Relationship Counselling
Couples Counselling
In an effort to better manage differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the relationship, couples may chose to address these concerns in counselling.
Child & Teenage Issues
Struggling with your child's behavior? We can assist you with information and skills for effective parenting, as well as techniques and strategies to help your child or teenager manage stress in their own lives. We can offer guidance on issues that may be affecting the child or teenager.
Family Counselling
Families are a complex system or relationships that are important to everybody. Family counselling is designed to help families improve communication, interaction, develop problem solving tools and help re-connect everybody. These tools may help you better understand each other.
Therapy Methods
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
The Gottman Method Couples Therapy is based on Dr. John Gottman’s research that began in the 1970’s and continues to this day. The research has focused on what makes relationships succeed or fail. From this research, Drs. John and Julie Gottman have created a method of therapy that emphasizes the “nuts and bolts” approach to improving clients relationships.
This method is designed to help teach specific tools to deepen friendships and intimacy in your relationship. To help you positively manage conflicts, you will be given methods to manage “resolvable problems” and dialogue about “gridlocked” (or perpetual) issues. We will also work together to help you appreciate your relationship’s strengths and to gently navigate through its vulnerabilities.
Discernment Counselling
It’s very difficult when one or both of a couple are considering divorce or separation. Often, we are unsure that it’s the right path to choose. Discernment Counselling can help.
Discernment Counselling is different from Couples Therapy.
Where Couple’s Therapy assumes both people are willing to work on the marriage/relationship, Discernment Counselling assumes that one partner is “ambivalent” or “leaning out” of the relationship while the other spouse is “leaning in.”
Typically the “leaning out” of the relationship partner is unconvinced regular couple counselling will help
Typically the other partner is “leaning in” and interested in rebuilding the relationship.
The goals of Discernment Counselling are:
To gain clarity and confidence about a direction for your relationship
To gain confidence in the direction you decide to move forward on
To gain a deeper understanding of each partner’s contributions to the current state of the relationship
Discernment Counselling helps couples choose one of three paths:
To restore your relationship to health
To move towards separation/divorce
To continue with the relationship as it is and decide later
This form of counselling is not to solve your relationship problems, but to help you determine if they are solvable.