If you and your partner feel stuck between “Should we keep trying?” and “Is it time to let go?” — Discernment Counseling offers a structured space to slow things down and gain clarity before making a major relationship decision.

Many couples arrive here feeling emotionally exhausted, disconnected, uncertain, or caught in repeated cycles that no longer feel sustainable. Sometimes one partner is leaning toward separation while the other wants to repair the relationship. Other times, both people feel conflicted, overwhelmed, or afraid of making the wrong decision.

Discernment Counseling is not traditional couples therapy. The goal is not immediately fixing the relationship, but helping both partners better understand:

• How the relationship reached this point

• The patterns contributing to disconnection or pain

• Each partner’s role within those dynamics

• Whether there is enough willingness and capacity to move toward repair

This process creates space for honesty, reflection, accountability, and clarity without pressure, blame, or rushing toward a decision.

Discernment Counseling may be supportive if:

• You feel stuck in “stay or leave” uncertainty

• Separation or divorce has been discussed

• One partner wants therapy and the other feels unsure

• Trust has been deeply impacted

• Conflict feels chronic or emotionally exhausting

• Emotional or physical intimacy has significantly declined

• You want clarity before making a major relationship decision

• You want to understand whether meaningful repair is still possible

What the Process Looks Like

Discernment Counseling is a short-term, structured process that typically lasts 1–5 sessions.

Sessions include:

• Time together as a couple

• Individual conversations with each partner during the session

• Exploration of relationship dynamics, strengths, and challenges

• Clarification around each partner’s hopes, fears, and level of commitment toward change

At the end of the process, couples generally move toward one of three directions:

1. Continuing the relationship as it has been

2. Pursuing separation or divorce with greater clarity and care

3. Committing to a dedicated course of couples therapy focused on repair and transformation

My role is not to push you toward staying together or separating. My role is to help you both slow the emotional overwhelm, better understand the relationship dynamic, and make a more grounded, conscious decision about what comes next.

I also offer Couples Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in partnership with Journey Clinical for couples seeking deeper relational healing, emotional insight, and meaningful transformation within their relationship.

Couples KAP combines psychotherapy with ketamine-assisted experiences in a carefully supported therapeutic setting designed to help partners move beyond reactive patterns, emotional defenses, and communication barriers that can feel difficult to shift through traditional talk therapy alone. Many couples describe the experience as helping them reconnect with empathy, vulnerability, compassion, and a renewed understanding of one another.

This work may be especially supportive for couples navigating:

• Relational trauma and attachment wounds

• Emotional disconnection or intimacy challenges

• Repetitive conflict cycles and communication struggles

• Betrayal, rupture, or rebuilding trust

• Parenting stress, life transitions, or chronic stressors

• Difficulty accessing vulnerability, emotional expression, or empathy

• Desire discrepancy and challenges with physical intimacy

• A longing for deeper connection, authenticity, and relational growth

The KAP process includes preparation sessions, medicine sessions, and integration therapy to help couples safely process insights and translate those experiences into meaningful relational change. My role is to help create a grounded, trauma-informed space where both partners feel supported, emotionally safe, and better able to understand themselves and each other.

Couples KAP is available virtually for clients located in Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, and in-person in Corpus Christi through partnership with Journey Medical.

If your relationship looks “fine” from the outside but your sex life feels disconnected, tense, avoidant, or nonexistent you are not alone.

Maybe one of you wants sex more than the other. Maybe intimacy feels like pressure, rejection, obligation, or another place where you keep missing each other emotionally. Maybe you’ve stopped talking about it altogether because every conversation turns into defensiveness, shutdown, resentment, or hurt feelings.

A lot of couples stay stuck here for years.

Over time, emotional disconnection and sexual disconnection begin feeding each other. You start feeling more like roommates, co-parents, or teammates managing life instead of romantic partners who feel desired, playful, emotionally connected, and sexually alive together.

Sex therapy offers a space to finally talk honestly about intimacy, desire, attraction, pleasure, vulnerability, and connection, without shame, judgment, or blame.

Together, we explore what’s happening underneath the surface: the emotional patterns, attachment dynamics, stress, past experiences, nervous system responses, cultural messaging, and relationship wounds that may be impacting your connection to yourself and each other. This work is not about “fixing” one partner or assigning blame. It’s about helping both of you better understand yourselves, communicate more openly, and create a relationship that feels emotionally and physically fulfilling.

This work may support:

• Desire differences and libido mismatch

• Emotional or sexual disconnection

• Difficulty communicating about sex and intimacy

• Shame, avoidance, anxiety, or insecurity around sex

• Rebuilding intimacy after betrayal or rupture

• Feeling unwanted, rejected, pressured, or unseen

• Stress, parenting, burnout, or resentment impacting connection

• Exploring pleasure, sensuality, and emotional closeness

• Wanting more passion, playfulness, and authenticity in your relationship

• Feeling stuck in roommate-mode instead of romantic partnership

My work is trauma-informed, relational, sex-positive, and deeply affirming of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, relationships, and lived experiences. Whether you are queer, trans, nonbinary, questioning, polyamorous, ethically non-monogamous, kink-affirming, exploring identity, or navigating relationship structures outside of traditional norms, you deserve care that is affirming, knowledgeable, and free from shame or pathologizing.

I believe healing happens when people feel safe enough to show up fully as themselves. My goal is to create a space where you do not have to educate your therapist about your identity, relationship, sexuality, gender expression, or lived experience in order to receive supportive care.

I also recognize that culture, family systems, race, religion, spirituality, and societal messaging can deeply shape how we experience sex, desire, relationships, pleasure, shame, boundaries, and intimacy. For many people, religious or cultural experiences may have created confusion, guilt, fear, silence, or internal conflict around sexuality and connection. Others may be trying to reconcile their faith, identity, values, and relationships in ways that feel authentic and aligned.

There is space for all of that here.

Part of this work may include unpacking inherited beliefs around sex, exploring how cultural or religious narratives impact intimacy and self-worth, and helping you develop a relationship with sexuality and connection that feels more consensual, empowered, embodied, and true to who you are.

Sex therapy can be integrated into ongoing couples therapy or explored as a more focused space depending on what your relationship needs most.

If you’re exhausted from having the same argument over and over, feeling unseen in your relationship, walking on eggshells, or wondering how you became so disconnected from the person you love — Relational Life Therapy (RLT) offers a deeper way of understanding what’s happening beneath the surface.

Developed by Terry Real, RLT is a powerful, direct, and deeply relational approach to couples therapy that helps partners break free from painful patterns of blame, defensiveness, shutdown, resentment, control, or emotional disconnection.

Many couples don’t actually need more communication tips — they need help understanding the protective patterns, attachment wounds, and survival strategies running the relationship. RLT helps uncover those dynamics while supporting both partners in showing up with greater honesty, accountability, vulnerability, and emotional maturity.

This approach can be especially supportive if:

• Conflict escalates quickly or never fully gets resolved

• One partner pursues while the other withdraws

• Resentment has quietly built over time

• Trust has been broken

• Emotional or physical intimacy feels distant

• You feel more like roommates than romantic partners

• You struggle to communicate needs without defensiveness or shutdown

• You love each other, but the relationship no longer feels safe, connected, or fulfilling

RLT is active, compassionate, and transformational. I won’t just sit back and watch the same painful dynamic repeat itself in session. Together, we work to identify what’s keeping you stuck and create healthier ways of relating that support deeper intimacy, respect, connection, and partnership.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s helping you create a relationship where both people feel seen, valued, desired, emotionally safe, and genuinely connected again.

Every relationship has moments when old wounds surface in the present. A disagreement escalates quickly, one partner withdraws while the other reaches harder, or closeness feels vulnerable even when there is love. When past trauma or attachment injuries are triggered, couples can find themselves stuck in painful cycles that feel confusing and hard to shift.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) offers a clear and compassionate path forward. Rather than focusing only on surface conflict, EFT helps partners understand the deeper emotional and attachment needs driving their reactions. Together, we slow down the cycle, uncover the vulnerable feelings underneath, and create new patterns of responsiveness and connection.

As partners begin to feel safer expressing their fears, longings, and needs, the relationship itself becomes a source of comfort and security rather than distress.

How EFT Supports Couples

Interrupt Negative Cycles – Identify patterns like pursuing and withdrawing, criticism and shutdown, and gently reshape them.

Create Emotional Safety – Build a foundation where both partners feel safe enough to be open and authentic.

Heal Attachment Injuries – Repair wounds of betrayal, abandonment, or disconnection through structured, guided conversations.

Deepen Emotional Attunement – Strengthen the ability to understand and respond to each other’s inner world.

Rebuild Intimacy & Trust – Restore closeness by fostering consistent, emotionally responsive connection.

Why EFT Works

Attachment-Based – Grounded in the science of attachment, EFT helps partners become secure bases for one another.

Emotion-Focused – Goes beyond problem-solving to transform the emotional patterns that keep couples stuck.

Trauma-Informed – Honors how past experiences shape present reactions and works gently to create new relational experiences.

Experiential & Collaborative – Therapy happens in the room through guided interactions that build new, lasting patterns of connection.

A Path Forward

Trauma and conflict do not have to define your relationship. Through EFT, couples can move from cycles of reactivity and distance toward safety, closeness, and resilience.

Together, we’ll work toward a relationship where both partners feel secure enough to be vulnerable, repair more quickly after conflict, and grow stronger side by side. Whether you’re navigating ongoing conflict, healing after betrayal, or feeling disconnected despite love, EFT offers a structured, research-supported way to reconnect and rebuild.

Healing, Repairing, and Growing Together

Every relationship carries both love and struggle. Sometimes it’s the small, everyday arguments that leave you feeling stuck. Other times, it’s deeper ruptures like betrayal, unresolved trauma, or repeated cycles of disconnection that leave you wondering if repair is even possible.

Gottman Method Couples Therapy offers a clear, research-based roadmap for breaking those painful cycles and building a relationship rooted in trust, friendship, and resilience. With my training in Gottman Levels 1 and 2, along with advanced certification in Treating Affairs and Trauma, I bring both the structure and the depth needed to help couples heal, even from the hardest places.

What This Approach Looks Like in Practice

Strengthening Foundations – We’ll rebuild the pillars of intimacy and connection friendship, shared meaning, and emotional attunement so your relationship feels grounded and alive.

Healing After Betrayal & Trauma – With advanced Gottman protocols for affairs and trauma, I guide couples through the aftermath of betrayal with compassion and clarity. Together, we’ll create a safe path toward repair, rebuilding trust, and restoring closeness.

Interrupting Negative Cycles – Instead of falling into familiar patterns of criticism, defensiveness, or withdrawal, you’ll learn how to slow down, recognize triggers, and respond differently.

Managing Conflict Without Damage – Conflict is inevitable—but how you handle it determines whether it deepens intimacy or builds distance. You’ll gain tools to navigate disagreements with respect, calm, and perspective.

Integrating Nervous System & Trauma Work – Sometimes arguments aren’t just about the dishes or money. They’re about old wounds and survival responses. By blending Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR, Brainspotting, Ego States/IFS, and yoga-based nervous system regulation, we’ll address the underlying triggers that keep showing up in your relationship.

Why Couples Value This Approach

Evidence-Based & Practical – Gottman tools are backed by 40+ years of research and give you real strategies you can practice right away.
Specialized in Affairs & Trauma – My advanced training helps couples navigate the deepest wounds, including betrayal and relational trauma.
Holistic & Integrative – Because trauma lives in both mind and body, I weave in EMDR, Brainspotting, yoga, and parts work to help couples not only talk differently but feel differently.
Safe & Compassionate – I understand how raw relationship pain can feel. You won’t need to prove your struggles are “serious enough” for help I already know they are.

The Bigger Picture

Relationships don’t heal through communication skills alone. They heal when both partners feel emotionally safe, when old wounds are tended to, and when trust is slowly rebuilt through consistency, compassion, and presence.

With Gottman Method Couples Therapy—integrated with my trauma-informed, body-based, and attachment-focused approach—we work on all levels: the patterns between you, the nervous system responses inside you, and the deeper wounds beneath it all.

Whether you’re navigating ongoing conflict, recovering from betrayal, or simply longing to feel close again, we’ll move step by step toward a relationship that feels steadier, safer, and more connected.

Healing Trauma, Deepening Connection

Every couple has moments where old wounds show up in the present. A conflict starts small but escalates quickly, one partner shuts down while the other protests louder, or intimacy feels unsafe even when there is love. When past trauma or attachment injuries are triggered in the relationship, both partners can feel stuck in painful cycles that seem impossible to change.

Brainspotting with couples offers a different way through. Rather than only talking about what happens between you, Brainspotting helps you access and process the deeper roots of reactivity often held beneath words, in the body and nervous system. By attuning to the “spots” in the visual field where unprocessed material is stored, partners can release unresolved trauma and begin to respond to each other from a calmer, more open place.

This creates more safety, trust, and closeness not only within yourself, but also between you.

How Brainspotting Supports Couples

Release Old Triggers – Process trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, shut down) that often fuel conflict.
Create Nervous System Safety – Find steadiness in the body so you can stay present during hard conversations.
Repair Attachment Injuries – Heal wounds of betrayal, abandonment, or disconnection with both depth and gentleness.
Deepen Emotional Attunement – Learn to track your own and your partner’s inner world with compassion.
Rebuild Intimacy & Trust – Free yourselves from past weight so closeness feels safer and more possible again.

Why Brainspotting Works for Couples

Body-Based & Experiential – Goes beyond talking to reach the brain and body systems where trauma and triggers live.
Attachment-Focused – Helps partners understand and respond to each other’s deepest needs for safety and connection.
Trauma-Informed – Gently integrates individual trauma work into relational repair, honoring both partners’ histories.
Integrative – Works seamlessly alongside EFCT, EMDR, IFS, and somatic practices to support both personal healing and relational growth.

My Integrative Approach

Because trauma and attachment live in both the nervous system and the relationship, I weave Brainspotting with:

• EFCT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy) – to strengthen the bond and create new patterns of safe, responsive connection.

• Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR – to reprocess trauma memories that spill over into your relationship.

• IFS & Ego States Work – to reduce shame, self-blame, or inner conflict that block closeness.

• Body-Based Practices (Yoga, Breathwork, Regulation) – to anchor safety and presence during sessions.

• Relational Repair Tools (including Gottman Method) – to translate healing into everyday communication and trust-building.

A Path Forward

Trauma doesn’t have to define your relationship. With Brainspotting, couples can release the weight of past wounds while building new pathways of safety, intimacy, and attunement. Together, we’ll work toward a relationship where both partners feel secure enough to risk vulnerability, repair more quickly, and grow stronger side by side.

Whether you’re navigating conflict, healing after betrayal, or carrying trauma that keeps getting triggered between you, Brainspotting can help you and your partner heal individually and together.

Healing Trauma, Repairing Connection

When couples are caught in cycles of conflict, withdrawal, or mistrust, it often isn’t just about the present moment. Old attachment wounds, trauma memories, or survival responses can get triggered in ways that make small arguments feel overwhelming, intimacy unsafe, or closeness out of reach. Both partners may want connection, yet find themselves stuck in patterns of hurt and disconnection.

Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR offers a way forward.
By targeting not just thoughts but the body’s stored trauma responses, EMDR helps partners release the pain and reactivity that keeps them from feeling safe with each other. Working together, couples can process past experiences that are spilling into the relationship and create new emotional patterns built on trust, openness, and secure connection.

How EMDR Helps Couples

Reduce Reactivity – Calm fight, flight, or freeze responses that fuel arguments or withdrawal.
Heal Attachment Injuries – Reprocess experiences of betrayal, abandonment, or disconnection that block intimacy.
Bring Safety to the Relationship – Create a nervous-system foundation where vulnerability feels possible.
Release Trauma in the Body – Address unprocessed memories and sensations that talking alone can’t resolve.

Foster Secure Bonding – Make space for closeness, empathy, and emotional responsiveness.

Why Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR Works

Body-Centered – Goes beyond talk therapy by working with the nervous system, where trauma often lives.
Attachment-Informed – Focuses on repairing the emotional bond at the heart of the relationship.
Trauma-Sensitive – Honors both partners’ histories while creating safety for shared healing. Integrative – Blends seamlessly with EFCT, Brainspotting, IFS, and somatic practices to support both personal healing and relational repair.

My Integrative Approach

Because trauma touches both the individual nervous system and the couple’s bond, I weave EMDR with:

• EFCT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy) – to strengthen emotional responsiveness and safety.

• Brainspotting & Ego States/IFS – to resolve shame, dissociation, or inner conflict that blocks intimacy.

• Body-Based Practices (Yoga, Breathwork, Nervous System Regulation) – to ground and calm during reprocessing.

• Gottman Method Tools – to strengthen daily communication, trust repair, and conflict resolution.

A Path Forward

Healing in a relationship isn’t just about insight it’s about creating a felt sense of safety with yourself and your partner. With Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR, couples can release the weight of past trauma while building new patterns of trust, connection, and closeness.

Whether you’re navigating conflict, rebuilding after betrayal, or noticing how trauma keeps showing up between you, EMDR can help you and your partner find your way back to each other with safety, compassion, and hope.

Breath, Body, and Presence in Relationship Healing

Relationships don’t just live in words they live in our bodies. The tension in your shoulders during an argument, the shallow breath when you feel unseen, or the numbness when conflict feels too overwhelming these are all signs of your nervous system shaping how you show up with your partner.

As a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200), I bring yoga into couples therapy not as exercise, but as a practice of grounding, awareness, and shared presence. Yoga helps partners slow down, regulate their nervous systems, and reconnect to themselves and to each other in ways that talk alone can’t always reach.

How Yoga Supports Couples Therapy

Calms Conflict Reactivity – Breathwork and gentle movement help partners stay present, even in difficult conversations.
Creates Shared Safety – Simple grounding practices regulate both nervous systems, making space for vulnerability and openness.
Releases Held Stress & Trauma – Movement and awareness help clear tension carried from past experiences that spill into the relationship.
Builds Embodied Connection – Partners learn to tune in not just with words, but through mindful presence and attunement.
Strengthens Take-Home Practices – Couples leave with tools they can use together outside of therapy for regulation, calm, and intimacy.

Why Couples Value Yoga in Therapy

Accessible & Adaptable – Practices can be seated, standing, or lying down always tailored to comfort and needs.
Embodied Healing – Supports emotional repair through body awareness, not just cognitive insight.
Grounding & Regulating – Helps partners return to safety more quickly after conflict or rupture.
Empowering – Provides tangible practices couples can return to between sessions.

An Integrative Approach

Yoga seamlessly enhances the couples work I already offer:

• With EFCT & Gottman Method, yoga helps couples stay grounded while addressing attachment needs, conflict patterns, and trust repair.

• With Somatic & Attachment-Focused EMDR and Brainspotting, yoga anchors the nervous system, supporting reprocessing without overwhelm.

• With IFS, Ego States, and Trauma Work, yoga helps partners notice body cues of “parts” or survival responses, and respond with compassion.

A Path Toward Connection

Yoga is more than movement it’s a bridge. By weaving yoga into couples therapy, partners can access a deeper sense of calm, safety, and attunement with one another.

Whether you’re navigating conflict, rebuilding trust, or simply seeking more presence and intimacy, yoga practices can be woven into your sessions helping you not just understand each other but truly feel connected again.