Building Bridges to Healthy Relationships

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who for the past 25 years has helped couples, individuals and families transform painful relationships.

When relationships feel aligned, we are filled with great joy. When they feel disconnected, we can experience tremendous unhappiness and hopelessness, depression and anxiety. Let me help you develop the tools to create the relationship that you want with others or yourself.

Areas of Interest

  • EFT is a highly researched, effective and evidence-based theory that helps couples understand and respond to each other’s needs. EFT has been validated by over 30 years of empirical research. Research shows us that when there is understanding of why people act in a particular way there is more willingness to work together to repair the connection.  Ultimately, you’ll be able to create a new, positive cycle which is comfortable to all participants.

  • For nearly 20 years I have helped many, many couples repair their marriages and create great, lasting relationships. I provide Couples Counseling to people who are married, living together, or engaged. Since the Bay Area is a unique melting pot my practice is filled with couples that come from various walks of life and many different cultures. If you have been saying to yourself, “I need help for my relationship,” look no further. I can help you and your partner rebuild the bridge of love back to each other.

  • Using Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) I can help you learn to manage the conflicts that feel like they are tearing your family apart. Emotionally Focused Family Therapy begins focusing first on where the immediate pain is in the family and the underlying patterns that have formed from this pain. I will help the person who is hurt, angry, feeling alienated or misunderstood to be heard by those that they feel have hurt them.

  • My practice includes work with individuals, many of whom struggle with anxiety or depression. A great many people are affected by these disorders and don’t seek help to live a fulfilling life. They suffer silently and may feel that they are in a hopeless situation. There is hope! I have many years of experience helping clients with both anxiety and depression management and I would like to help you.

It’s possible to turn your relationship around more quickly than you ever imagined

  • Understand the pattern of repetitive arguments that have caught you and your partner or family members

  • Respond effectively when you’ve been triggered

  • Ask the right questions to understand each other’s intentions

  • Successfully work together to resolve the problems that arise between you

  • Resolve conflict and create harmony

  • Communicate with love, care and respect so that each of you feels heard

  • Learn how to ask for your needs to be met

  • Understand your differences and enhance the areas you have in common

  • Re-establish love and deepen intimacy

  • Regain a secure, safe attachment with your partner or family members

What is Emotionally Focused Therapy?

Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is the Gold Standard of couple’s counseling and is based on the science of adult love and bonding (attachment). Drs. Susan Johnson and Les Greenberg developed it in the 1980’s in Canada. Dr. Johnson noticed that some couples failed to continue to thrive after counseling and began to pour over video of sessions to discover what was missing. She came to see that couples were focusing on each other’s behavior but were unaware of the deep emotions and needs that lie beneath those behaviors. Once she began to help couples to understand what was driving their reactivity she saw remarkable change that remained even after couples left her office.