I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Relationship Specialist in Newport Beach, CA (Orange County) who has been in private practice for almost 10 years helping hundreds of clients in California improve their relationships.
I practice both individual and couples counseling in order to help you identify not only your relationship struggles, but also the strengths your relationship already has that you may be overlooking. We will then build on those strengths, improve communication, reduce conflict and change negative relationship patterns.
Individual Relationship Counseling and Communication Coaching
Sometimes life is challenging. This is inevitable. But you don’t have to manage it alone. I believe that when we have someone to share our struggle with, we become better able to cope with our problems, no matter how troubling they may be.
Whether you are currently in a relationship or not, I am here to provide a compassionate, confidential, and caring space for you to improve your relationship with yourself and others, as well as to set and meet your own goals.
As a relationship specialist and communication coach, I will help you figure out what you need to say and how you need to say it in a way others can hear you.
While I am nonjudgmental and nonpathologizing, I will directly point out “anti-relational” behaviors (behavior that is damaging to yourself and your relationship) that you may be engaging in, and I will respectfully challenge your belief systems if it seems that they are not serving you well.
Couples Counseling, Pre-Marital and Marriage Counseling, and Discernment Counseling
I have completed one year of training in the Bader-Pearson Developmental Model of couples therapy, a well-regarded program with a high success rate in helping couples not only connect and rekindle their relationships, but also grow as individuals who can bring their best selves to the relationship. The creators of this model are two therapists who are married to each other and have written two books, “Tell Me No Lies” and “In Quest of the Mythical Mate”, a textbook for couples therapists in its 16th printing. I recently moved onto the Advanced Training in this comprehensive model.
I also completed Level 1 and Level 2 training in The Gottman Method Couples Therapy with Dr. John and Julie Gottman. John Gottman is considered the premiere couples researcher and therapist of our time, and is the author of over 60 books, including the bestselling, “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.”
Dr. Gottman’s principles for improving relationships are not based on theory, opinion, or intuition as many couples therapy approaches are, but is based on actual research with over 3.000 couples. He has been able to pinpoint what happily married “Master Couples” do that works so well in their relationships, as well as identifying what “Disaster Couples” do that leave them alienated and eventually divorced.
I also have advanced training in Discernment Counseling, an approach that is used in place of marriage counseling when one person is ambivalent about being in the relationship and is not motivated to work with their partner to repair a damaged relationship. This model can help a couple clarify their relationship goals, deepen their understanding of each other and their relationship patterns, and to move forward with clarity and confidence toward strengthening the relationship, leaving it alone, or leaving it altogether.
I blend each of these important relationship approaches into one distinguished relationship, marriage, and communication therapy and coaching program that helps people improve their relationships and their connection with the people they love, while at the same time improving communication and reducing conflict.
These methods work well with people who have been dating a short time, who are engaged to be married, those who have been married for years, and those who are not sure if they want to stay married.
Learn more about Discernment Counseling.
Click here for more information about couples/marriage counseling.
Contact Me
Call or text me at (917)-673-1668 or email barbi@sdcouplestherapy.com to see if I can be helpful to you in whatever it is that you are struggling with. See my contact page here.
Same Sex Couples Welcome