Emotionally Focused Therapy
I believe in your abilities and intelligence, so I'm not here to "fix" you or your relationship. My role is to come alongside you to help make sense of your typical cycle or pattern of interaction which includes:
Emotions:
Sometimes, anger, frustration, irritation, and anxiety can cover up feelings of sadness or fear, or a longing to be heard and understood and seen for who we truly are. Dr. Sue Johnson, Founding Therapist and Researcher of Emotionally Focused Therapy states, "…emotion and emotional signals are the central organizing forces in intimate relationships, and that changes in emotional responses, such as increased love and tenderness, are hard to generate if we don't work with emotion directly... Emotion takes us to the heart of the matter.”
Thoughts:
Thoughts include your views of yourself, your partner, family members, God, the world, and your overall perspective on how relationships work.
Physical Experience:
Tuning to our body's physical sensations can give us a good sense of what we might be feeling. I'll help you access and crack the code of how our physical bodies give us early clues as to when we feel unsure or unsafe.
Attachment Style:
This style was originally developed and taught to you by your family of origin, which may sound like a cliché, but it's true. The blueprint of our intimate relationships comes from lessons learned before we had a choice of what kind of relationships we would be a part of, with our family as our greatest (or not so great) teacher.
We can use all of this information to enhance or rewrite how you do relationships now. You don't have to be stuck repeating old patterns that aren't working for you. You can reset old cycles and find safety, love, and a good relationship, even in your current relationship. It takes some work, but I will be there to guide us every step of the way.