Couples Counseling to Achieve
Your Relationship Goals

Couples counseling, also called marriage counseling or couples therapy, is a type of mental health counseling or psychotherapy that helps all types of couples (married and unmarried) identify and points of conflict and seeks resolution, deepen understanding, and increase intimacy.

Couples therapy is where you go to learn how to be better partners. It’s not about blaming, finding fault, or laying down criticism towards one another. We specialize in the Gottman Method for Couples therapy.

The main approach our therapist use for couples counseling is the Gottman Method for Couples Therapy. Interventions used in this method are research – based and grounded in the Sound Relationship House, which specifies nine elements of a healthy relationship. Gottman’s research is able to predict with over 90% accuracy which couples will divorce and which will stay married.

The Gottman Method aims to “disarm conflicting verbal communication; increase intimacy, respect, and affection; remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy, and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.”

The Gottman Method for Couples Therapy is based on decades of research. Over more than 40 years, John Gottman has performed hundreds of empirical studies with over 3,000 couples. During that time, he found that some marriages will end in divorce while others succeed due to the way the couples interact with one another.

Every couple argues and has negative interactions. Still, Gottman found that it’s the way couples navigate conflict and the emotions they express that will ultimately determine who stays together and who divorces.

According to Dr. John Gottman, couples wait an average of six years before they make the decision to seek out couples therapy. That’s six long years of beating your heads against the wall hoping for a different outcome. That’s also more than enough time to have cultivated some ineffective and even downright unhelpful communication habits.

Certified Gottman Therapists have mastered how to help couples create greater meaning and connection in their relationships, and have expanded and reinforced their understanding of Gottman Method Couples Therapy, building off of everything they have learned through your training and clinical work to date.

Becoming Certified in Gottman Therapist makes the clinician an expert in the field of marriage and couples therapy.  Certified Gottman Therapist is an individual who has completed the certification program offered by The Gottman Institute. This program includes completion of the following steps of training.

Level 1: Bridging the Couple Chasm: A Research – Based Approach.
A two-day professional workshop by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, or Certified Gottman Trainers.

Level 2: Assessment, Intervention and Co-Mobities.
A four – day professional workshop by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, or a Certified Gottman Trainer.

Level 3: Practicum Workshop.
 A three-day professional workshop led by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, or a Certified Gottman Trainer, going over in-depth the Gottman Method with real life case consultations.

Certification Track
– Consultation: At least eight individual sessions or 12 group sessions of consultation with a Senior Certified Gottman Therapist Consultant

– Tape Review: Submission and passage of required DVD/videotapes for review by a Senior Certified Gottman Therapist Tape Reviewer.

Please Note:  A Certified Gottman Therapist has demonstrated competency in the Gottman Methods and they  must comply with the guidelines of the Gottman Institute for continued use of this certification mark.

Gottman Couples Therapy is about helping you to learn and practice the tools that help you achieve a better relationship. Gottman Couples therapists also work to remove the idea that being in conflict is bad or that you are doing something wrong because you disagree. Your therapist can figure out where you experience stumbling blocks in your approach to conflict and how you deal with your physiological responses. They can also evaluate your repair attempts, after conflict.

Because the Gottman Method is backed by rigorous research, many of the interventions are specific. They include actionable steps that help couples leave each session understanding what to do to continue to work on their issues outside of therapy.

Moreover, learning these steps will help couples in the long term. Even after therapy, they can continue to apply these skills and techniques, preventing them from falling back into their former negative patterns.

A Gottman Method Couples therapist receives extensive and in depth training in looking at the relationship from different facets and in understanding relational dynamics. Therefore they conduct a structured and thorough four week assessment/evaluation process of the couples they work with. When therapists refer to assessment, that means they need a chance to enter your world and spend some time understanding how you interact with each other and where the pain points are. In the first session, you will meet with your therapist and convey an oral history of the relationship. This time together helps the therapist start to understand the journey that you’ve been on together prior to coming to therapy.

The therapist will also speak to each member of the couple individually, In some cases, the therapist may ask you to fill out questionnaires and complete the Gottman Love Lab Evaluation developed as part of the Gottman Method. The evaluation process allows the therapist to take a more in depth look at your relationship, outlining strengths and challenges, as well the positive and negative impacts on your friendship, intimacy, and conflicts. Towards the end of the assessment phase, the therapist will provide a detailed report and suggest therapeutic approaches and interventions to help the couple determine goals and duration for therapy sessions. Treatment interventions and protocols are personally developed that are specific to your relationship and your unique issues. The following sessions will work to continue strengthening the relationship, and couples will likely be given “homework” to work on together between sessions.

Most insurance plans do not have a code for couples counseling making it a challenge to bill for extended couples sessions. We are an in-network provider for BCBS PPO plans and will submit a bill for payment for a single couples therapy session. For other insurance plans, we can provide a superbill for submission as an out-of-network provider and It is up to the client to seek potential reimbursement from their insurance provider

Yes. We do offer online couples counseling sessions for some situations. We do offer this option for couples who live a far distance from the office, making the drive too far. Also, for those who are living in separate locations and for those who travel and often are not in town for the couples therapy sessions. For others who have a hard time finding child-care for in-person sessions, we offer the option to work periodically with online sessions. If you have a question about online sessions, please email the Clinical Director,  info@ammiraticounseling.com