Relationship Counseling in Plano & Frisco, TX

What brings couples to relationship counseling:

The specific issues differ from couple to couple. The underlying themes are almost always remarkably consistent:

• "We argue constantly and nothing ever gets resolved"

• "We never argue, but we've stopped really talking either"

• "I feel like my partner doesn't hear me no matter how many times I say it"

• "We parent well together but we've forgotten how to be a couple"

• "Every conversation about a real issue turns into a fight about something else entirely"

• "I love my partner but I don't feel emotionally close to them anymore"

• "We have completely different communication styles and it's exhausting"

• "Something happened- a loss, a life change, a crisis- and we haven't found our way back to each other"

What relationship counseling addresses:

Communication patterns
Most couples don't fight about what they think they're fighting about. The argument about dishes is rarely about dishes. Underneath almost every recurring conflict is an unmet emotional need: for connection, for respect, for reassurance, for autonomy. Therapy helps you identify what's actually being said underneath what's being said, and teaches you how to have the real conversation instead of the surface one.

Attachment styles
How you attach to the people you love was largely shaped before you were old enough to choose it. Your attachment style- secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized- determines how you respond to conflict, how you seek comfort, how you interpret your partner's behavior, and how safe intimacy feels. Understanding your own attachment style and your partner's is often the single most clarifying thing a couple can do. It transforms "you always pull away when I need you" into something both partners can actually work with.

The pursuer-withdrawer cycle
This is the most common destructive pattern I see in couples. One partner pursues, seeking connection, reassurance, resolution. The other withdraws, shutting down, going quiet, needing space. The pursuer pursues harder. The withdrawer withdraws further. Both feel alone. Neither feels understood. This cycle is not a character flaw in either person. it is a predictable pattern rooted in attachment, and it is completely interruptible with the right tools.

Conflict resolution
Not all conflict is destructive. In fact, couples who never fight are often couples who have stopped being honest with each other. The goal isn't the absence of conflict- it's the ability to have conflict productively. To disagree without contempt. To hear your partner's perspective without shutting down. To repair after a fight rather than letting resentment accumulate.

Emotional intimacy
Emotional intimacy is the foundation everything else is built on. It's the experience of feeling genuinely known by another person, not just the surface version of you, but the real one. When emotional intimacy erodes, everything else in the relationship suffers. Rebuilding it requires vulnerability, curiosity, and the kind of honest conversation most couples have never been taught how to have.

Life transitions
Marriage. Children. Career changes. Loss. Illness. Empty nesting. Retirement. Every major life transition reorganizes a relationship. Couples who navigate transitions well don't do it by accident. They do it by staying in active, honest communication about how each person is changing and what they need.*

My approach:
My work with couples draws on Gottman Method couples therapy (one of the most extensively researched approaches to couples counseling available) as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy principles and twenty years of clinical experience.

John and Julie Gottman's research identified four specific communication patterns that predict relationship failure with striking accuracy: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Most couples I see are caught in at least one of these patterns without realizing it. Part of our work together is identifying these patterns clearly, and replacing them with something that actually works.

My approach is direct and solution-focused. I'm not going to sit quietly while you talk past each other for fifty minutes and then send you home with nothing. I'm going to name what I'm seeing, help you understand it, and give you something concrete to work with.

Individual sessions within couples work:
Sometimes the most effective couples work includes individual sessions alongside joint sessions. This gives each partner space to explore their own history, their own patterns, and their own contribution to the dynamic, without the other person in the room. I offer this as part of a comprehensive approach when it serves the couple's goals.

Who I work with:
I work with couples of all orientations, relationship structures, ages, and identities- married, unmarried, newly together, or decades in. I am LGBTQIA+ affirming, non-monogamy friendly, and non-binary inclusive.

I also work with individuals who want to understand their relational patterns (attachment style, communication tendencies, relationship history) whether they're currently partnered or not.

Location and availability:
I see clients in person in Plano and Frisco, TX and virtually with clients anywhere in Texas.

Other Areas I Serve:

• Frisco

• McKinney

• Plano

• Dallas

Issues I Work With:

• Infidelity Recovery

• Desire Discrepancy

• Low Libido

• Couples Sex Therapy

• Sexual Trauma

• LGBTQIA+ Sex Therapy

• Kink-Aware Therapy

• Ethical Non-Monogamy & Polyamory Therapy

The relationship you want is possible. It just requires both of you deciding it's worth the work, and having someone in your corner who knows how to help.