Elevate your relationships
Couples Counseling in Flower Mound and across Texas
Get back to being best friends with your spouse.
Rebuild friendship, intimacy, and connection.
Marriage. It can be the source of our greatest joy and biggest heartbreak. No matter if you live in silence or chaos, contentment or contempt, calm or messy, your relationship is unique. It is all yours! You both created it, based on hopes and fears, dreams and disappointments, shared values, hurt feelings, and maybe some fun extended-family expectations.
Over the years, I have seen marriages explode and fail, or explode and survive the most unimaginable things. I watched my closest friends suffer through betrayal and deep hurt. I myself went through a devastating divorce that left me reeling for years. Some of us suffered in solitude, ashamed to admit the relationship was in trouble. Others yelled it from the rooftops.
Your marriage doesn’t have to be suffering for you to want support. Every relationship is unique! Maybe you’re looking for a tune-up to keep things strong or to talk through tough things at home. Couples counseling is formed to meet your needs and goals.
If you feel your relationship needs some serious attention or fine-tuning, whether you are looking for premarital counseling, communication or conflict help, or processing divorce, couples counseling might be right for you.
Do any of these sound like you?
Seeking comprehensive premarital counseling to build foundational skills.
Maybe you’ve been fighting more, criticizing, saying mean things that you regret, or shutting down on a more regular basis.
Curious about “tune-up” sessions to keep your relationship strong and healthy.
Maybe you’ve been pushing your own needs and wants aside and focusing on your partner’s happiness…and now you feel resentment.
Or maybe you feel hopeless, and sad. You’re wondering if divorce is your only option.
Do you remember when you were first engaged? Do you remember thinking, " My fiancé is my best friend, and I can't wait to spend my life with them?”
When’s the last time you thought that?
The goal of couples counseling is to try to bring you back to that. To remember how to talk and treat each other with kindness, respect, and loving connection by building friendship and learning how to manage conflict.
I love being married. Ken and I have been married for decades, and we consider our marriage quite successful, thank you very much. We have been through the wringer and experienced things that would break many marriages. We still have conflict- we bicker and argue and get on each other’s nerves just like anyone. But at the core, we treat each other with respect, trust, and kindness. We take responsibility for our wrongs and make repairs. At the end of the day, he is my best friend.
Couples counseling is an opportunity for you and your partner to have dedicated time to talk about your relationship. I’m not going to lie- it’s a weird concept for some. It can be a strange, uncomfortable, and even enjoyable process. You and your partner will be talking about personal details with me, a stranger. It’s my job to make you feel safe and protected.
As your couples counselor, I represent the relationship, so I can’t be on Team A or B. My job is to facilitate, support, validate, challenge, pause, and teach strategies along the way. And practically nothing is off the table as far as what we discuss. I respect that every marriage and long-term relationship is unique, so we will create goals that are practical and helpful. We will use strategies that research proves can be successful when implemented at home.
If your relationship is struggling, it’s likely due to several things:
lack of connection
not communicating your needs and wants
poor conflict management
lack of trust
Living with these problems can feel overwhelming. They’re pretty common, but unhealthy, in long-term relationships. You need to know there are strategic ways to overcome them.
Not every relationship can or should be saved. Couples counseling is not magic. I cannot “fix” your spouse. You cannot “try hard enough” to fix your relationship. You both must be dedicated to changing how you show up. You both must be ready to take responsibility for the issues you bring, and let go of issues you didn't bring. You both must be willing to let go of trying to control or change the other.
Couples counseling can help you accept your relationship as it is, not the fantasy you wish it were. I can provide a space to grieve, process, and plan your next steps.
Here’s what we’ll do together
Life can be hard. It's nice to go through it with your best friend.
Prepare for an amazing future.
Pre-marital Counseling
I offer comprehensive and customized Pre-marital Counseling for couples planning to get married. We will discuss the foundation (and realities!) of a healthy, long-lasting marriage and plan for success.
You can expect a nuturing and safe space to talk about relationship issues such as:
How to express needs and wants
Ways to manage conflict and repair
Children and family planning
Career/work expectations
Financial expectations and budgeting
In-laws and extended family
Cultural and community expectations
Managing a household
Hopes, dreams, and future goals
and more
Pre-marital Counseling can last 7-11 sessions, depending on your needs, and should be started at least 3 months before your wedding.
I am a service provider with Twogether in Texas Healthy Marriage Program, which allows couples who complete an 8-hour pre-marital education to receive a completion certificate that can be presented to a Texas county clerk for 1) $60 off your marriage license fee; and 2) a waiver of the 72-hour waiting period.
Support when you’ve had enough.
Discernment Counseling
Discernment Counseling is a short-term, structured process designed for couples where one partner is leaning toward divorce, and the other wants to save the marriage. This is called a “mixed-agenda” couple.
This is not couples counseling. It’s not about solving relationship problems together. It’s about deciding whether you even want to try. You and your spouse will have space to find clarity and understand what’s happening in the relationship. You will gain confidence and feel more certain about the next step. You will try to understand and explore each other’s contributions to the current dynamic.
The goal is to choose one of three paths: stay the same, move toward separation/divorce, or commit to a 6-month course of couples therapy with divorce off the table.
What It Is:
A safe space to slow down and reflect
A way to understand both partners’ perspectives
Individual and joint conversations with the counselor
Usually 1–5 sessions total
What It’s Not:
Not traditional couples therapy
Not about convincing the leaning-out partner to stay
Not long-term problem-solving
Not legal or divorce counseling
Abuse is not a relationship problem.
Do you suspect you are in an abusive relationship? If so, please understand couples counseling is NOT right for you. Due to power imbalances and manipulative tactics by the abuser, the victim can be at increased risk of abuse. Couples counseling with an abusive partner can trigger a dangerous event and is, therefore, considered unhelpful, harmful, and/or unethical.
Remember, the goal of couples counseling is to repair the relationship. In abusive, controlling, or manipulative relationships, the relationship cannot be repaired or “fixed” through counseling. The only way for things to get better is for the abuser to stop or for the victim to leave.
Start here, and learn more about abusive relationships and your options.
Consider going to individual counseling.
Create a safety plan.
And please know, you are not to blame. Abuse is never the victim’s fault.