Your success matters.
We will use proven therapeutic techniques to make progress at a pace that feels comfortable and sustainable for you.
Gottman Method Therapy
What is the Gottman Method?
Gottman Method Couples Therapy (GMCT) is based in over 40 years of research into what makes relationships work and what destroys them. As a treatment model, it has a well-documented success rate when couples engage in it effectively. The techniques are extremely transferable and work with all relationships (family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.).
What are the goals of relationship counseling?
Broadly, the goals are to: decrease your harmful communication styles, improve the effectiveness of your communication (even when fighting), increase the respect and affection between each other, and create a heightened sense of intimacy by developing deeper empathy and understanding of each other.
Drs. John and Julie Gottman identified 9 components of healthy relationships known as The Sound Relationship House Theory. The following is adapted from their official website.
Get reconnected to your partner (remember why you chose each other in the first place)
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Build Love Maps - learn your partner’s inner psychological world, their history, worries, stresses, joys, and hopes.
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Share Fondness and Admiration - increase affection and respect within a relationship, express appreciation more often, provide and receive support in personalized ways.
Learn to argue better (we all have disagreements in our relationships):
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Turn Towards Instead of Away - State your needs, be aware of "bids" (attempts) for connection and respond to (turn towards) them rather than rejecting or turning away.
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The Positive Perspective - learn to take a positive team-oriented approach to problem-solving and also to making things right again after someone has been hurt. Learn to validate each other.
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Manage Conflict - manage conflicts (which are natural and unavoidable) and learn the critical difference between handling perpetual (unsolvable) problems and solvable problems.
Identify what you are building together and design the future you want to share:
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Make Life Dreams Come True - create a safe atmosphere that encourages each person to talk honestly about his or her hopes, values, convictions and aspirations.
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Create Shared Meaning - Understand important goals, narratives, and myths about your relationship and the life you are creating together.
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Increase Trust - creating a connection where both people believe that their partner considers and acts out of the best intentions, not just the partner’s own interests and benefits. In other words, this means, “my partner has my back and is there for me.”
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Commitment - This means believing (and acting on the belief) that you are committed to the relationship for better or for worse (meaning that if it gets worse you will both work to improve it). It implies cherishing your partner’s positive qualities and regularly finding gratitude for each other, rather than trashing the partner by magnifying negative qualities, and increasing resentment by comparing them unfavorably to others.
What will Gottman Method Therapy do for me?
GMCT will help you better understand how to use effective interaction dynamics in relationships of all kinds (friends, family, co-workers, etc.).
You will learn skills for communicating effectively, interacting skillfully, and understanding the motivations of others around you.
You will learn ways to create stronger connections, enhance connections you already have, and deepen romantic relationships, while also learning new ways to manage those inevitable conflicts.
Set up a free consultation to discuss what we can achieve for you with Gottman relationship therapy via online counseling!
If you want to get started on your own, the Gottmans created a free app called Gottman Card Deck with some terrific tools for enhancing your relationship. They also have several powerful books that I highly recommend:
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide - This book is helpful for any committed relationship and offers research-based exercises and tools to work through together.
The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships - this book is aimed at all types of relationships and focused on core evidence-based concepts of healthy connection and communication.
Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love - this book offers tools for having 8 life-changing conversations on crucial relationship topics: trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality, and dreams.
Note that the above links are affiliate links and if you make a purchase I may receive a small commission.
