Couples Therapy
Couples therapy addresses relational patterns that persist despite awareness and effort. This includes recurring conflict, emotional disconnection, attachment-based dynamics, and the aftermath of betrayal or relational injury.
The work of couples therapy focuses on the underlying dynamics maintaining ongoing patterns: how partners respond under stress, how attachment needs create protective cycles, and how developmental history shapes current relating.
It is structured, ongoing, experiential work that focuses on exploring and changing relational patterns rather than skill-building or problem-solving. The work requires both partners to be willing to examine their contributions to the relational cycles and challenges.
Image by Phillip Goldsberry
Areas of Focus
Couples therapy addresses:
Recurring conflict and communication breakdown
Emotional distance and attachment-based disconnection (pursue-withdraw, anxious-avoidant dynamics)
Infidelity, betrayal, and attachment injuries
Intense relational emotions, including anger, jealousy, fear, shutdown, or withdrawal
Difficulty with emotional or physical intimacy
The impact of past relational experience on current patterns
Relational repair following prolonged disconnection or rupture
Therapeutic Approach
My work integrates Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT), psychodynamic therapy, and attachment-based approaches. The focus is on how attachment patterns create protective responses that become sources of disconnection, and how relational injuries persist when they remain unprocessed.
Therapy examines both individual attachment histories and the interactional patterns couples create together. Sessions address what happens emotionally in moments of conflict or withdrawal, rather than teaching communication techniques.
Couples therapy is most effective when both partners can engage with difficulty over time rather than seek an immediate resolution. This allows space for patterns to emerge, be understood, and gradually reorganised.
Is couples therapy right for you?
This work may be appropriate if you:
Are open to exploring emotional and relational patterns, not just behaviours
Want to understand what is happening between you, rather than assigning blame
Are willing to engage actively and consistently in the process
Understand that meaningful change unfolds over time
Couples therapy may not be appropriate where there is:
Ongoing or untreated addiction or severe mental health instability
Active or recent domestic abuse or coercive control
Ongoing infidelity
A separation is already underway or decided
Formats
Online Couples Therapy
Ongoing couples therapy consists of 80-minute sessions held weekly via Zoom. This format supports sustained work with relational patterns, emotional regulation, and attachment-based difficulties.
2-Day Couples Therapy Intensives
Couples therapy intensives offer 12 hours of concentrated work over two consecutive days. This format is suited to couples in acute crisis, experiencing high conflict, or requiring focused attention following betrayal or significant relational injury. Intensives are held in person in Bristol or at select UK locations. Learn more about intensives →
Structure and Process
Initial Consultation
Each partner completes a separate 20-minute consultation call. These calls are 20 minutes per partner and explore whether couples therapy is appropriate for your situation.
First Session
The initial 80-minute session establishes the relational patterns creating difficulty. Both partners share their perspectives on current struggles and relationship history. This session identifies attachment dynamics, conflict cycles, and areas of persistent disconnection.
Read more: What happens in the first couples therapy session →
Individual Sessions
Each partner has at least one individual 80-minute session during the course of work to explore their own relational history and attachment patterns.
Ongoing Sessions
Sessions provide space to work with recurring conflict patterns, process attachment injuries, examine emotional reactivity, and address what maintains disconnection despite both partners’ intentions. Consistency supports depth, pattern recognition, and integration.
Frequency and Duration
Sessions are weekly. Consistency matters more than frequency adjustments, particularly in early work.
Duration varies. Some couples work for several months; others engage for a year or longer depending on the nature of the difficulty and the depth of relational injury. This is discussed during initial sessions.
Practical Information
Who I work with: Adults 18+ in any relationship configuration. Cultural, religious, and personal contexts are considered as they relate to relational patterns and expectations.
Session requirements: Both partners attend all couples sessions. Children or dependents cannot be present during online or in-person sessions.
Location: Online sessions via Zoom. Intensives held in Bristol or select UK locations.
Fees: Available on the fees page.
Beginning Couples Therapy
Initial consultations are 20 minutes per partner to explore whether couples therapy is appropriate for your situation. The consultation is not a therapeutic session, but an opportunity to clarify what you are seeking support with and to discuss how the work would be structured.