Dave is a very compassionate and empathetic therapist who has been able to work with me and my husband in very constructive and practical ways.”
People who want couples therapy are often in a great deal of pain. We desperately want to fix what’s not working. Yet we mistakenly think that if we could just fix what is wrong with our partner (with perhaps some “minor” adjustments on our own part), then everything would be fine. But in reality, this rarely works since your partner is thinking the same thing about you! True relationships are deeply complicated and don’t respond well to overly-simplistic solutions.
This is why Gottman Method Couples Therapy is different.
Based on over 40 years of research with thousands of couples, Gottman Method Couples Therapy is designed to give you new insights and research-based skills that can dramatically improve the intimacy and friendship in your relationship and help you manage conflict in a healthy, positive way.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy is the best move toward improving your relationship. Utilizing research-based interventions and exercises, it is a structured, goal-oriented, scientifically-based therapy. Intervention strategies are based on empirical data from Dr. Gottman’s study of over 3,000 couples.
Statistics show that couples typically wait (and waste) six years after problems start before geting professional help for their relationship. By then, they’re often so resentful and worn down that getting back on track seems almost impossible.
Drawn from Dr. John Gottman’s four decades of research, the skills you will learn in our work together will help to rebuild or increase your relationship’s friendship, intimacy and respect, as well as manage conflict and improve your communication with each other.
Relationship therapists know exactly what separates the “masters” of relationships from the “disasters.” Over 40 years of Gottman’s research has enabled a way for therapists to teach everything we’ve learned about creating the kind of partnership we all desire and hope for.
What Skills Will We Learn?
You and your partner will learn how to foster respect, affection, and closeness in your relationship by building and sharing a deeper connection with each other. You’ll learn how to keep conflict discussions calm, how to break through gridlocked (“here we go again!”) conflict and how to strengthen and maintain the gains in your relationship.
In addition, you will learn:
- How to build the friendship in your relationship and express feelings of respect and affection.
- The tools to manage conflict and communicate effectively.
- Recognize the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (criticism, defensiveness, contempt and stonewalling) and what to do if they are consuming your relationship.
- Identify your relationship’s specific strengths and learn how to build them even further together.
Are you ready to get started in improving your relationship?
Research Sources:
- Gottman, J.M., and Levenson. R.W. “What predicts change in marital interaction over time? A study of alternative models.” Family Process Journal. 38.2 (1999): 143-58. Print
- Gottman, J.M., and Levenson, R.W. “A Two-Factor Model for Predicting When a Couple Will Divorce: Exploratory Analyses Using 14-Year Longitudinal Data.” Family Processes Journal. 41.1 (2002): 83-96. Print.
- Gottman, J.M., What Predicts Divorce? The Relationship Between Marital Processes and Marital Outcomes. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbanm Associates, 1994. Print.
- Shapiro, A.F, and Goitman, J.M. “Effects on Marriage of a Psycho-Communicative Educational Intervention with Couples Undergoing the Transition to Parenthood, Evaluation at 1-year Post-Intervention.” Journal of Family Communication. 5.1 (2005): 1-24. Print.