Couples Therapy in Austin for Relationships Stuck in Conflict or Disconnection
ONLINE COUPLES THERAPY THROUGHOUT TEXAS
You can love each other, build a life together, and still find yourselves caught in patterns neither of you knows how to change.
I help couples in Austin and throughout Texas understand what’s happening beneath recurring conflict, emotional distance, and communication breakdowns—so they can move toward greater understanding, connection, and partnership.
WHEN THE RELATIONSHIP BECOMES THE HARD PART
You can have a good life together and still feel like you’re losing each other.
From the outside, your relationship may look solid. You’ve built careers, made decisions together, perhaps raised a family or created a life you once imagined sharing. But somewhere along the way, being partners became harder.
Maybe small conversations turn into arguments neither of you intended to have. One of you pushes for resolution while the other shuts down or pulls away. Or perhaps there isn’t much conflict anymore—just a growing distance that neither of you quite knows how to cross.
These patterns rarely mean that one person is the problem. More often, couples become caught in ways of protecting themselves that unintentionally make it harder to reach one another.
RECURRING CONFLICT
The same disagreements keep resurfacing without real resolution.
EMOTIONAL DISTANCE
You care about each other, but closeness has become harder to find.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWNS
Conversations quickly become defensive, critical, overwhelming or shut down.
LIFE PRESSURES & TRANSITIONS
Careers, parenting, relocation and changing roles are putting strain on the relationship.
When Attention and Communication Patterns Affect Your Relationship
Sometimes differences in attention, organization, or emotional regulation can add another layer of misunderstanding. In some relationships, ADHD—whether diagnosed or simply suspected—may play a role in recurring frustrations. Understanding these differences can help couples move away from blame and toward more productive ways of relating.
WHAT KEEPS COUPLES STUCK
The problem isn’t always the disagreement. It’s what happens between you when you disagree.
The argument may be about money, parenting, sex, household responsibilities, or a decision that needs to be made. But when the same conflicts keep returning, the subject itself is often only part of what’s happening.
Underneath the disagreement are often deeper questions: Do you understand me? Can I count on you? Do I matter to you? Are we still on the same team?
When those concerns aren’t recognized, couples can get caught in a predictable cycle. One partner may push harder to be heard while the other becomes defensive, shuts down, or pulls away. The more one pursues, the more the other retreats—and both can end up feeling increasingly alone.
Neither person has to be the problem for the relationship to have a pattern that isn’t working.
Couples therapy helps us slow that pattern down, understand what’s driving it, and create a different way of reaching one another.
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
In couples therapy, we won’t simply analyze arguments after they happen. We’ll pay attention to the moments when the familiar cycle begins—the shift in tone, the defensiveness, the withdrawal, the urgency to be understood—and slow those moments down enough to understand what is happening for each of you.
As the pattern becomes clearer, we can begin creating different experiences between you. That may mean learning to express hurt without attacking, stay present without shutting down, hear what your partner is actually trying to communicate, or repair more effectively when things go wrong.
The work is both emotional and practical: understanding why you react the way you do while developing new ways of responding to one another.
01 — RECOGNIZE THE PATTERN
See the cycle you get pulled into and understand what keeps it going.
02 — SLOW DOWN THE REACTION
Create enough space to respond to one another rather than automatically protect, pursue, defend, or withdraw.
03 — BUILD A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE
Practice ways of communicating and connecting that create greater safety, trust, and partnership.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Different relationships need different kinds of help.
No single therapy model explains everything that happens in a relationship. I draw from several approaches, depending on the couple, the pattern between you, and what will be most useful in the moment.
Emotionally Focused Therapy helps us understand the attachment needs and emotions underneath conflict and distance. The Gottman Method brings practical tools for communication, repair, friendship, and managing conflict. Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic perspectives help us recognize how earlier experiences and relational patterns can shape what happens between you now.
I also work from a systems and trauma-informed perspective, paying attention to the larger context of your relationship—including family history, stress, life transitions, and the ways each partner has learned to protect themselves.
EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT)
Understanding the emotional and attachment patterns that drive conflict, withdrawal, and disconnection.
THE GOTTMAN METHOD — LEVEL 2
Practical, research-informed tools for communication, conflict, repair, friendship, and connection.
PSYCHODYNAMIC & PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES
Exploring how earlier relationships, experiences, and unconscious patterns may be influencing the relationship you have today.
SYSTEMS & TRAUMA-INFORMED WORK
Understanding each partner within the larger context of family, history, stress, and the protective responses that develop over time.
COUPLES I WORK WELL WITH
You don’t need to be in crisis to know something between you needs to change.
I work especially well with couples who have built a life they value but recognize that something in the relationship isn’t working the way they want it to.
You may both be thoughtful, capable people who function well in your careers, families, and daily lives—yet find that when certain issues arise between you, it becomes surprisingly difficult to communicate clearly or stay connected.
Couples often come to me because they:
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Keep getting pulled into the same conflict despite genuinely wanting to resolve it
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Feel emotionally disconnected even though the relationship still matters deeply
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Have different ways of handling stress, emotion, or conflict
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Are navigating demanding careers, parenting, relocation, or other significant transitions
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Want to address resentment or disconnection before it becomes more entrenched
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Are interested in understanding the deeper dynamics of their relationship, not simply learning communication techniques
ONLINE COUPLES THERAPY
Couples therapy that fits into the life you already have.
I provide online couples therapy for couples in Austin and throughout Texas.
For couples balancing demanding careers, parenting, travel, or simply two complicated schedules, meeting online can make it easier to protect consistent time for your relationship without adding another commute to an already full week.
Online therapy doesn’t make the work less personal or engaged. We can slow down the interactions that create conflict or distance, pay attention to what happens between you in real time, and practice different ways of responding to one another.
And because sessions take place online, you can meet together from the privacy of home while still doing focused, meaningful relationship work.
AUSTIN
Online couples therapy for couples throughout the Austin area
TEXAS
Online couples therapy for couples throughout Texas
GETTING STARTED
What to expect when you begin couples therapy.
Starting couples therapy can feel like a significant step, especially when you’ve been trying to work through things on your own. The process begins simply: a brief conversation about what has been happening between you and what you hope might be different.
From there, we’ll begin understanding your relationship together—not deciding who is right or wrong, but identifying the patterns that have made it difficult to resolve things on your own.
HOW LONG ARE SESSIONS?
Couples therapy sessions are 50 minutes and take place online. If a different session length would be helpful, we can discuss that together.
DO WE BOTH ATTEND THE CONSULTATION?
Ideally, yes. The free 15-minute phone consultation gives both of you an opportunity to briefly share what is bringing you to therapy and ask questions about working together.
WHERE DO WE NEED TO BE LOCATED?
I work with couples throughout Texas, including Austin. For online sessions, each partner must be physically located in a state where I am licensed or authorized to practice at the time of the session.
DO YOU ACCEPT INSURANCE?
I am an out-of-network provider and can provide a superbill for clients who have out-of-network benefits. Reimbursement depends on your individual insurance plan.
READY TO BEGIN?
You don’t have to keep having the same conversation.
If you’re ready to understand what keeps happening between you—and begin changing it—I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to talk briefly about what’s bringing you to therapy and whether working together feels like a good fit.