answer your questions about how we work, and help you find the therapist on our team who fits. If we are not the right place for you, we will tell you that too, and point you somewhere better.
(828) 342-2977