Are you in a meaningful relationship that feels like it could use a little help?  Couples or marriage counseling may be your solution.

All meaningful relationships, whether you are a committed couple or in a marriage, need constant attention to be successful. Counseling works to provide skills and techniques to enhance the attention spent on your relationship. 

Ginger Schmidt is a certified Gottman Couples Therapist, and utilizes Gottman Style Relationship Counseling frequently to assist in creating the change a couple desires. Though the Gottman Approach is very comprehensive, at A Purposeful Path, we also use a other research-based approaches to help build and strengthen meaningful relationships, including: Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT), Mindfulness Based Couples Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy for Couples (REBT).

For couples work, the ideal starting plan is as follows:
1) Check around to find your best fit for a therapist.  There are MANY options, so it's important to feel comfortable with the person you're starting therapy with; this is why A Purposeful Path offers free phone consultations.  
2) Joint intake appointment: There is intake paperwork to be completed, which will be emailed to you prior to the intake appointment, via an Electronic Medical Record. You will be provided a link to securely log into your client portal. Both individuals present to complete the Gottman Intake Interview. This intake assessments helps review the history of the relationship, works through the current struggles happening, and this is when we begin treatment planning.

3) Each partner completes an individual appointment: This allows for each partner to explore her/his childhood, past relationships, any traumas, details about the partner that are uncomfortable to share with the partner present. Depending on what’s been revealed at this time, the therapist might have you complete a set of Gottman Assessment Questionnaires, that will further assist the therapist in exploring past and current issues plaguing the relationship.
4) Joint session: By this time, the therapist will have a good understanding of where to start with couple specific interventions/skills/stratgeis that will be taught in session and will be assigned as therapeutic homework.
5) Ongoing Therapeutic Sessions: Frequency and duration are determined with your therapist.  Frequency: typically closer together with initial 4-6 sessions (weekly is ideal).  As therapy progresses (when you are beginning to feel better), frequency typically begins to space out.  Duration: therapeutic sessions are 45 minutes, but double sessions may be requested.  Some clients feel that they need additional time in session to process through their current and past events or experiences; double sessions are double the time (90 minutes).  
6) Therapeutic Termination: At some point, the therapeutic goals are reached!  You will feel better, and will have lots of therapeutic skills/techniques/strategies you've learned that you will continue using!  Termination is a professional term, identified from psychotherapeutic guidelines set forth by our professional standards.  Just because termination is completed, doesn't mean it's over!  Successful therapy is identified by having built a strong therapeutic relationship between client and therapist where client may contact the therapist again if the she/he is experiencing problems in the future.  

If you would like to learn more about how relationship therapy can help improve your relationship, please contact us, we would be happy to talk with you. 

Call or email today to schedule a phone consultation or an intake session!

970.682.8844 | info@apurposefulpath.com