If you’ve been married for any length of time, you know that marriage requires more to last than merely falling in love.

Perhaps you’ve tried to figure things out on your own, only to realize over time that your relationship has grown worse, not better. Attitudes and behaviors may have improved temporarily, but change hasn’t lasted. Conversations have only gone so far. Well-worn patterns have returned.

Evidence-based marriage therapy offers strategies that can lead to deeper friendship, happiness, intimacy, connection, and lasting change. But it’s up to both of you to decide if you want to put in the work to see what’s possible, together.

Marriage therapy at Brave Marriage could be your next best step if you’ve felt:

• stuck in a cycle of unresolved conflict

• disconnected from your spouse

• tired of the same problems, different day

• disillusioned by the way you thought things would be, compared to the way they are in your marriage

AND you’re ready to…

• take an honest look at your relationship…
  and the role you play in helping or hurting it

• make choices that benefit your marriage
  regardless of what your partner is or isn’t doing

• accept professional help

Over the course of therapy, you will learn how to:

• Identify relational patterns that have kept you from an intimate marriage.

• Communicate in ways that lead to mutual understanding and compromise rather than to disconnection.

• Interact in healthier ways based on research shows leads to happier, more stable marriages.

• Manage yourself and strong emotions when you and your partner don’t see eye to eye.

• Take responsibility for your role in building a healthy, mutual partnership.

• Learn to trust each other with your thoughts, feelings, fears, dreams and desires.

Gottman Method Couples Therapy:

I am trained in Gottman Method Couples Therapy (Level I & II), one of the leading evidence-based approaches to couples therapy. In the Gottman Method, the first three sessions include a thorough assessment of your couple story, individual history, and the issues that have led you to seek services. During the assessment process, you will also take an online assessment, which will provide an objective look at your relationship and the tasks needed to improve your marriage.

During your fourth session, we will review your results together, and I will make professional recommendations on what is needed to improve your marriage. If you’re both open to learning new strategies and putting in effort to change, we will continue into the treatment planning and intervention stage therapy. Our work together will focus on strengthening weak areas, such as communication, conflict, repair attempts, attunement, friendship, problem-solving, trust, and teamwork. My goal is to empower you with the tools to co-create a happier, healthier marriage.

You may not be ready for couples therapy at Brave Marriage if:

• you’re not yet willing to make changes in your own behavior for the sake of the relationship

• you’re not yet open to accepting outside influence regarding your relationship

• you’re expecting couples therapy to be a passive process

Additionally, if you are experiencing any of the following that are presently impacting your relationship, I encourage you to begin your healing journey with the resources linked below:

• suicidal ideation

• substance abuse

• intimate partner violence

• unprocessed past trauma

Pricing and Policies:

Therapy Length:

• Session 1 typically lasts 60-75 minutes. Subsequent sessions are 50-60 minutes.

• On average, couples spend around 8-12 sessions in couples therapy with me. Some couples “graduate” and move into maintenance sessions at quarterly or biannual intervals, though this is not required.

• I do not work with therapy couples beyond 20 sessions. When you choose to work with me, my expectation is that we will be able to accomplish what we need to in that length of time. I take couples therapy seriously and expect the same of the limited number of clients with whom I work.

Therapy Cost:

• Sessions are paid individually at $175 per session plus $39 for Gottman’s online assessment.

• As a good faith estimate, I recommend planning for 10-12 sessions at the start ($1,750 - $2,100).

• In 2020, the average total cost of divorce was $12,900. At Brave Marriage, you’re looking at spending no more than 27% of that cost on therapy—an investment often leading to better outcomes for marriages, families, and their extended support systems compared to the financial, emotional, and relational cost of divorce.