Couples Therapy in Los Angeles County

This step aims to answer the question - How did our current situation come about?

We will consider your shared history together as well as your personal pasts. The interplay of these elements is what creates your current experience. Once we identify the personal baggage each of you brought into the relationship and the baggage co-created together, we will know how to create a rapid and transformative change for you to have the relationship you want. We will discuss:

• What brings you in?
• What does the relationship look like right now?
• What would you like instead? 
• What is the important history for us to consider:
• History of this relationship
• Personal childhood history and past relationships

We will release the personal baggage of unresolved negative emotions and trauma, as well as the negative beliefs about ourselves, people, relationships, and the world. Here we will clear the old baggage to allow space for a new empowered you:

• Release of unresolved negative emotions & trauma (anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, hurt)
• Change negative beliefs, for example, I am inadequate, relationships are burdensome, people are untrustworthy, to empowering ones

This step aims to answer the question - What skills do I need to be masterful in my relationship?

We will learn and practice the necessary skills to create relational competence and set you on a trajectory of relational fulfillment after the completion of couples therapy and marriage counseling:

• Communication and mutual understanding skills
• Conflict resolution skills
• De-escalation skills
• Intimacy skills

                  Ready to transform your relationship? 

It is important to know how to bring up sensitive topics in the relationship and how to express our needs to our partner. Our past baggage makes us easily triggered and stands in the way of open and honest communication. In Couples therapy and marriage counseling, we will work to resolve the past baggage and learn the necessary communication skills to have connected and productive conversations on important topics in our relationship.

Arguments are important. Through friction, we learn about each other’s boundaries, values, and priorities. We also gain an opportunity to repair our relationship after an argument. If the repair is effective, we feel greater connection and safety. However, if a significant amount of time is spent on the cycle of conflict and repair, then it becomes a problem. Together we will learn the necessary de-escalation and conflict resolution skills, address the underlying core concerns, and establish safety in the relationship.

There are times it feels as if we speak two different languages. Despite our best efforts, our partner does not seem to understand our experience and point of view. Unless addressed, this can lead to a sense of distance and disconnect in the relationship. In Couples Therapy and Marriage counseling, we learn the necessary communication skills to overcome the obstacle of misunderstandings and create a foundation of mutual understanding and shared relational “language.”

There are many reasons we can grow apart in our relationship, however, the experience of distance and disconnect from our beloved is a painful one. Couples therapy and Marriage counseling will help you identify the root cause for the disconnect in the relationship and find the necessary strategies and tools to reconnect and reignite the spark if you so desire.

The common ingredient of resentment and relational trauma is a charge of negative emotion that infuses the relationship and prevents both partners from accessing the nurturing and fulfilling aspects of their union. It’s a wound that couples therapy and marriage counseling can help you heal. The safe space of therapy will allow each of you to be heard and validated. We will work to heal the wounded parts of the relationship and restore love and connection.

Infidelity is one of the more common causes of a breakdown of trust in the relationship. As with any significant relational trauma, it has two phases to consider. The acute phase is the initial crisis. Here the emotions are overwhelming and the goal of couples therapy and marriage counseling is to make a safe space for these emotions to be constructively expressed, and for the relationship to be contained. The second is a chronic phase, where our task is to make sense of what occurred in the relationship and find a way to process and reconnect.

Sexual intimacy helps us feel connected. When sex does not work, we may question ourselves, our partner, and our relationship. Our past experiences, resentments, relational trauma, and beliefs about sexuality often pose key obstacles. In couples therapy and marriage counseling, we will identify the obstacles that hinder our sexual satisfaction and establish strategies and processes to reignite the spark, connection, and satisfaction in the bedroom.

Years into the relationship many couples find themselves in a rut. When the relationship feels stale, couples therapy and marriage counseling can help us re-introduce excitement and adventure back into the relationship. It serves as an opportunity to discover hidden or forgotten aspects of each other, create space for inspiration, growth and reconnection.

In our mainstream culture, and especially with heterosexual couples, monogamy is considered the default structure of the relationship. However, one-size does not always fit all. Although it may feel risky to bring up the conversation about non-monogamy and broach the topic of open relationships, couples therapy and marriage counseling can create a safe space to do so thoughtfully. Together we will explore the desires and concerns of each partner and explore the possibilities within the context of your relationship.

Couples therapy and Marriage counseling are powerful tools to gain clarity and make the right relationship choice. Together we will examine the history of the relationship and discuss partners’ personal and relational needs. Consequently you will decide whether to continue couples therapy and empower your relationship, to do individual therapy and address personal obstacles, or to break up. Regardless of the choice you make, couples therapy and marriage counseling can help you make this important decision from a place of clarity.

In West Hollywood Couples Therapy Clinic we blend strength-based innovative therapeutic approaches to achieve rapid, profound, lasting change. Our approach combines cognitive therapy, hypnotherapy, and neurolinguistics (NLP), helping our clients reach their goals in just a few months. Our clients frequently share their satisfaction in our testimonials. Curious? Schedule a free phone consultation and see the difference for yourself.

Many couples come to therapy with the goal of healing and transforming their union. Many of these couples successfully overcome their relational challenges and build the relationship they want. The success of Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling depends on whether both partners want the relationship to work and are willing to make the necessary effort to heal the relationship and grow as individuals. If the answer is an affirmative “yes”, your relationship stands an excellent chance of healing and becoming the relationship you want it to be. 

Many couples come to therapy with the goal of healing and transforming their union. Many of these couples successfully overcome their relational challenges and build the relationship they want. The success of Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling depends on whether both partners want the relationship to work and are willing to make the necessary effort to heal the relationship and grow as individuals. If the answer is an affirmative “yes”, your relationship stands an excellent chance of healing and becoming the relationship you want it to be.

NLP uses language and imagery to access deeper layers of our mind and help us release our unresolved negative emotions, process trauma, and change negative beliefs about ourselves, others, relationships etc.. NLP is a powerful approach to clear our old baggage and empower us to create the love relationship we desire.

Originally, our clinic focused on gay men, same-sex couples, and the LGBTQI+ community. Over time, our success drew a broader clientele and currently, we proudly serve individuals of all backgrounds and couples of all configurations. Our clients include heterosexual (straight) couples, same-sex couples, transgender couples, bi-racial and multicultural couples, and individuals of all genders, sexual orientations, and racial backgrounds. We celebrate diversity. Our commitment is to create a safe space for anyone ready to benefit from our transformative process of healing and growth.

West Hollywood Couples Therapy Clinic is a fee-for-service clinic. The payment is due at the time of service. We provide the necessary documentation for you to bill your insurance directly, in case your carrier accepts out-of-network providers.

West Hollywood Couples Therapy Clinic is a fee-for-service clinic. The payment is due at the time of service. We provide the necessary documentation for you to bill your insurance directly, in case your carrier accepts out-of-network providers.

Your privacy is paramount to us. Everything discussed in our sessions remains confidential, with a few legal exceptions related to safety concerns. More specifically, in case a patient discloses being a danger to self or others, or reports abuse or neglect of a child or an elderly person, confidentiality concerns become secondary, and our priority becomes the patient’s and other people’s safety.

In some cases, Couples Therapy or Marriage Counseling is unlikely to yield the desired results and individual psychotherapy may be a better choice:

• When one of the partners decides to leave the relationship and is unwilling to do Couples Therapy or Marriage Counseling.
• When one of the partners in therapy is unwilling to do the necessary work to foster change in the relationship.
• When the relationship is unsafe due to physical or emotional abuse. Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling will bring up sensitive and challenging topics in sessions. Lack of basic safety in the relationship will disallow honesty and transparency in therapy. Therapy may also increase the risk of violence due to the subjects addressed in sessions. If one of the partners feels unsafe, establishing safety through removing oneself from an abusive situation is the main priority. Once personal safety is established, individual therapy would be most appropriate to heal the trauma of abuse and establish a sense of normalcy, self-worth, and well-being.