Deep Dive into Intimacy

Relational Intimacy - Let’s start out by looking at how you relate to each other. Communication patterns, conflict, attachment styles, old wounds, childhood stories, messages we get from our culture….all of these impact how we show up in our relationships. In our work together, we begin to unpack a myriad of topics and dive into what’s working and what’s not working. We then create some goals and intentions - what can I do for myself and what can my partner do for me when things get hard? How can we co-create better communication and connection? How do I stay calm when listening to my partner(s) viewpoint while simultaneously honoring my own perspective? Setting a strong foundation of agreements, active listening, and offering each other validation is necessary as we explore sexual intimacy.

Sexual Intimacy - Let’s practice how we can slow down, reflect, validate, show accountability, and find new ways of physically relating to one another (and new ways of relating to oneself). We explore consent, touch, sensations, fantasies, expectations, and traumas. You and your partner(s) get to redefine what sex even means for the relationship. Rediscovering your sexual bodies, boundaries, and energies can be empowering and allows for new ways of experiencing your erotic selves.

Couples Therapy offers a brave space to reveal and challenge longstanding beliefs, dynamics, and behaviors. It’s a brave act to come to therapy and continually explore difficult moments, emotions, triggers, and stay connected to yourself and your partner. Sometimes couples keep fighting because deep down inside they know that the relationship can be better. Working with the elements of conflict (or avoidance of) and experiencing a new result in real time, may provide some hope and skills towards lasting change. Change does not always come from insight but from experience, and my goal is to help you two feel a shift, even in the smallest of ways.

I work primarily with intercultural couples navigating differences.

Specialization

I have a Certificate in Sex Therapy and guide couples in having brave conversations around touch, fantasies, consent, and exploration. I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). This mode of therapy explores attachment and underlying emotions and beliefs which get in the way of healthy communication. I pair all of this with Hakomi, a technique which uses safe touch and explores sensations, images, memories, or beliefs you are experiencing in the moment.

Additional offerings I have studied and geek out on:

Martha Kauppi’s Consensual Non Monogamy Level 1 (Institute of Relational Intimacy)

The Developmental Model with The Couples Institute.

Like a Pro Wheel of Consent with Betty Martin

I also offer EMDR, Brainspotting, and Ketamine Therapy.