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Preparing for Couples Therapy

Guidelines to Help You Get the Most from Our Work Together

My role is to support you in improving how you respond to one another—without compromising your values. Like a good coach, I provide tools and guidance, but you define your goals.

Goals of Couples Therapy

Therapy helps you:

  • Clarify the life you want to build together

  • Identify the kind of partner you aspire to be

  • Understand what blocks you from becoming that partner

  • Learn and apply new skills to grow the relationship

How to Maximize Your Sessions

Avoid these common patterns:

  • Jumping from one hot topic to the next

  • Coming in with no focus

  • Rehashing fights without reflection

Instead, try this before each session:

  • Reflect on what you want to learn or change

  • Consider how you’ve responded to challenges

  • Focus on what you can do to improve the relationship

Communication Tips

Good communication is built on:

  • Respect – Speak with care

  • Openness – Stay curious and receptive

  • Persistence – Stay engaged, even when it’s hard

Ask yourself:

  • What am I feeling and needing?

  • What does this issue mean to me?

  • What does my partner need from me?

What Gets in the Way

Ineffective reactions include:

  • Blaming or controlling

  • Withdrawing or shutting down

  • Whining, compliance, or confusion

These are normal under stress—but therapy helps you respond more constructively.

Mindsets That Support Growth

  • Your attitude is more important than the perfect action

  • Assumptions about your partner are often flawed

  • Growth begins with changing yourself—not your partner

  • Real intimacy is tested during difficult moments

  • Fear is a signal to prepare, not a reason to panic

  • What annoys you can reveal what you need to work on

Progress happens when you choose growth—especially when it’s hard.
Let’s work together to build the relationship you both want.

Psychotherapy Practice

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Therapy begins with presence, empathy, and genuine curiosity. I view psychotherapy as a collaborative space for reflection and exploration—a relational and compassionate process of deep listening to your lived experience.

My work is grounded in existential-phenomenological therapy and informed by several perspectives that offer helpful lenses on human experience, including:

  • Existential-Phenomenological Therapy

  • Jungian and Archetypal Psychology

  • Psychodynamic and Modern Analytic Therapies

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

  • Relational Life (Terry Real) and Gottman Couples Therapy

  • Somatic and Cultural-Relational Approaches

I draw from these approaches flexibly and thoughtfully, allowing your experience, not theory, to guide our work.

Therapy is not about “fixing” you. I do not assume you are broken. Rather, it is an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and come into a clearer relationship with your life, your questions, and your possibilities.

Our conversations may explore patterns, meanings, emotions, and embodied experience as they show up in your life. Sometimes this includes attention to symbolic or existential themes, when they are meaningful to you. The aim is not to impose answers, but to support a deeper understanding of how you wish to live.

Together, we cultivate awareness, psychological flexibility, and meaningful engagement with life—not by avoiding difficulty, but by meeting it with honesty and care.

I work with the whole person—mind, body, and lived experience—within the real contexts of your relationships and world.

Specialities:

  • Depression, Anxiety & Life Transitions

  • Couples/Relationships

  • Grief & Loss

  • Spiritual Emergence/Emergency and Existential Crises

  • Trauma & PTSD

  • Addictions/Substance Abuse

  • LGBTQIA+ affirming care

Rate:

$200/hour (Private Pay) In-person and remote sessions

You are an Out-of-Network Provider. What does that mean for me?

Depending on your plan, your health insurance may cover some or all of the cost of our work together. If you have out-of-network benefits, you’ll receive documentation you can submit for reimbursement. Before our meeting, please contact your insurance provider to ask about reimbursement rates, co-pays, deductibles, or any required pre-authorizations.

Contact Dr. Johnson

Are you interested in working together? Fill out some info, and I will contact you shortly. I’m delighted to hear from you.