Couples

Counseling / Coaching

Initial Appointments

Initial appointment(s) are important to get a clear picture of your concerns and behavior patterns, so be ready to focus on such issues as your background, your family of origin, and your current tendencies when it comes to intimate relationships.

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Walk Alongside / Coach

The goal is to equip you to become more self-aware as partners, more compassionate towards each other, and more skilled in practical healthy behaviors. This may include skill coaching in communication and conflict resolution, which is one of Don’s specialties. You will spend time doing the hard work of changing negative patterns, and replacing them with new, healthy ones.

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Practical Assignments

It’s not enough to just understand yourself better in a session. For real change to occur, changed behaviors need to occur in regular, everyday life. This is where practical assignments come in: you’ll be given practical, realistic exercises and assignments to complete at home between sessions.

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Refer As Needed

If your needs are beyond Don’s training, he will refer you. Don is not a licensed therapist and recognizes that some issues need to be dealt with by those who have specialized training. Examples are mental health issues, infidelity, or addictions. When needed, he will refer you to the appropriate professional for proper care.

Tools and resources that may be used:

A series of sessions to help you understand how your family of origin is impacting your current relationship. Great for a couple who find themselves repeating the same conflicts and who want to “exit” these negative patterns. These sessions will provide deeper understanding of you and your partner – the issue may not be about the two of you, but instead, may be based on childhood injuries that need healing.

A series of sessions using the Gottman therapies. These will help you gain insight into your relationship and understand how your emotions and needs impact your relationship. Based on almost 50 years of the Gottman’s research on all facets of couple relationships.

A five-session series based on your personal 16-page couple assessment. You will unpack many relationship insights, including both of your strengths and weaknesses, personally and relationally. Great for a couple looking to refresh their marriage as well as for a struggling couple.

Don and his wife Alex created a virtual workshop that a couple can do at home. CoupleTalk teaches practical speaking, listening, and conflict resolution skills, equipping couples to have safe dialogues and get to the heart of their issues. The result for the couple is less conflict and a deeper connection.

Pre-Marital Preparation

According to research, pre-marital preparation can be seen as a kind of marriage “insurance,” since couples that do any form of pre-marital preparation are 31% less likely to divorce! The research also shows their marital satisfaction is 30% higher than those who do no marriage prep. The sessions with Don, combined with the SYMBIS assessment, is among the very best pre-marital preparation available anywhere – so your odds for success will be even better!

The pre-marital process includes a series of private sessions with Don, reviewing and discussing your 16-page SYMBIS Assessment, which is a personalized report analyzing your couple relationship, based on your private responses to an online assessment. Each page of your SYMBIS report is read and discussed in session together with Don, and difficult areas receive in-depth consideration and guidance.

Click the logo below to see a sample 16 page SYMBIS report (PDF):

Relationship Assessment

Are we a match for each other? Should we get married? Why are we fighting all the time? What is the problem with us?

Don provides a series of private sessions designed to help any couple understand what each partner is bringing into the relationship.

The sessions are based on the SYMBIS Assessment, which is a 16-page personalized report analyzing your couple relationship, based on your private responses to an online set of questions.

Each page of the SYMBIS report is discussed in session together with Don, and difficult areas receive in-depth consideration. There are different SYMBIS reports for dating and married couples – click the links below to see sample reports.

Dating or Engaged Couple Sample Report (PDF)

Married Couple Sample Report (PDF)

The sessions with Don…

along with your 16-page, personalized SYMBIS report, are a wonderful resource for any couple in any stage of relationship:

Dating couples wondering whether to take the next step of engagement
Healthy couples who want to grow past nagging issues
Struggling couples wondering whether it can ever get better

Book Your FREE 15-Minute Consultation

In the free consultation, Don will learn what your needs are, and you will learn a bit about him. If there’s a mutual fit, you’ll move forward. If it’s not a fit, Don will provide referral(s) to the appropriate professional resources to meet your needs. So, either way, you will receive direction to the help you are looking for.