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Beach Stroll

Couples Counseling Services

1

Counseling for Connection

Couples counseling focused on emotional connection is aimed at enhancing and deepening the emotional intimacy between partners. Here's a detailed description of what this type of counseling typically involves:

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  1. Assessment of Emotional Intimacy:

    • The therapist begins by assessing the current level of emotional connection and intimacy within the relationship. This may involve exploring how each partner perceives and experiences emotional closeness.

  2. Identifying Barriers to Connection:

    • Couples discuss any barriers or challenges that hinder emotional intimacy, such as communication issues, unresolved conflicts, past hurts, or differences in emotional needs.

    • The therapist helps identify underlying emotions, fears, or patterns of behavior that may be contributing to feelings of disconnection.

  3. Promoting Vulnerability and Emotional Expression:

    • Therapist creates a safe and supportive environment where partners feel encouraged to express vulnerability and share their deepest feelings and needs.

  4. Building Trust and Safety:

    • Building a foundation of trust and emotional safety is crucial for deepening connection. Often this requires repairing past hurts through safe emotional connection and vulnerability.

    • Couples work on creating scheduled routines of connection and nurturing positive interactions that strengthen their emotional bond until it becomes a natural pattern in the relationship.

  5. Exploring Attachment Styles and Emotional Needs:

    • Therapist explores how each partner's attachment style influences their approach to intimacy, emotional connection, beliefs about giving and receiving love.

    • Couples gain insight into their own and their partner's emotional needs, learning to meet each other's needs for closeness, healing, and intimacy.

  6. Cultivating Emotional Awareness and Empathy:

    • Couples learn to identify, attune to, and manage their own emotions while developing empathy and attunement for their partner's emotional experiences.

    • Therapists may use experiential exercises, role-playing, breathing techniques, guided imagery, and/or memory resourcing to deepen emotional awareness, connection, and empathy within the relationship.

  7. Integration and Continued Practice:

    • Each session concludes with a summary of key insights and action steps for couples to practice between sessions.

    • Therapist may provide homework assignments or exercises designed to reinforce emotional connection and deepen intimacy in daily interactions.

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Couples counseling for emotional connection is a collaborative process that empowers partners to cultivate a deeper understanding of each other, strengthen their emotional bond, repair old wounds that keep them stuck in toxic cycles, and create a more fulfilling and resilient relationship. It focuses on creating an environment where both partners feel valued, supported, and emotionally connected on a profound level.

2

Couples EMDR Therapy 

Have you and your spouse experienced trauma?  

Trauma comes in many forms and often, couples experience it together. This service is for couples that desire to heal together in a combined treatment that is rapid and effective.  

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The Group Traumatic Episode Protocol (G-TEP) for EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) by Elan Shapiro is the method of treatment used for this service.

 

Here's an explanation of how the G-TEP protocol works within the context of couples therapy:

  1. Identification of the Trauma Episode:

    • The therapist works with the couple to identify traumatic event(s) that have affected both partners collectively. These could include incidents such as accidents, natural disasters, violence, infidelity, or significant losses experienced together.

  2. Assessment and Preparation:

    • Each partner undergoes individual assessment and preparation to ensure readiness for EMDR processing. This involves discussing personal reactions to the trauma and establishing safety and coping mechanisms using positive resourcing exercises.

  3. Conjoint Sessions:

    • The G-TEP protocol involves joint EMDR sessions where both partners participate together. This allows them to process shared traumatic memories or experiences simultaneously. However, in order to help each partner through the process, these sessions are structured to contain the traumatic material and express the positive, adaptive, and transformative experiences.

    • The bilateral stimulation technique used to facilitate the processing of memories associated with the trauma is eye-movement.

  4. Processing Shared Experiences:

    • During the EMDR sessions, the focus is on processing the emotional and psychological impact of the trauma on both partners.

    • Partners explore their individual perceptions, emotions, and reactions to the traumatic event, while also acknowledging and validating each other’s experiences.

  5. Integration and Relational Healing:

    • After each session, there is an integration phase where the couple discusses their experiences, insights gained, and any shifts in emotional responses or relational dynamics.

    • The therapist facilitates communication, empathy, and mutual support between partners to foster relational healing and strengthen their connection.

  6. Addressing Relational Effects:

    • The G-TEP protocol also addresses how the shared trauma has affected the couple’s relationship dynamics, trust, and intimacy.

    • Therapeutic goals include improving communication, rebuilding trust, and enhancing emotional connection as part of the healing process.

  7. Continued Support and Follow-Up:

    • Follow-up sessions are conducted to monitor progress, address ongoing challenges, and reinforce coping strategies and relational skills learned during therapy.

    • The therapist provides ongoing support to help the couple maintain and build upon the gains achieved through G-TEP, promoting resilience and long-term healing.

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The Group Traumatic Events Protocol within couples therapy with EMDR provides a structured approach to effectively address the impact of shared traumatic experiences on the relationship. It aims to facilitate healing, improve emotional connection, and promote mutual understanding and support between partners as they navigate the aftermath of trauma together.

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I have used this protocol to help clients heal from a variety of traumas including:

  • Recent Diagnosis (of child or spouse)

  • Car accidents

  • Grief/Loss

  • Infidelity/Betrayal in Couples​

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