Difficulties in marriage and romantic relationships can be puzzling, and sometimes painful or even devastating, not only for the couple, but also for others in their life such as their children. Happy couples aren't smarter, richer, or more psychologically astute than others. But in their day-to-day lives, they have found ways to keep their negative thoughts and feelings about each other from overwhelming their positive ones. So rather than creating a climate of disagreement and resistance, they embrace each other's needs, and they are curious and accepting of each other's differences.
I believe most of us have the capacity and potential to build such emotionally intelligent relationship with our romantic partner when we are committed to develop and grow together. I offer a safe and therapeutic space for couples to explore and work through their difficulties, whether it is identifying and changing negative behaviours, learning conflict resolution skills, alleviating loneliness and isolation, improving communication and connection both emotionally and physically, addressing sex and intimacy issues, enhancing aspects already working well or navigating the decision to part ways respectfully.
I also specialise in helping couples of cross-cultural relationships, specifically couples who are from very different cultural background. Cross-cultural couples can face unique challenges driven by cultural, racial and religious issues, for example, difficulties around meaning of language and methods of communication, gender role expectations, different family dynamics and customs, religious customs, different parenting styles and value systems, etc. Being in a cross-cultural relationship myself has helped me to learn first-hand how important it is to work hard in relationship and always be open-minded in order to develop mutual understanding, empathy and respect of one another.
I offer both short-term and long-terms therapy for couples. My techniques are centred around my holistic Gestalt approach which can be found in My Approach. This means I help couples to develop heightened awareness and new perspectives, learning skills and strategies, experimenting and practicing within and outside the sessions, and importantly, offering a safe, confidential and therapeutic space and sounding board for couples to feel supported during their journey of exploration.
To book an initial assessment session with me, please find my contact information in Contacts.
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