Couples & Relational Therapy

Relational conflict rarely begins in the present moment. What unfolds between two people often carries earlier attachment histories, unspoken expectations, instinctual defenses, and deeply rooted emotional patterns. In close relationships — whether romantic partners, family members, or long-term professional or business partners — we encounter not only one another, but also parts of ourselves shaped long before we met.

From a psychodynamic and Jungian perspective, relationships can constellate powerful projections and unconscious dynamics. When individuals trigger one another, unresolved early experiences may be reactivated and unconsciously reenacted. In these moments, a partner may be cast into an archetypal role — the critic, the tyrant, the abandoning figure — embodying emotional injuries carried from the past. What appears as present conflict often carries the echo of earlier wounds seeking recognition and repair.

In high-conflict relationships, repetitive cycles of escalation or emotional withdrawal often feel intractable because they are fueled by deeper unconscious anxieties. Rather than viewing conflict simply as a failure of communication, a depth approach recognizes intense reactivity—including moments where escalation crosses into bilateral physical safety boundaries—as a primitive, protective defense against profound vulnerability, shame, or fears of abandonment. In these highly charged states, the relational field becomes polarized, and partners easily become ensnared in rigid shadow projections, reacting to an internalized threat rather than the person before them. In our work, we prioritize containment and slow down these rapid escalations to trace the emotional undercurrents driving the storm. By helping each partner differentiate present reality from past survival strategies and reclaim projected wounds, therapy transforms persistent friction into a doorway for mutual understanding and deeper psychological integration of the opposite.

I approach betrayal trauma by helping each partner understand and process the psychological impact of the betrayal while creating space for accountability, emotional safety, and the possibility of repair. Betrayal can profoundly disrupt the psychological foundations of a relationship. Infidelity, deception, secrecy, or other significant breaches of trust can affect not only the bond between partners, but also one's sense of safety, reality, self-worth, and capacity to trust one's own perceptions. From a psychodynamic perspective, betrayal may activate earlier attachment injuries and unconscious fears of abandonment, rejection, inadequacy, or humiliation. At the same time, the injury of betrayal belongs to the present relationship and should not be reduced to a reenactment of the past.

Therapy provides a space to understand both dimensions: the reality of what happened and the deeper emotional meanings it may have constellated. We explore the impact of secrecy and broken trust, the defenses that emerge in response to relational injury, and the ways shame, anger, grief, longing, and fear may shape each partner's experience. For the betrayed partner, this may include restoring a sense of psychological safety and confidence in one's own perceptions. For the partner who caused the betrayal, the work may involve developing greater capacity to face the impact of their actions, take responsibility, and understand the emotional and relational patterns that contributed to the breach.

Relational therapy offers a space to slow down what feels reactive or repetitive and to examine the emotional undercurrents beneath conflict. We explore how communication becomes strained, how distance forms, and how protective strategies — once necessary for survival — begin to erode connection. Rather than assigning blame or remaining caught in projection, we attend to the relational field itself: the subtle ways longing, fear, shame, and unmet needs circulate between you.

The work involves reclaiming projections, recognizing how each person’s history enters the relationship, and restoring dialogue where defensiveness once prevailed. Over time, greater emotional safety and a more conscious form of intimacy—whether romantic, familial, or collaborative—can emerge through increased awareness and mutual responsibility. I integrate EMDR to support reprocessing of unresolved emotional experiences and implicit memories that may be activated in the relational dynamic, and I draw on Gottman Method principles alongside a psychodynamic framework to support communication skills, insight, and relational patterns, including structured exercises and between-session practices for you and your partner.

Fee: $250 per 50-minute online session. Couples & Relational therapy is structured as a weekly commitment to maintain therapeutic momentum and create the stability required for meaningful change within the relationship.

Insurance: I am an out-of-network provider. I can provide monthly superbills for clients seeking reimbursement through their insurance benefits.