Our lives can be stressful - work, children, family, and finances often take priority, leaving one’s relationship or marriage feeling strained. If you and your partner are struggling, couples therapy in Seattle may be something worth exploring. Here you will work to resolve conflict, improve communication, build trust, and escape the negative cycle you’re stuck in.
There are many reasons why couples seek out couples therapy. Some couples are dealing with specific issues, such as infidelity, finances, and parenting struggles. Other times couples find themselves constantly fighting or bickering over the same problems, feeling stuck in a never-ending cycle of negativity. Some partners simply want to strengthen communication, intimacy, and trust in a safe, supportive environment.
I’m Lia (she/her), a Seattle therapist specializing in the practices of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), and Internal Family Systems (IFS). Through the application of these modalities, I help couples identify and disengage from negative patterns and cycles, examine their vulnerabilities and traumas, and find healing.
I strive to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for couples, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ability, or marital status. No matter your background or past, I am glad that you are here, and I am committed to supporting you and your partner during this process.
I am proud to offer my clients a unique combination of evidence-based therapies, including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), and Internal Family Systems (IFS).
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) involves identifying the negative cycles you keep getting caught in and using this knowledge to overcome this pattern, creating lasting change in your relationship and in your life. EFT helps us better understand our needs, fears, and deepest longings. It is a highly researched and successful modality geared towards finding or restoring the attachment bonds that we have formed with our partner, thus finding the secure connection we long for in our relationships. Research shows that 70-75% of couples recover from their distress, and 85-90% show significant improvements.
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) recognizes that within each individual, there is an innate growth-oriented and healing capacity. Awakening to this capacity moves us from feeling stuck to experiencing a new vitality that can heal and transform us. Incorporating AEDP into couples therapy means that I balance the focus on what is “wrong” with seeing the subtle signs of love and appreciation for the other that may be occurring in that moment. The felt experience of love is evoked in each partner. The intention is to grow in awareness, attunement, and appreciation for the other.
AEDP seeks to create change through the undoing of aloneness and has roots in interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, mother-infant intersubjectivity research, emotion theory, and body-focused approaches. The goal is to foster new and healing experiences and, with these experiences, gain resources, resilience, and a renewed zest for life and each other.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) views the mind as being made up of many different minds or sub-personalities, called “parts”. Many of my clients will learn to better understand their emotions and the parts that makeup themselves; the inner critic, the inadequate part, the people pleaser, the perfectionist, and the inner child. When we gain an understanding of our parts, we can begin to recognize “who” is showing up at any particular moment and making our life’s decisions or contributing to tricky relational dynamics.
Couples therapy with me is right for you if:
Couples therapy with me would not be right for you if:
Schedule your free 20-30 minute consultation with Lia today!
