Relationship counseling for couples in the San Francisco Bay Area and across California
Helping couples build stronger, more loving relationships.
Those first few months or years were deeply satisfying, right? I mean, sure, you had your ups and downs when you first got together – it’s never a small thing to combine two lives – but now, as you navigate parenting, work, and money stresses, not to mention the fallout of a pandemic? Well, in an understatement: it’s hard.
Most couples who start therapy do so when they find themselves stuck repeating the same arguments. Maybe you can relate?
You and your partner are busy with work and family from morning until night, leaving little time for the relationship. As a result, you feel disconnected, frustrated, and underappreciated.
You bicker about the same things over and over. You can’t seem to get on the same page about sex, money, cleanliness, or parenting.
You may feel constantly “on edge, stuck in negativity and stress. You yearn to return to the carefree closeness you and your partner enjoyed when you first fell in love.
How to know if couples therapy can help you.
Do any of the following resonate with you?
You’re walking on eggshells around your partner, scared to set them off.
You and your partner have intense fights where you both say things you don’t mean and later regret.
Your sex life has gone down the tubes. Intimacy – what intimacy?
Simple conversations turn into arguments filled with defensiveness, blame, and complaints.
You’re constantly stressed and don’t feel you can turn to your partner for comfort or support.
If these sound true for you, rest assured that what you’re experiencing is normal. Every couple struggles from time to time.
It’s not selfish to prioritize caring for your relationship. Nurturing your partnership is one of the best things you can do for your career and family.
Couples counseling can help you get back on the same page again.
It’s possible to feel connected again. Imagine a life where you and your partner:
Communicate calmly and effectively.
Enjoy your sex life again.
Reinvigorate your romantic connection.
Feel seen, understood, and loved.
Model a strong relationship for your children and community.
Couples therapy helps you navigate the stresses of life as a team.
Our Relationship Therapists in the San Francisco Bay Area are here to help.
We’ve helped couples on the brink of divorce rediscover what made them fall in love in the first place.
Our intimacy-obsessed clinicians have made it their life’s work to help others build healthy relationships. We integrate evidence-based approaches with action-oriented, cutting-edge treatments to help couples fall in love all over again.
We’re passionate about helping you become the world expert on your partner and vice versa. You’ll learn how to read and respond to one another more skillfully, particularly in moments of stress.
By identifying your attachment styles, love languages, and needs resulting from childhood experiences, you’ll discover new, more loving ways to relate.
Learning neuroscience-informed communication skills will help you reach new levels of closeness by finding ways to share your needs and feelings without escalating into a fight.
At the Relationship Center, our therapists and relationship experts are here to help you overcome your struggles and move toward your ideal relationship, one with less fighting and more kindness.
In addition to online and in-person couples therapy, we provide these specialized couples services:
Therapy for non-monogamous couples, triads, and polycules
Couples therapy for sexual issues
Gottman couples therapy
Counseling for couples struggling with addiction or substance abuse
Therapy for interracial and cross-cultural couples
How relationship counseling works.
Couples therapy consists of 50-minute sessions that help you work through your relationship struggles. In addition to listening, your therapist will play an active role by teaching you concrete, research-based skills. Here’s how it will work step-by-step:
1. First, your therapist will help you to create a safe, accepting space so that you and your partner feel comfortable sharing your relationship struggles.
2. As you share your challenges, your therapist will listen intently and ask questions to ensure they have a balanced and nuanced picture of your dynamic.
3. Next, your therapist will help you with immediate concerns, such as managing difficult emotions and challenging life situations that contribute to your frequent conflicts.
3. While your therapist helps you address urgent matters, they’ll begin to teach you evidence-based communication skills and relational neuroscience practices to help you resolve conflicts with ease.
4. Once urgent matters are resolved, your therapist will help you and your partner better understand one another. You’ll learn about one another’s attachment style, temperament, love languages, and childhood experiences, enabling you to love and support one another more deeply.
5. Throughout the process, your therapist will guide you through creative, action-oriented practices designed to help you integrate what you’re learning.
6. As therapy progresses, you will move towards your desired relationship and life.
Research confirms that couples therapy can positively change your communication patterns and interactions. It can help you let go of the resentments and negative emotions holding you back from connecting the way you did when you first fell in love.
Ready for relationship counseling in the San Francisco Bay Area? Let’s get started.
Ready to find your way back to one another? Fill out an application and request a time for a free 30-minute consultation.
Our Care Coordinator will discuss your relationship struggles and help you determine whether our team can help you reach your goals. If so, they’ll help you choose a therapist and schedule your first session.
We’re here to guide you so you can overcome this difficult period as a stronger couple.