Couple Counseling
Our culture continues to perpetuate the myth that if we experience feelings of love, we are in a good or “right” relationship, vs. the idea that if we learn to ACT in loving ways and create positive interactions, love is generated, maintained, and strengthened.
I was originally trained in solution-focused, strength-based couples counseling. Over the years, because of my work with adoptive families, I developed an interest in attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology… specifically, a passion for trying to apply what I was learning to my work with couples and families.
My current model is still solution-focused (propelling couples toward change, not just insight), but is also rooted in attachment theory. I have never wanted couples to come in and “vent about each other” or just to learn cognitive tools that will dissolve in heated moments of conflict. My goal is to create experiential change in and out of session and to increase emotional safety and secure functioning that will last far beyond the work in therapy.
I have studied many models over the years including EFT, Gottman, Relational Life Therapy, and more. I spent 2014 & 2015 years completing intensive training (Level 1 and Level 2) in PACT Therapy with Stan Tatkin. PACT is designed to move couples toward secure functioning and deeper connection using a model that is “a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation.” PACT therapy sessions are longer than traditional 50-minute sessions.
I also offer couple intensives, short-term solution-focused work for specific issues, monthly or quarterly “well-couple” sessions, and pre-marital counseling.
Pre-Marital
The pre-marital work I do with couples is semi-structured (usually 5-8 sessions), and tailored specifically to the couple. We explore attachment styles, patterns of conflict, family of origin, communication, strengths, principles of secure functioning, and how to develop and care for a relationship that will last the long-term.
Family Therapy
After getting my master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Denver, I completed my post-graduate training in Marriage and Family Therapy at Denver Family Institute in 1996. DFI offered two years of strength-based, solution-focused clinical training in foundational family therapy methods and models. I have been on faculty at DFI since 2008 (teaching a family therapy course in child and adolescent trauma), and I spent 5 years teaching (courses in Couple Therapy and Child and Adolescent Trauma) in the Graduate School of Social Work at D.U.
I love working with families… identifying and building on their strengths, helping them navigate conflict, changing destructive patterns, and increasing emotional safety and connection. I also offer parent coaching.
Adoptive Families/Attachment-Focused Therapy
A few years into my career, I began working with adults who were parenting children who had experienced early trauma, neglect, and traumatic stress (what we now define as ‘complex trauma’). At the time, there was very little published about how to help these children heal and nothing that was systemic or family-based. I knew, intuitively, that healing needed to come within the context of relationship, ideally with their primary caretaker.
I dove into attachment theory and was awed by the newly emerging field of “interpersonal neurobiology”… the science that shows that we are literally wired to connect, that we function optimally in secure relationships, and that because of brain plasticity, we can rewire and change in profound ways. This hope and inspiration, combined with the complexity of the cases I was working with (children with years of neglect or extreme ‘attachment compromised’ beginnings), led to a passionate pursuit of how to apply neuroscience to my systemic lens and my work with families and couples. I began teaching families, and later professionals, about attachment and the brain in early 2000’s and went on to develop a family therapy model that I continue to teach at Denver Family Institute. As other models emerged and were published (Dyadic Developmental Therapy, TBRI, ARC, etc.), I have studied and learned immensely from them.
Because of the complexity of what many of these children need, I have a highly collaborative approach and work with many professionals both within and outside of PASS Center when needed, including EMDR & somatic therapists, equine therapists, nutritionists, and family play therapists.
Clinical Supervision
I offer clinical supervision to therapists seeking support in their work with couples or families and supervise students at Denver Family Institute.
Co-Parenting Coaching
It is very painful to watch the damage done to children who experience tension and hostility between their parents and amazing to watch children settle and heal when parents can learn to work together collaboratively, amicably, and with genuine care for the other. Many high conflict divorcing or divorced couples see this as an impossibility, but with coaching and facilitation, many can achieve a co-parenting relationship that is positive and collaborative. This is not mediation. If couples can’t achieve a workable level of civility within several meetings, I refer them to a high conflict coach or mediator.
Our culture continues to perpetuate the myth that if we experience feelings of love, we are in a good or “right” relationship, vs. the idea that if we learn to ACT in loving ways and create positive interactions, love is generated, maintained, and strengthened.
I was originally trained in solution-focused, strength-based couples counseling. Over the years, because of my work with adoptive families, I developed an interest in attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology… specifically, a passion for trying to apply what I was learning to my work with couples and families.
My current model is still solution-focused (propelling couples toward change, not just insight), but is also rooted in attachment theory. I have never wanted couples to come in and “vent about each other” or just to learn cognitive tools that will dissolve in heated moments of conflict. My goal is to create experiential change in and out of session and to increase emotional safety and secure functioning that will last far beyond the work in therapy.
I have studied many models over the years including EFT, Gottman, Relational Life Therapy, and more. I spent 2014 & 2015 years completing intensive training (Level 1 and Level 2) in PACT Therapy with Stan Tatkin. PACT is designed to move couples toward secure functioning and deeper connection using a model that is “a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation.” PACT therapy sessions are longer than traditional 50-minute sessions.
I also offer couple intensives, short-term solution-focused work for specific issues, monthly or quarterly “well-couple” sessions, and pre-marital counseling.
Pre-Marital
The pre-marital work I do with couples is semi-structured (usually 5-8 sessions), and tailored specifically to the couple. We explore attachment styles, patterns of conflict, family of origin, communication, strengths, principles of secure functioning, and how to develop and care for a relationship that will last the long-term.
Family Therapy
After getting my master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Denver, I completed my post-graduate training in Marriage and Family Therapy at Denver Family Institute in 1996. DFI offered two years of strength-based, solution-focused clinical training in foundational family therapy methods and models. I have been on faculty at DFI since 2008 (teaching a family therapy course in child and adolescent trauma), and I spent 5 years teaching (courses in Couple Therapy and Child and Adolescent Trauma) in the Graduate School of Social Work at D.U.
I love working with families… identifying and building on their strengths, helping them navigate conflict, changing destructive patterns, and increasing emotional safety and connection. I also offer parent coaching.
Adoptive Families/Attachment-Focused Therapy
A few years into my career, I began working with adults who were parenting children who had experienced early trauma, neglect, and traumatic stress (what we now define as ‘complex trauma’). At the time, there was very little published about how to help these children heal and nothing that was systemic or family-based. I knew, intuitively, that healing needed to come within the context of relationship, ideally with their primary caretaker.
I dove into attachment theory and was awed by the newly emerging field of “interpersonal neurobiology”… the science that shows that we are literally wired to connect, that we function optimally in secure relationships, and that because of brain plasticity, we can rewire and change in profound ways. This hope and inspiration, combined with the complexity of the cases I was working with (children with years of neglect or extreme ‘attachment compromised’ beginnings), led to a passionate pursuit of how to apply neuroscience to my systemic lens and my work with families and couples. I began teaching families, and later professionals, about attachment and the brain in early 2000’s and went on to develop a family therapy model that I continue to teach at Denver Family Institute. As other models emerged and were published (Dyadic Developmental Therapy, TBRI, ARC, etc.), I have studied and learned immensely from them.
Because of the complexity of what many of these children need, I have a highly collaborative approach and work with many professionals both within and outside of PASS Center when needed, including EMDR & somatic therapists, equine therapists, nutritionists, and family play therapists.
Clinical Supervision
I offer clinical supervision to therapists seeking support in their work with couples or families and supervise students at Denver Family Institute.
Co-Parenting Coaching
It is very painful to watch the damage done to children who experience tension and hostility between their parents and amazing to watch children settle and heal when parents can learn to work together collaboratively, amicably, and with genuine care for the other. Many high conflict divorcing or divorced couples see this as an impossibility, but with coaching and facilitation, many can achieve a co-parenting relationship that is positive and collaborative. This is not mediation. If couples can’t achieve a workable level of civility within several meetings, I refer them to a high conflict coach or mediator.
