Marriage and Couples Counseling
Couples Counseling is our MAIN specialty.
Effective couples counseling requires extensive training and experience. Many therapists claim to do couples counseling but never obtain the specialized education necessary to help couples in distress. Helping guide couples to closeness and connection is our main specialty.
Relationships are our most precious assets.
We’re all born with the need for the giving and receiving of love, affection, closeness and safety. These needs are vital to our wellbeing. When they are lacking, damaged or missing we can feel lost, confused, lonely and hurt. Family Strong specializes in marriage counseling focused on helping you strengthen the bond and deepen the connection with the most important person in your life.
We want you to connect with each other deeply, for your whole life.
Clinicians at Family Strong Counseling in Arvada and Littleton have the training and education in relationship systems and dynamics necessary to do effective couples counseling. We also have specialized training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT provides the foundation for the counseling that we do with couples. 20+ years of research validating its effectiveness and our own experiences seeing its transformative power have led us to wholeheartedly believe in EFT and it’s attachment focus to deeply heal and restore individuals and relationships. EFT helps us get to the core of a couple’s disconnection so that they can heal and feel safe, secure, trusting, and deeply bonded with one another for a lifetime. Simply put, EFT is the most effective form of couples therapy ever! There is nothing more healing or impactful on a relationship than gaining or regaining a deep sense of secure connection. Couples who work with us experience powerful, lasting change!
It’s not too late!
We can help even if it feels like all hope is lost! We’ve seen couples come back from the brink of divorce or separation. We’ve helped couples not only heal from betrayal and infidelity but become even stronger than they were before (yes, seriously!). We’ve helped couples navigate through the coldness of becoming “really good roommates” to the heat of passion and intimacy. We’ve helped couples walk the path of recovery and find balance, harmony and healing with each other. We’ve even reconnected couples already separated and even divorced.
Sometimes a simple phone call is all it takes to start feeling better so before throwing in the towel pick up the phone and give us a call!
Not headed for divorce but feeling disconnected?
The best time to address patterns and feelings of distance or disconnection is right now, before things get worse. We know it can feel like it but seeing us DOES NOT mean that your relationship is headed for destruction. We also know that it can feel vulnerable to reach out to a therapist. We’re here to not only ease you into the process but to reassure you that we want to help you have the happiest, most satisfying relationship possible! We can help whether you’re relationship status is newly dating, married for 50 years or anywhere in between. We especially love working with engaged or dating couples to help them build a foundation for marriage that will last a lifetime!
Our approach to couples counseling utilizes a model of therapy called EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy). EFT addresses the core issues of emotional closeness, trust and connection. Utilitizing EFT, our therapists help to…
Identify your individual needs for connection and closeness and the negative patterns that get you stuck in disconnection
Teach you how to recognize each other’s pain and emotional needs in a genuine, caring, and authentic way
Help you learn to connect and reconnect whenever you need, for your whole life
Guide you through healing past wounds and learn how to not let them negatively affect you or the relationship now or in the future
Make the relationship a safe shelter for you and your partner
EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) is built on the newest science of adult love and focuses on what’s most important in marriage and relationships—safe, secure connection.
What is EFT?
We all get into negative patterns of disconnection in our relationships. It’s normal to sometimes feel lonely, unheard, or not trusted. When stuck in a negative pattern, most of us will wonder “do I really matter to my partner?” or “will my partner really be there for me when I need them most?” These patterns of disconnection keep us feeling alone. Typically, either anger or frustration will surface in one partner and withdrawal will occur by the other. Both behaviors often lead to fighting and even more disconnection-the more angry or frustrated one partner becomes the more the other withdraws and visa versa. Phrases like “we have the same fight/talk about the same things over and over,” or “we’ve become just roommates” strike familiar chords with couples who are experiencing these negative patterns. We help couples hear and understand these cycles and each other’s bids for connection and then work to create new patterns of deeply meaningful connection.
Why do we do EFT?
To put bluntly…because it works! EFT is the most effective form of couples therapy ever. Also, we’re all human and we’ve been there too—we know the sting and hurt of feeling disconnected, lonely, and misunderstood. And we know the soothing relief and healing that comes when we find connection with the people we love most. The work we do with EFT is powerful, transformative, and deeply impactful. We won’t sugarcoat-it’s not easy to go through. But we do it because it’s worth it and it works! We don’t waste a lot of time teaching you tools or skills that don’t last. We work to get right to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible so you and your partner can feel the joyful relief of (re)connection. We help you learn how to repair and connect over and over so that you can feel the closeness for which you’re longing your whole lifetime!
Are you there for me?
Will you comfort me when I'm hurting or afraid?
Do I matter to you?
Am I free to be myself with you? Do you love the real me?
Are you there when I need you most?
Are you in my corner? Are we in this together?
Why should I choose an EFT therapist?
EFT therapists focus specifically on changing the patterns of hurt and conflict that can keep couples from closeness and deep bonding. EFT therapists have intense training in effectively navigating the issues and roadblocks couples face and help partners create a sense of security, protection and comfort for each other. EFT was developed specifically as a model of therapy for relationships and has been shown to be the most effective couples therapy model ever!
What Experts Say About EFT
We want to do everything we can to make sure that you get the best therapy possible. We strongly encourage you to attend a first session. This is the best possible way to get a good feel for your therapist. Finding a good fit with your therapist is critical! This means that, in the rare event we’re not a good fit for you, we will provide you with contact information for other exceptional therapists whom we trust.