What can River Fern Counselling help couples with?

· Emotional disconnection.  

· Trouble communicating well.  

· Heated arguments and negative feelings towards each other.  

· Loss of intimacy. 

· Decreased friendship.

· Depression or Anxiety in one or both partners. 

· Addiction. 

· Infidelity. 

· Damaged trust. 

· Hormonal changes.

· Unresolved old wounds in this relationship. 

· Trauma from past relationships impacting your current relationship. 

· Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in one or both partners. 

Through the process of couples therapy, couples can expect to:

· Understand themselves and each other better.

· Learn which patterns and behaviours are destructive.

· Practice evidence-based behaviours that are shown to improve   relationship quality.

· Improve communication. 

· Learn to reach for each other emotionally, asking for safety, testing trust.

· Learn to receive each other emotionally, creating safety, providing trust.

· Build stronger friendship.

· Increase intimacy. 

· Ease or eliminate depression. 

· Reduce and manage anxiety symptoms. 

· Experience increased resilience in the face of challenges.

· Grow individually. 

· Use new your found energy to live healthier. 

· Enjoy a happier experience of life.

· Anxiety. 

· Depression.

· Stress & overwhelm. 

· Relationship difficulties (romantic partners, friends, family members and co-workers).

· Negative thoughts and feelings towards self. 

· Negative thoughts and feelings towards others (and the world in general).

· Trauma and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

· Low self-worth, low self-confidence, and imposter syndrome.

· Thoughts or intensions to self-harm and suicide.  

· Sexuality complexities. 

· Gender complexities. 

· Difficulty living with physical pain. 

· Problematic expressions of anger or rage.

· Feeling stuck. 

· Problems communicating with others.

· Difficulty meeting specific goals.

Couples:

I use Emotionally Focussed Couples Therapy and the Gottman Method Couples Therapy with the couples that I see. These highly respected, evidence-based modalities are the product of decades of couples research by Dr Sue Johnson, Dr Julie Gottman and Dr John Gottman. 

For best progress I recommend that all couples counselling sessions be a minimum of 1.5 hours in duration. I offer sessions from 1.5 all the way up to 3.5 hours in duration and can say from experience how necessary and beneficial having this time in session is. 

Couples therapy begins with an assessment phase of; a joint session; online questionnaires; and individual sessions. This prepare us for deeper couples work. 

We cover a lot in couples therapy; there is personal growth that needs to happen in addition to relational work. 

Be prepared that this process takes time. 

Individuals:

· Short-term (4-6 sessions): Sometimes people start counselling with the intent to only commit to 4-6 sessions and sometimes, depending on what issues you would like to discuss or decisions you are facing, that can give you what you need at that time in your life.

· Longer-term (open ended, 6 sessions +): Some people are looking to answer deeper held questions in which a commitment to the therapy process is recommended. Greater depth and understanding of yourself leads to deeper and more permanent changes within you, and a healthier connection to yourself, others and the world.