In couples therapy, your relationship is our primary focus. Intimate relationships can be wonderfully fulfilling and also excruciatingly painful. In our most intimate relationships, we often reenact old dramas and get stuck in painful ruts. Without knowing it, we may pick or groom our partners to match characteristics of our earliest caregivers. Unconsciously, we often […]
For gay male couples, intimacy has its own challenges. Early shaming about being different in gender role and different in sexual desire fosters defenses which protect the gay man from further exposure but at the same time create a barrier to being fully known. Homophobia and gender role constriction leave scarring hardships that often show […]
For lesbian couples, all the earlier dynamics of family of origin are present with the additional challenge of negotiating self-determined gender roles. There is freedom to be found in this and this can be exhausting due to limited external support. Isolation can undermine any couple’s capacity to negotiate inevitable conflict. This is especially true when the […]
