Marriage Counselor Reviews
REAL CLIENTS. REAL RELATIONSHIP CHANGE.
Read the experience of hundreds of couples offering their experiences with an intensive couples therapy retreat. They spent the time, invested their resources, and got practical, tangible change. Each couples therapy review describes how they became friends and lovers once again.
This is part of a 4-page client praise series.
He was very approachable and created a safe environment
Working with Dr. Scott Wolfe in the couple’s intensive was the best approach we could have taken to overcome the challenges of our relationship, reconnect and develop the methods to sustain a healthy, long-lasting relationship.
Scott was remarkable at keeping us on track, aligned to the method, but also, letting us have the conversations we needed to have without derailing too much.
He is definitely well experienced in the Gottman method and couple’s therapy. He was very approachable and created a safe environment for us to work on our marriage. I am incredibly grateful!
Our relationship was good in terms of friendship.
We were able to have effective conversations about issues such as finances and parenting. But communication as a couple was lacking and issues around connection and intimacy.
After researching options, a dedicated weekend retreat sounded most appropriate for us and the therapist, Rebecca Lanier’s website and profile seemed like she would be a good fit for us.
Rebecca’s mix of professionalism (setting expectations, explanations, exercises, resources, etc.), empathy, and ability to put us at ease were outstanding. She allowed us the freedom to express our concerns and made us feel like she really wanted to understand what were our core issues and help improve our relationship.
From the weekend alone, there is a sense of optimism and openness that is already evident, we have to continue to work towards our goals as a couple but feel like Rebecca provided us with a plan a tools that we will be able to implement and continue.
I would absolutely enthusiastically recommend Rebecca for couples interested in this process. It is evident that she is well prepared, experienced and invested in the process of helping her clients. Her professionalism, easy manner, and empathy are exceptional.
This weekend was an investment in our future as a couple as well as one of individual growth. It helped reframe our relationship and was absolutely worth it.
Thank you!
Before contacting Couples Therapy Inc our relationship was disconnected, difficult communication, and we had feelings of indifference.
We chose this practice for the structure of the intensive therapy and Dr. Nathaniel Chapman. His background met our needs and I felt my husband would be comfortable speaking with him.
I had no knowledge of Gottman and this approach to relationship. I was apprehensive about being “sold a product”
Yes, Dr. Chapman was easy to talk to and a great listener. I got to the core of the matter quickly without making you feel foolish. So far there has been less hostility, we still have a long way to go. The yellow & red light conversations stood out. As well as the Symbis assessment.
We identified core relationship issues, had challenging conversations, given road map of where to start in repair
If you are really looking for help to repair your relationship and are willing to put in the work, Couples Therapy Inc is a wonderful place to start. I think 3 or 4 days would be better if you have a long term relationship. Two days goes by really fast
Our relationship was frozen and we were caught in ruts. It was not passionate or moving forward.
The core issues we wanted to improve was learning how to communicate and to really interpret and understand what the other person was saying. Since we were caught in ruts we were no longer really listening or giving either of us the benefit of the doubt.
We hadn’t tried couples therapy. I had tried therapy myself but it didn’t really help and the one time my husband joined me in it it, he wasn’t really open and said what was expected not what he was feeling. In the end the therapy made me feel worse about myself then when I had started it.
We love each other but we knew we had problems. I was seeing a doctor for female issues and asked about a sex therapist and Couples Therapy Inc was recommended. We read through it and thought it sounded like it might help. We wanted help but I wasn’t sure we could be totally open and honest. I wasn’t sure if it would help or just make us feel bad.
The skills I noticed were Dr. K’s ability to interpret what we were saying and making sure we each really understood what the other was saying. Her ability to talk about anything and make it seem comfortable and approachable to talk about. Her ability to stop us when we were being defensive and say let’s rephrase that or see how you are attacking or being closed with your response. See how you are not looking at him. She was very approachable and wonderful to talk with. It was wonderful!!! While it was very hard and emotional it really helped us get to the core issues and to give us a new start. This was the best thing we could have done for our marriage and relationship!
We are taking the time to talk and really listen. As my husband said this past week, I’m listening more to you then I ever have! I think it has also helped slow us down. We are using each other’s love language and are growing closer again (slowly but it’s there).
I would strongly recommend Dr. K and Couples Therapy Inc. for anyone that really wants to work on improving their relationship. The BIG BIG book© really helped us reflect before we came and I think it provided Dr. K with enough material to really be able to help us. Having the time to dig into things and not feel like “oh our time is up and we just started talking.” Having the whole weekend was fantastic.
What three benefits resulted from working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
1. We feel a sense of optimism and have a roadmap to use to work to improve our relationship.
2. We understand each other better.
3. We continue to be able to bring up hurts and talk them out.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I would say, definitely do it! It is worth it, especially if you care about your partner and want to make your relationship better.
We went to six other therapists…
Over, I didn’t feel like a real partner, I wasn’t able to contribute as a parent for my son, and I felt no appreciation for who I am.
After the weekend, the remedies to all of the core issues seem possible.
We went to six other therapists and our relationship continued to degrade.
What specific qualities did you like most and least about working with this therapist?
Jenny Fang’s perception in the moments and ability to identify our issues.
Would you recommend your couples therapist and Couples Therapy Inc?
Absolutely!
We are looking forward to our follow up sessions.
We had a marriage on the brink, we had significant difficulty communicating and navigating the issues that we had been dealing with over the last several years
I thought that couples’ therapy was unlikely to be effective. I was concerned that it would be painful and difficult and embarrassing. We had each went to counselors which were primarily involved with the other spouse. It was not successful before.
Dr. Patricia Gorman is amazing, so knowledgeable and skillful. She knew our story, having read our Big Big Books. That was very important. She is a great listener. She was able to direct us in a balanced way. She let each of us be heard. She recognized key parts of our narratives and responded to them in a thoughtful and respectful way. I am sure that she understood way more than she indicated. She was a solid, non-judgmental active, guiding listener. A good balance of listening and guidance or direction.
We were able to break through to the difficult issues and address them in a way that was impossible before, without help.
We could have never made this progress spread out over 2-3 months of 1-hour sessions. We had reached a point where additional delay would have been destructive. So, the format was important. Also, the Big Big Book helped the therapist, but it also helped me to organize my thoughts and feelings, so that is a very helpful tool. I think that the expertise of the therapist was crucial.
My wife and I were able to reconnect in a meaningful way. Address the concerns and issues that were undermining our relationship. To have a plan for how to address them moving forward. It also provides a venue for additional help moving forward.
Couples Therapy Inc. was our last effort. It should have been our first.
Our relationship was cold and icy. We didn’t fight much, if at all, and we lived our lives like roommates and had a difficult time opening up and getting past the boredom and dullness of a 7 year marriage with kids.
Havi Klifeld was amazing! I felt very comfortable with her from the start – like I’ve known her my entire life or like she could be a best friend. She was very warm and inviting and really took the time to listen to my partner and I.
Havi is very professional and she knows her material well. Other therapists my wife and I visited tried to teach us material from Gottman, but it wasn’t presented well and it was lost on us.
Havi is an excellent teacher. Couples Therapy Inc, in many respects, was our last effort to repair our relationship. However, it should have been our FIRST choice. If we had led with Couples Therapy Inc, we would have repaired our marriage years ago and with much less pain and suffering. I can’t express how impressed my wife and I are with Havi. She’s really amazing!
Therapy in the past was slightly helpful but not providing useful tools to solve the problem.
It was recommended to us that we try the Gottman Method. We looked for a therapist with full training in the Gottman system, and we chose Angela Voegele. We consulted with her and decided to do the two-day retreat with her.
We feel that Angela provided us with an extremely beneficial 2-day “total immersion” which was much more effective than piecemeal 50-minute therapy sessions. In the retreat, Angela provided us with practical, immediately usable tools that we could practice with her and then use on our own. Even after just two days, we feel that our relationship is stronger and better because we discovered techniques to avoid anger and fighting in ways that we didn’t know before.
Angela is gentle, warm, fair, and knowledgable. She inspires confidence. She knows the Gottman tools well and was very skillful in putting them into practice with us.
We now have better confidence in our relationship, practical tools to use anytime, and comfort in knowing that we can come back to Angela if we need to.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
The Gottman Method is excellent and Angela is an excellent practitioner of it.
Our previous couples therapy was not good
It was someone trying to do couples therapy that wasn’t qualified. Made things worse for us.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc for the Gottman method and the feeling that nothing was working and we would be divorcing if we couldn’t find solutions.
Dr. Evelyn De Villiers was so good for us. I could not imagine a better person to counsel us. We have hope for our relationship. We learned: 1 Skills to handle conflict, and 2. how to take a time out for 20 minutes when things escalate. We have a better understanding of how we got here and how to turn the boat around. We are moving away from negative sentiment, making deposits, listening and using soft starts to conversations.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Do it. There are never guarantees when it comes to people adopting relationship positive behaviors but two people who want a good relationship will benefit immensely from the tools, learning and understanding of how to resolve your unique issues. It’s wonderful to have your own therapist where you can talk about anything and focus on you two versus being in a group.
Thank you, Dr Evelyn!!
I would highly encourage couples who are considering to go for it.
Our relationship needed help. The trust in our relationship had been compromised, as such, many problems were present.
We needed a therapist that could work virtually, as well as be fluent in English and Spanish. We were also looking for somebody with training in the Gottman method, at the suggestion of my CBT [Cognitive-behavioral therapist]. Dr. Heide Rodriguez was a perfect fit.
My only hesitation was not knowing what to expect. I had also never done therapy virtually before, so I wasn’t sure how much of an impact therapy would have on us this way. But it certainly did have a huge and positive impact!
What stood out the most for me was Dr. Rodriguez‘s ability to pick up on certain things that my partner and I were not even aware of at times. She was always very calm, listening to both sides of the story and providing practical tools and resources for us to use.
My partner and I began to look forward to our sessions with Dr. Rodriguez, often discussing ahead of time what we wanted to chat about with her, knowing that she would be able to support us and help us find our way forward. I felt heard, supported and understood by Dr. Rodriguez.
- The trust in our relationship is increasing
- My partner and I feel more connected
- We are able to communicate more efficiently and without arguing as much as before
Dr. Rodriguez is great to work with. She made each of us feel heard, understood and capable of making changes. She was able to show us how to make things work even when it seemed impossible to me.
I would highly encourage couples who are considering to go for it. Personally, I don’t think my partner and I would’ve been able to make it work on our own at that point in our relationship if it hadn’t been for therapy.
Thank you Dr. Rodriguez for your kindness and trust in us!
Our relationship was stuck. There was lots of resentment, jealousy and anger issues. We were unable to communicate.
Previous couples therapy was brief and while we had some positive results, the improvements were not long lasting
The Couples Therapy Inc team was caring and explained everything very well, we wanted to try an intensive to do something different than what we had tried previously. We were worried that the intensive wouldn’t work
The main change is that Marisa Mundey finally got through to my husband, who had been struggling with deep jealousy issues since the beginning of our marriage. His jealousy was causing him to constantly suffer and be like a ticking time bomb where he could explode with anger at any moment for the most unexpected things.
I could always feel this in our relationship, but I didn’t know how bad his jealousy really was and I didn’t know that his jealousy was the reason why he yelled and got angry. The yelling and anger hurt me deeply and caused me to distrust him, resent him and feel like I wasn’t good enough. Though I’d tried for years to tell him how he was hurting me, nothing ever worked.
Marisa was able to truly get him to see the damage he was doing to our marriage and the pain and suffering he was causing us both. She was able to get to the core of the jealousy issues and help him to finally understand me in a different way. It’s truly amazing as I was skeptical that any therapy would work for us but the husband that walked out at the end of our intensive was the guy that I fell in love with and wanted to be married to all along. He finally got it. And the change is genuine.
It felt like she knew us right away and every insight she provided about our personal inner lives and our marriage seemed to hit the nail right on the head. What stood out was learning about each of our attachment styles and how that has affected our marriage and how understanding our childhoods can help us understand and empathize with each other.
We learned how to communicate, listen in a way that the other person feels understood and control our anger/flooding. We learned to take things slow and that not all problems get solved overnight. We learned that if the first 3 minutes of a discussion aren’t going well, then the conversation isn’t going to end well and it is better to wait until you are calm enough to talk about it.
She changed our lives and we will be forever grateful. She is exceptionally good at what she does.
It is worth every penny. Do not hesitate. There is help, even if you think your problems are unfixable, they are not.
Our marriage was unhappy and we needed to focus on our emotional connection. We liked the Gottman Method, and that it was a weekend, not a series of meetings over a long time period.
Diane Foy was wonderful; she’s warm, engaging, treats each of us equally, and focuses on the positive. I’d highly recommend her.
We’re more open with each other, have learned how to communicate better with each other. We’ve figured out a plan forward using the Gottman tools, and have committed to carving more time out for each other.
Our relationship was not in a good place, and this is completely worth the investment of both time and money; we consider it a gift to ourselves, and would highly recommend it to those willing to commit to each other again and to make their relationship work.
The amount of pre-work prior to the session really makes you think/process things prior to the session, and we had started working on things together prior to our session. We are more aligned with spending quality time together, have the same baseline understanding of how to communicate with each other, and are more attentive when speaking with each other.
It was in an extremely fragile state. We were existing together, nothing more.
Our core issues were respect, communication, and understanding.
We tried couples therapy before, but it only created more frustration and division.
We liked Couples Therapy Inc for the use of the Gottman Method and reviews.
Honestly, the cost made us pause.
Dr. Alexis Johnson-Nelson’s ability to comprehend our issues, validate our individual concerns, and give us the tools needed to improve as one. She was amazing in both of our opinions. She made us both remember our “why,” which is what we had forgotten.
We are more open and honest with one another. It’s more about how we say it versus what we say, and we’re listening to one another now, allowing us to re-create a safe space in our union. We’re becoming more intentional in our actions.
I would highly recommend working with Dr. Johnson-Nelson & Couples Therapy. She opened our eyes to the fact that “life” had affected our love, and we are actively implementing to toolkit she gave us to continue to work on us.
It’s pricey, but one’s marriage is an investment. Investing in Couples Therapy was worth it for us.
Anything else you’d like to add?
If there was a way for 2 or 3 follow-up sessions to be included in the original price, I believe it would prove beneficial for the average working family. I enjoyed working with our therapist, but the cost of preventative maintenance sessions had to take a back seat to other things. Or if those sessions could be covered by insurance, that would help as well.
From Dr. K
We’re always trying to find better ways to offer effective follow-up care. Check in with Dr. Nelson-Johnson for extended services.
Finally, couples therapy is not covered by the vast majority of plans. Any therapist who says they’ll accept your insurance will provide it in brief 45-50 minute sessions and label one of you as having a mental health issue. That doesn’t work for most couples, as they often come in labeling each other!
Always consult with your couples therapist regarding your options if follow-up care is warranted. She’s an excellent resource.
We wanted to improve our sex life and communication, previous couples therapy was not helpful. We needed intense therapy.
Angela Voegele is very professional and knowledgeable. She was direct and helped us feel comfortable during our sessions. It felt like confiding to a friend that keeps you accountable but kept us laughing through the whole process. She is honest and knew how to guide us through each issue we went over with her in our relationship. We are happy it was Angela who was our therapist.
Traditional therapy doesn’t work and does not give couples/people the intensive care they need, with Angela we felt heard and realized how complex we are individually and collectively.
We unloaded a lot of our burden and it felt great. We have a plan to follow through and we’re not alone in this.
Do it! It’s worthed and you won’t regret it.
Trust needed to be rebuilt due to an infidelity
Dr. Evelyn De Villiers was great at making connections to our histories and helping illuminate why we engage in certain behaviors. she was great at highlighting our strengths and how we can build on those in our challenges.
She was invested in our relationship and really helped us grow closer and have more clarity on how we can move forward in our relationship.
Three benefits;strategies for listening and summarizing to ensure we are really hearing each other; not having to go back to incidents anymore because we hashed them out over the weekend; practical strategies on how to move forward and rebuild trust and focus on our strengths
It is very impactful to be able to spend 2.5 days completely focused on your relationship. It is a unique opportunity that is hard to recreate otherwise. We felt supported in our goals to improve our relationship and left with a clear plan moving forward. We are very grateful for our time with CTI.
We had a deteriorating relationship. We were stuck in a negative communication cycle and didn’t know how to find each other. We wanted to find ourselves as a unified couple again and feel like a team.
The intensive was expensive and we weren’t sure it would “work” for us as a couple or as individuals.
Dr. Carolyn Cole was so skilled! She quickly understood both of us. She handled us each as individuals and then helped us operate as a couple. She built rapport with us quickly. We are very different and Carolyn was able to resonate and work with both of us in a way that felt good. I really wanted to build the Gotman skills, and this intensive did that and SO much more.
We instantly feel a better sense of togetherness. We have set up meaningful ways to stay connected. We are able to approach each other with kindness. I am willing to be more emotionally available to my partner.
We would say that the intensive provides a solid foundation for more work in the right direction. It seems like you could go to therapy as a couple for months and never make this much project. This system gives space to understand your self, touch back to your strengths as a couple, and move forward feeling stronger than ever.
Thank you for providing this service. I understand without Couples Therapy Inc doing some facilitation with the BIG BIG Book, scheduling etc. Dr. Carolyn Cole was able to do her side of the work more easily.
We wanted to break the stalemate, have a better understanding of where we each were and learn how to communicate effectively. We had maybe 2 or 3 sessions of couples therapy previously. I don’t think it was very helpful.
I was listening to the podcast Neurodiverse Love and believe I it was Kathy McMahon (Dr. K) being interviewed and so I reached out to Couples Therapy Inc.
We chose Catherine Pfuntner as our therapist. Catherine was very professional. I don’t think there was any point during the weekend that she wasn’t unbiased. She was consistent with the messages and gently corrected as we went. It was a very positive experience, even if there were times that were difficult.
I believe we each have a much better understanding of each other and has softened the stalemate that seemed pretty unsurmountable before the weekend.
I would recommend Couples Therapy Inc to others. The method used is holistic, looking at the whole person(s). I cannot imagine trying to break a pattern when there is old trauma, known or unknown. Between the questionnaire (The BIG BIG Book©) and the intensive weekend you really can do a deep dive and have the time to work through challenges and the concrete methodology throughout the weekend is very well thought out.
What three benefits resulted from working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
1. Stronger belief that we can find our way back to each other.
2. More awareness of the language we use with each other in conflict situations
3. Ways to purposefully connect on a regular basis
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I would tell them to trust the method as well as the trained therapists.
It didn’t feel that we did much or progressed much in our weekly sessions.
Our relationship was troubled. We had begun couples therapy weekly regimens prior to attending Couples Therapy Inc. It didn’t feel that we did much or progressed much in our weekly sessions. Also, the therapist seemed to have to be reminded of our problems because she didn’t seem to remember anything about us each week.
Dr. Doug Burford, was very kind and easy to talk with. He was great at promoting spiritual involvement without feeling preached to. And he listened to what we have done and adjusted anything he needed to meet our needs.
He was absolutely great. We feel confident in our new tools and skills that Dr. Doug has taught us. He finds ways of conveying information and skills in a way that sticks and always you to reinforce and build on them. We have improved our conflict communication and resolutions. We can express our feelings in a productive manner without using bad phrases or words. And we feel stronger that we can face future challenges together as a team.
We feel we are now capable of continuing healing and communicating without hurting each other. We have new tools and don’t fear a potential conflict.
We had an amazing experience with Couples Therapy Inc. The whole process has helped us so much. My husband and I feel like we have a renewed relationship or new in general. We know each other on a deeper level that we never knew existed and now we can pursue getting stronger.
We had serious issues with communication and our style of conflict resolution. We were avoiding conversations because we didn’t have an effective way to communicate about hard things. We were growing frustrated, hurt and resentful.
We did couples therapy many years ago, yes. It was a good experience but with the hustle and bustle of kids we stopped going.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc. after a recommendation from a friend.
Tatiana Matyukhin was warm, open, thoughtful, bright, gentle but firm, observant, present, reflective, and insightful.
This was a very valuable experience. We learned great skills for communicating and started addressing some of our relationship long challenges.
We are working to appreciate more, communicate better and tackle our big issues head on. We have better conflict management, deeper connection and understanding, greater sense of appreciate and love.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Do it, you won’t regret it. You will learn invaluable things about yourself and your partner.
The therapy intensive was intensely difficult but also immensely valuable and illuminating.
We have been going through a separation and have a new plan for attempting to reconcile thanks to the therapy intensive weekend. Angela Voegele was hands down the best therapist I have ever encountered and managed to dig very deep into our issues in a short period of time, while also covering many of the Gottmann techniques. It’s worth it.
We were feeling distant and misunderstood. Our relationship was suffering from avoidance, lack of communication, and lack of teamwork. Loneliness and festering hurt feelings abound.
We had previously tried couples therapy, the counselor was not the right fit for us as she was not trauma-focused. One of us didn’t feel safe to continue so we stopped and didn’t return until we found Couples Therapy Inc.
Couples Therapy Inc. was recommended to us by one of our individual counselors as an accelerated train to get to the root of issues vs. weekly sessions drawn out over a period of time.
The cost felt scary. It’s a lot of money to invest in a short period of time, but being on the other side of it, we now understand its price and value.
Sierra Kehoe’s presence was incredibly grounding and she held a warm, nonjudgmental space for both of us. Her expertise at navigating emotional and trauma-charged spaces was evident. She offered the right amount of structure and guidance along with flexibility for whatever came up in the sessions. We feel really grateful for our experience with her.
Now, we’re fighting more! (We feel grateful for Sierra’s heads up to expect this so we aren’t seeing it as a negative.) We’re not avoiding things now, and even if navigating new terrain can be hard, we feel more connected.
We hope to continue work with Sierra as needed in the future. Sierra, as we’ve said above, was incredible. It was clear that she took the time to really read through our BIG BIG Books© and understand where each of us was coming from to lay out a weekend where we could touch on a wide variety of things. We have a lot of work to do ourselves, but feel we gained so many valuable tools to keep working towards safe, secure attachment and communication.
The BIG BIG Book© is something we cannot rave highly enough about. The time and work on the frontend to fill it out was so worthwhile as it created a sense of safety. It really allowed us to go into the intensive de-burdened from the need to explain what’s happened in the past or how we got to this place and instead focus on the emotional work at hand to move forward.
This intensive has allowed us to show one another our commitment to wanting each other to feel seen, understood, and loved.
Practical tools, skillsets, frameworks to look and refer back to as new/different things come up has been priceless.
The feeling that we don’t have to navigate alone if we don’t wish to has been freeing. There is support that we now know feels safe for both of us that is available.
While the cost initially scared us, investing in this intensive wound up being one of the best things we could have done for our relationship. It felt incredibly meaningful to set aside an entire weekend to focus on us and we are so glad we did.
We were non communicative, distant and separated from each other.
We were hesitant about starting therapy in general as we had never done this before but the intensive weekend was intriguing.
Feedback and recognition of our horseman was helpful. The intensive was a useful strategy to work on our marriage and Diane Foy was amazing. We have a recognition of our weaknesses and we are learning to listen, and focus on each other. We are trying to be more patient.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
It’s worth the investment for your relationship.
It would be great to have a mini intensive for follow up.*
*Note from Operations: Thank you for your feedback. We do offer mini-intensives as follow up sessions either in-person or online (dependent on licensing restrictions).
During previous couples therapy,the female marriage counselor seemed to side with the husband and recommended drugs for the female, ME! No thank you
I’d much rather feel my own feelings and NOT the drugs and to approach this behaviorally and cognitively.
We hesitated because of the price and travel but mostly because we wondered if it would work in the long run. I didn’t think my husband could do anything but his usual ‘future faking’ but he seemed committed.
Catherine Pfuntner was there in real time helping us to break communication habits such as using labels, psychobabble, and resorting to the 4 Horseman of the Marriage Apocalypse. Now, here at home, we’re able to follow her lead and call ourselves out on a communication habit or give a soft-start observation to the other person when things head off the rails. OMG…the patience and feelings of acceptance from her was off the charts to me!
You seemed to have systems and tools that we could work with on our own. A fresh perspective and one that my husband, surprisingly, wanted to make an effort to try and learn from. I’m now hopeful.
The ‘Soft Start Up’ seems to be a very effective tool to keeping emotions in check followed by using the once-a-week State of the Union rules to help clear up issues and get to know each other’s influences and intentions. My husband seems to be doing SO MUCH MORE accountability in the preservation and level playing field that we are trying for in this situationship….that may even evolve into a relationship down the road…hopefully.
I would recommend this program as long as there is a spark of hope and desire left in any relationship. With us, my partner was the most hopeful and I had to consciously step back from the FIGURATIVE ‘cliff’ I was about to go over to get away from this relationship. I love learning new things so this effort was intriguing to me and I was willing to try.
Realizing that accountability and input from BOTH of us is a major necessity. Also to hope and understanding individual communication habits and each other’s emotions and their sources. Finally, tools, tools, TOOLS that we can find neutral ground with and learn how to clear the air by using them.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I would tell them to do it as soon as possible and the sooner the better, as long as they are BOTH on board to make an effort. I personally wished we did this 10-years ago, (out of a 16-year marriage). I am struggling with trust and negative behaviors that have become hard-wired in spite of my easy-going nature.
Anything else you’d like to add?
We are in our 3rd week of using the tools we brought home and on our own after completing the entire course material. We’ve learned a lot about each other and that helps in the bonding effort. There are still a lot of relapses of old communication habits and efforts made to repair but at least there’s a place for us to go for help with the ‘situationship’. The material we were sent home with we’ve both put into our individual binders and use it regularly. We are glad to have this ‘neutral relationship bible’ to go to instead of resorting to days of stewing and daydreaming about calling it quits which is what I used to do regularly.
We had a struggling relationship with multiple significant issues to include trust, respect, and interpersonal communication.
We had a struggling relationship with multiple significant issues to include trust, respect, and interpersonal communication.
We had tried therapy in the past on two separate occasions with mixed results, but neither were ultimately successful in providing the tools necessary to strengthen the relationship.
Extensive online research identified CTI as having the necessary structure and expertise to help address relationship issues.
Delving into very personal aspects is always challenging, however, our therapist made us very comfortable and created a “safe” atmosphere.
Jenny Fang is a consummate professional with the requisite expertise and experience needed to help with very deep relationship issues. She’s very calm in her approach and creates an atmosphere in which you feel comfortable opening up and speaking about deeply personal and painful issues/memories.
I absolutely 100% would recommend Jenny Fang; she’s a true professional who obviously cares deeply about her clients and wants them to succeed in resolving their relationship issues. Issues are more clearly identified and able to be addressed via open communication. Tools were provided to help resolve the issues.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I would definitely recommend CTI to help address/resolve your relationship issues.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Our relationship was strained, we needed to work on conflict resolution and active listening.
An enhancement to the services provided would be to provide to the clients an analytically-based summary of the answers to the Big Big Book. While many of the BBB are captured in the therapy session, having a product to refer back to and understand how specific aspects can be addressed would be beneficial.
We were in crisis. We needed to learn active listening techniques, tools for connection & conflict resolution & better communication.
We have been going through a separation and have a new plan for attempting to reconcile thanks to the therapy intensive weekend. Angela was hands down the best therapist I have ever encountered and managed to dig very deep into our issues in a short period of time, while also covering many of the Gottmann techniques. It’s worth it.In previous couples therapy, wewere not both ready or all in and while we had a fairly positive experience, we stopped growing with the therapist we were seeing.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc for the reviews from other couples, extensive knowledge of Gottman and the phone consult with Dr. Carolyn Cole.
Our hesitations were the cost, follow up sessions being virtual due to our location, uncertainty to be able to apply & move forward with what we learned & at home resources.
Dr. Cole was compassionate, patient, empathetic, she encouraged us to stay in the feelings & work through our feels instead of turning away from the uncomfortableness. She listened, provided clear & steady direction and pushed us safely and within reason.
It was emotionally and mentally draining but we felt hopeful & positive each day and we looked forward to our work with Dr. Cole. If you are able to afford it, the intensive format is very much worth it.
I thought Diane Foy did a great job of keeping us on task throughout the weekend.
I felt that we got a lot accomplished. I felt that she was not taking sides but stayed very neutral. I am especially pleased that there seems to be a lot of options for “aftercare”! Some of the concepts on how to navigate in the future are still a little confusing to me and I’d be nervous to move forward without support.
I think the BIG BIG Book© was a very important part in helping identify the strengths and areas that needed improvement in our marriage.
Diane Foy was very good at remaining neutral and guiding us in using our time constructively and staying focused. It showed me, I have some work to do personally and gave me a plan to move forward. We have scheduled follow with Diane and I feel very hopeful about the future of our marriage.
We needed to learn better communication skills, how and how to improve our trust with one another.
We had never tried couples therapy, Couples Therapy Inc was recommended by someone.
It was excellent. Debbie Woodall Carroll taught us a lot about our relationship and means to improve our communication skills.
We are recommending this to everyone we know.
We learned better communication skills, we are learning to build trust again, and have different ways to express ourselves.
See Debbie. She was excellent in working to improve or marriage. Her interest was in our marriage and didn’t pick sides. She kept us focused.
We intend to continue see Debbie in the future.
I’d describe our relationship as “stuck” in a cycle of criticism and judgment.
Past therapy was not useful at all. Past attempts were not successful, and I wasn’t sure this would be different.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc for the scientific research behind the process.
Marisa Mundey had a very endearing personality. Non-judgmental. Made us feel like she understood us both, yet could challenge us where we needed to be confronted. It was like a pressure relief valve was opened and we were reminding of the good we shared. It was a reminder of the good that attracted us to each other in the beginning. It allowed us the space to get “un-stuck” from our cycle of conflict. The Big Book Assessment saved weeks of time for our therapist to get to know us and our issues in a much better way.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Do it.
We wanted to take a minute to let CTI know how fabulous Dr. Eliane Herdani is.
She truly saved our marriage. Her approach was exactly what we needed and she presented it with such kindness and expertise. She was so accommodating to our different styles of communication and did it all while making us feel comfortable and heard.
I can’t recommend her enough.
Previous couples therapy brought some improvement but not as much as desired.
We liked CTI for the Gottman method (strongly research-based) and the time frame (greater opportunity to follow-up on issues that arise).
Dr. Patricia Gorman was excellent at facilitating conversation, drawing out more when needed, and ensuring both partners had time to both address and listen to concerns.
We now have increased passion/romance, improved understanding of the “why” behind our individual reactions/approaches, and significantly increased connection.
We already feel much closer and are focusing on what makes us “us”.
The approach just makes so much sense; focusing on the positive and building strength within the relationship.
Jenny Fang was amazing.
She really helped us to gain perspective and redirection that we needed. We are so grateful for having the time with her.
We were not having honest conversations and were no longer intimate.
We had never tried it couples therapy before and we weren’t completely sure about how it would work and if it would help.
Dr. K really helped guide our conversations, brought us through background and discussions and allowed us to follow a natural progression to get to the point where we could have honest conversations and learn what each other was thinking. She was always able to step in and redirect us in a positive direction and teach us how to communicate in a productive way.
We started prescriptive steps in what we do each day and week to communicate and support each other. We both understands the other’s needs and we are working to make sure we focused on each other. We are approaching our relationship from a position of positivity instead of assuming the worst. Most importantly, we are talking things out when they happen and are no longer holding things inside.
Yes, I would absolutely recommend Couples Therapy Inc. to other couples like us. We already had a strong history and relationship and this is exactly what we needed.
I think it really helped us because we had such a strong foundation and both wanted to focus on improving our relationship. You need to go in with a positive attitude and be prepared to speak honestly about your feelings and concerns.
We really enjoyed the weekend and felt that it was exactly what we were looking for. We needed help in how to communicate and we needed some guidance on how to work on our relationship. We are still a work in progress, but we are already seeing great results and are both committed to continuing to improve things.
Our marriage was fractured. Trust had been violated in a big way and I was reeling from my husband’s infidelity.
We had 2 sessions of couples therapy in the past but my husband was not fond of the therapist so we stopped going.
We liked the format of CTI but I was certain I would not be able to get over what my husband has done.
Marisa Mundey was incredibly good at demonstrating empathy, and creating space for both my husband and I to share our thoughts. You can also tell that she did her homework. While we never discussed the big book in detail, there was definitely conversation that made it clear she was thorough in her review of it. I appreciated that.
I felt heard and understood for the first time in a long time. I felt validated in my concerns, and I felt like I got a chance to say what I wanted. And now I can start to heal. We know how to better communicate and ensure the other person is heard.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I would tell them to trust the process… that it is possible to have the marriage you want and deserve. And I would tell them that CTI can help you get there.
Our relationship was fragile, previous couples therapy was ineffective.
This was a last ditch effort to rebuild marriage.
Dr. Alexis Johnson-Nelson was so wonderful and really supported us through the weekend. We are having open communication and working together towards positive changes
We have better communication skills, we are working on “bank” (positive affirmations), and check ins with one another.
It was worth it! It really has brought us closer to one another and given us an outline on how to have better communication.
We struggled with communication, long-held frustrations, grudges and miscommunications
We were extremely unhappy, but did realize we had a strong bond of being great friends and travel companions that was worth dusting off and elevating through Couples Therapy Inc.
Previous couples therapy was not very effective by going once a week for 55 minutes and not really resolve deeply-held issues.
The intensive appealed to us – to work for 3 days focused on us and issues to be resolved, we felt would benefit us the best. We love efficiency.
Dr. K is sharp and to the point, understanding and compassionate, did her research about each of us and stayed of course with issues pertinent to us and our marriage. We are thrilled with our time with her. Very beneficial for sure.
We are more communicative and are clearer of our wants, desires, and feelings. We take weekly time together to go over issues we’ve noticed and honor each other to listen while they express their feelings and create a dialogue.
All couples deserve the gift of intensive therapy. If you believe your marriage has a chance of succeeding, it is worth the time and investment in yourselves with a focus on future happiness together.
We absolutely loved our working with Dr. K. We muddled through the first week and then realized that by talking, listening and connecting that we would come to greater understanding of each other.
The relationship was on the brink of ending. We needed to improve respect, listening, and communication
We had tried couples therapy elsewhere. The sessions were only 60min long. We would just get into a topic, stir up feelings then it would end leaving this unresolved and tense. The therapist wasn’t great at understanding us or giving feedback. She acted more like a mediator to an argument which wasn’t helpful at all.
We found the therapist and Couples Therapy Inc. separately. We were concerned the company may be too intense or gimmicky, but after finding the therapist and seeing she worked with you, we went back and gave it a more serious look. But you just never know if it’s all it’s cracked up to be and if the reviews are true or not. It’s a lot of money to invest in the hopes you’re not being fooled.
Rebecca Lanier is absolutely amazing at her job She able to help each partner realize their short falls almost without passing any judgements or making “you” statements. I never felt judged or defensive. She ensures you’re comfortable, can be light hearted to ease tensions, and keeps conversations on task. You can tell she loves her work and wants the best for her clients.
We had many break through moments understanding how we are wired differently and how this effects us high stress conversations. We were able to see each other from a different perspective and clear the air with resentment that was being held onto. We’re in a more unified and living relationship again with common goals to stay on track in the future. This saved our marriage and divorce is off the table, we set boundaries for our relationship together that we agree to respect, and learned communication skills to help foster more respectful conversations.
This was a great experience all around. Every staff member we spoke with was so pleasant and helpful. No one acted annoyed or bothered. Communication was swift and clear. Our therapist Rebecca was a God send for us. We can’t send enough praise about her. We wish she was closer to be able to have in person sessions on a continuous basis but will definitely followup with tele sessions.
It’s worth the investment and you won’t regret it. This is by far the most respectful company I have encountered. You will feel at ease. The process is very thorough and if all therapists are like ours, you’ll be in great hands.
You’ve read what couples have said.
Want to know who’s behind the work?
We were experiencing a breakdown in communications and a sexual and emotional disconnect mostly arising from health and external situations placing significant stress on the relationship over the past couple of years.
This was the first time we had done couples therapy and Couples Therapy Inc. was recommended by a trusted friend. I was expecting that the weekend would be difficult and painful and that it would challenge my commitment to the process.
Dr. K was very good at adapting her style and language of communicating to the subject at hand. The conversation tone and style about sex practices and experiences was very different from that involving a perpetual problem. She was very adept at synthesizing lots of information from my partner and I and playing some of it back to us. Finally, she kept everything moving along and let us have time to tangent but kept us focused on the therapeutic elements of the program and process.
I think that the analytic framework from Gottman is very useful and I think that Dr K added important color and examples to information in the book and drew connections to my circumstances that gave me better insight to my own behavior and to the dynamics of the relationship. I think that the intensive weekend is a challenging but very effective approach to dealing with couples issues.
This is still only a week after the intensive weekend but I feel that there is an openness in communications and greater awareness and sensitivity on both of our parts about the other person’s perspective. There is an openness in sexual communication that provides energy to the discussion instead of avoidance as before. We share an explicit commitment to keep working on making our relationship better.
An important ingredient for working with CTI is that each partner have a commitment to the relationship and to trying to make the relationship better. There is work during the weekend intensive and there is work both before and after the weekend. I feel that my commitment to the process and the program was very important in helping me to stay energized for the entire weekend and to be willing and open to contributing to it. I think that these ingredients are important to the success of the effort.
For my partner and I, our experience with Couples Therapy began with the BIG BIG Book and the time period BEFORE we actually showed up on the Friday night. For me, the BIG BIG Book caused me to look back on other relationships – with my parents, my family, other romantic involvements – and find a better and more coherent understanding of how that was playing into my current day to day and my marriage. The self reflection needed to do a good job with the BIG BIG Book was also effective for both myself and my wife to begin to see our relationship and its issues and strengths with a new and different view in the days leading up to our intensive. Surely, this won’t be the case for some people going to an intensive weekend where the issues and the hurt are far beyond the case for my wife and I. Even here, however, I think the BIG BIG Book questions kicks open the door even just a little bit and starts to let light onto the situation. It’s a lot of work but I found it to be a very worthwhile exercise.
This has been such a great experience!!!
Thank you so much for all that you offered us, Marisa Mundey. I have implemented your ideas and it has been a blessing to us and fun too. I realized how much I had a guard up and how it was effecting both of us.
Thanks again, you are an angel!
We seemed to be in a constant state of fighting. Very distant and devolved into a feeling like we were roommates.
There were few bids for connection, little emotional connection. Questions about the future of our relationship which did not seem sustainable in the current climate.
We tried online therapy. It wasn’t very effective. As with many couples therapists, the duration was only 50 minutes–not enough time to really dive in. Often we ended the session more upset at each other than when we started. The therapist didn’t seem to have much of a plan other than asking about our latest negative interaction.
We had gotten to a point of desperation in our relationship. We’d been looking at Terry Real therapy and found Rebecca Lanier and discovered she was connected to Couples Therapy Inc. and a weekend intensive which promises positive results.
She was very good at synthesizing and integrating what we provided in the BIG BIG Book© and what we said or showed toward each othe. She was keenly observant of our interactions and straightforward in feedback. I really appreciated her being direct when needed.
We found “us” again. Significant differences in how we act towards each other and especially how I feel about the outlook of our marriage.
Rebecca is so great at what she does. She’s so gifted as a therapist with a deep knowledge of therapeutic approaches and a passion to help couples that enables her to quickly get to the root of the issue. Overall, the approach taken by Couples Therapy Inc is highly effective. The BIG BIG Book© was really helpful to maximize the 3 days together with Rebecca. She knew so much and was very prepared for our time together. Couples Therapy Inc. delivers on what they promise. Well worth the time and money.
If your marriage is struggling and you’ve nearly lost hope, seek out Couples Therapy Inc. The entire process and team is great to work with. They genuinely care about your relationship and the approach they take delivers. The promise of 6 months of therapy in 3 days…that’s not an exaggeration! It exceeded our expectations in every way and restored the hope, connection, and love in our marriage.
Rebecca is so impressive. We are so thankful for the opportunity to work with her.
We needed help with reactivity, attunement, conflict resolution, and joint decision-making.
We had been in and out of couples therapy for 5 years. It taught us some good tools, but didn’t get to the core of our issues
We chose Couples Therapy Inc based on our initial research, strong customer service after we initiated contact, and our initial conversation with Havi that went really well
Havi Kligfeld modeled best-in-class empathy, and was able to provide great real-time coaching. She also was efficient and made the best use of the limited time we had. I also appreciated Havi’s flexibility.
Havi was the best therapist that I’ve ever worked with and many couples would benefit from working with her. CTI was extremely thorough and professional. Cost was in-line with expectations. Flexibility was helpful for a busy couple with a kid like us.
We are actively deploying the conflict resolution tools, having more empathy for my partner, and some more good will for each other.
CTI’s process gets to thoroughly know you both in a short amount of time through their BIG BIG book©, which enables their best in class therapist to make a big impact in a short amount of time.
Our relationship was in a really bad place, with my wife “deciding” if she was going to divorce or not.
The core issues I was hoping to improve were four-fold:
Better and non-flooding communication.
Building fondness and admiration on my wife’s side, helping her to remember the rich and beautiful history we had and breaking her negative sentiment override. I love her very much and despite my hurts, I miss her badly and remember our beautiful history together.
I was really hoping to engage in the Gottman Trust Revival Method over one specific incident filled with lie after lie after lie that has never been resolved and which I feel can’t be resolved until after I know the truth about everything from that day. It fills me with anxiousness and a daily mental battle I struggle with badly.
Any form of progress. Seriously, anything. We were at the end.
We have tried couples therapy previously, and they were underwhelming. Counselors only bring up old wounds. The other guy charged us $7k for 4 hours and though it was not quite a waste of money, it was absurd to be charged what we were compaired to how much time we got. He planted some seeds but didn’t help much beyond that. We got some initial hope before things kind of waned and went back to ground zero.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc for the strong success rate for stopping divorce of which ours was on the verge, the science behind it, proven methodologies, and the fact that it was literally our last chance and something my wife tried to bail on multiple times before finally agreeing to do what she originally promised.
We loved Dr. Evelyn De Villiers. Both of us felt that she did as good of a job as someone could of remaining neutral, and genuinely hearing both sides while also pointing out what each person needed to do, focus on, work on, and similarly, in order for us to make it through this and pull through the other side.
We both really liked her a lot. She was smart, never condescending, always listened, fair, and stopped us when we needed to be stopped and started falling back into negative communication patterns, and started being unable to listen due to flooding. Twice she stopped sessions and met with us individually, which was really wise and really needed at the time, and led to us returning back in the mind-space we needed to be in to make progress.
My wife came into this even having told me 3 or 4 times a week, “It’s over, I don’t love you anymore, I see you like a brother, you are now just the father of my kids…”, to my hearing for the first time in 6 months that she really does wish she can make this work, and really would like to get her feelings back towards me. The biggest change for me was a sense of hope.
To anyone considering it, absolutely do it. We were hanging by a thread, and frankly, I was about to a point of complete hopelessness, fearful she would just go through the motions to say, “See? I tried”, before pulling the trigger on divorce. I have hope for the first time in 6 months.
Evelyn was amazing. The only thing I am disappointed in is not addressing the day my wife has covered in lies, continues to lie about, and refuses to address or talk about, and which I cannot get past. I have constant mental battles about this day. I badly, desperately wanted the Gottman Trust Revival Method to be at least broached and explained in detail about what it is, why it is very important, and why it must be embraced at some point in the future, even if not for that weekend…. Atone, Attune, Attach. It never got explained or brought up, and that, I was upset by. The importance of those “3 A’s” one day happening, never got even touched on. I at least wanted that seed planted, and explained to my wife why it will be so important to my trusting her again.
It was the best thing that we’ve ever done. So much progress was made in such a short period of time.
So much progress was made in such a short period of time. We really got to work through some areas that was causing discord and separation. Through the process I’ve seen a big difference in the way we talk to each other and how open we both are with talking. Scott Wolfe made the environment easy to be open, heard and feel safe. We feel more confident in our relationship and more hopeful to work it out.
We wanted to learn intimacy together and improve communication skills.
We had bad experiences with previous couples therapy using zoom and a coaching individual.
Dr. K is obviously thoroughly trained and experienced and knows her work. Our experience with her was far better than I ever expected. We are more committed to each other and ready to do the work of improving our relationship in everyday experience.
I would definitely recommend Dr. K for couples looking for help. They will find a very experienced and compassionate person who is extremely insightful.
We needed help with: Trust. Resentment. Problem solving. Resolving disagreements. Intimacy.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc because of their reputation and format.
Dr. Kayla Ennett was great. She helped us identify the strengths in our relationship and enabled us to discuss topics we were avoiding. She gave us tools to improve our relationship. Dr Ennett is very knowledgeable and skilled. She was helpful and caring and patient. She was who we needed. I wish we had had more time.
We are discussing our relationship more and managing conflict better. We still have a ways to go.
I wish we had done this 30 years ago.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Take additional time to relax before and to reflect after therapy. Stay someplace relaxing with a great view. Enter it with an open mind.
My husband and I were at a crossroads and our marriage was on the brink of disaster.
Neither one of us wanted to throw in the towel but we were constantly arguing and the fights were getting worse, more drawn out, and we felt more doomed after each one. We were not communicating at all and were just trying to get the other to understand our side. My husband was shutting down and I was feeling heartbroken and at a loss. We were in an awful place, the worse we’d ever been, before couples therapy.
We tried online couples therapy and it did nothing to help us. We only focused on the problems and it was usually negative with no changes or improved results. Our sessions were not enough to get into the real issues better yet figure out how to resolve the communication breakdowns.
I searched for an intensive therapy weekend in our area and this seemed to suite our needs the best.
Leading with empathy and understanding and focusing on the positive was exactly what we needed. We both felt very heard and understood by our therapist, Dr. Doug Burford and by each other. We learned how to communicate with each other to address the underlying issues. We also learned how the other’s brain works to help us better understand their actions and reactions.
I learned so much about myself and about my wife.
We walked away with tools to become a better couple. I recognized the changes that I have to fulfill if I want to stay with my wife and have accepted responsibility for my actions and the words that come out of my mouth. I realized that I want to stay married to my wife and work through all of the issues. Therapist: Rebecca Lanier.
We were getting a divorce when we decided to work with Couples Therapy Inc.
We read through several different companies out there and wanted to stay close ish to home.
Rebecca Lanier is incredibly patient and could grasp what my husband was saying while I get lost or tune out all the words.
I think, or am at least hopeful my husband heard me. I learned how to not direct my discussions in a way that makes him defensive. We developed some hard boundaries and a plan to keep working to build trust
It was expensive but way cheaper than attorney fees if there is a chance it can be saved.
Give your relationship the gift of hope.
Our relationship was very good; we wanted to improve some communication issues and discuss some issues related to moving in together as a married couple.
We wanted an intensive.
We have both been in couples therapy before with other partners.
Havi Kligfeld was very insightful and highly skilled at being able to hone in on the issues. She was patient and caring and made us each feel heard and understood. She was able to remain impartial and taught us some useful skills we hope will improve our relationship.
We think we can listen to each other better and have learned tools to help us out of recurring problem areas
Do it. It was well worth with the time and money.
This was the best intensive I have ever imagined.
Dr. Alexis Johnson-Nelson was very neutral and really helped us see each other from each other’s point of view.
I really appreciate how everything went those two days.
Our relationship was wonderful, though
…some ongoing personal limbo situations on both sides contributed stress factors that kept us from moving even closer, and which at times flared up. I had tried couples therapy, with both my prior husbands. Weekly and biweekly 90-minute couples counseling was agonizing but not necessarily helpful, like repeatedly picking off a scab and not healing a wound.
I good friend who had worked with Dr K recommended CTI and Dr K specifically
Dr K is clearly an extremely experienced professional who brings loads of perspective gained from working with other couples, applying the Gottman framework, and tailoring the approach to each couple based on our BIG BIG Book content. She is direct, but also sensitive and kind. I learned more about myself than I expected as a long-time therapy user. I also learned things about my partner I hadn’t imagined.
I hadn’t been aware that my partner was being triggered by similar things as my known triggers. Realizing this made me immediately feel protective of him. Now that I understand his reaction, I know how to avoid some of the rough patches we had previously encountered. I believe we both feel closer as a result already. The communication tips were great, and we have put some of the structure and tools to use within the past week. We have both been happier, more playful, and more direct in our conversations, which creates a positive feedback cycle for our relationship.
We came out of our intensive with more tender caring, more channels of communication, and even more excitement to keep cultivating our very good relationship.
I have been recommending CTI and Dr K for the past five years since I first worked with her together with my ex-husband. I recommended it to my new partner, and am grateful he accepted with gusto, despite having zero experience with therapy previously.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Unless you don’t want to stay in the relationship, it can equip you with what you need to repair, improve, and grow it
Run, don’t walk to this resource of using CTI’s Couples Intensive! If you think it costs a lot, I assure you it costs less than struggling or splitting up. The time and money of doing weekly therapy sessions will soon dwarf the one-time cost of the intensive, too.
Our relationship was awkward, we had a loss of connection, and were unable to communicate well.
We had little improvement from our previous therapist.
We wanted a weekend to focus on what we needed, to have tough conversations with a professional mediator and understand how each other felt through each issue we’ve experienced.
Sierra Kehoe was able to connect with both me and my partner, understand each side and the pains caused. She was efficient in explaining different reasons we interpret things, and assisted using many conversation formats where we became better listeners and communicators.
So far we have had meaningful conversations, gotten along a lot better, and even became closer and better friends. We will continue to work on our conversation skills and carry them through other communication with our children to learn.
Sierra is a pro and very genuine.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Take notes on issues you want to discuss before going. Its a lot easier to have tough conversations with a great mediator.
Our relationship was fine on the surface but we had deep issues that needed to be communicated to move past our pain and resentment but did not know how to do this.
Previous couples therapy was ineffective and so we chose Couples Therapy Inc for the reviews and the weekend intensive.
Catherine Pfuntner is awesome, direct, and helped me so much. It was hard but ended effectively and very helpful. I am very grateful that we did this. We have more understanding of how our communication style inhibits the message.
We were in peril; having severe emotional disconnect, and one partner had a year long emotional affair which was recently discovered by the other person.
Previous couples therapy was somewhat helpful but difficult because it was only in 45 min sessions once a week so we could not really scratch the surface.
We needed something extensive and thorough that could spend a long time getting into our issues and help to come up with solutions and tools to help work through them.
It was hard to know if Couples Therapy Inc would work and if it was legitimate just because reviews can be hard to trust.
Dr. Paulette Sherman listened to us and really helped to make us realize where our short comings were. We have tools to work on communication, help with flooding during arguments and recognizing when we were struggling. Being open about our hurt and pain and working through that to repair and build.
Everything was handled great and we really benefited from the structure of the weekend much more so than individual sessions.
Infidelity was the main issue I wanted to discuss.
I felt without resolving that or without a plan of how to work through it, we would not be able to save our marriage.
We had previous couples therapy, briefly in 2020 and only 2 additional sessions in early 2023. No progress was made.
I have followed the Gottmans on instagram for awhile and was interested in trying their methods. The weekend intensive also seemed perfect as I knew we needed something where we could walk away with some progress and a plan moving forward, which is hard to do with only a traditional one hour session.
Initially the cost caused hesitation only because I didn’t think my husband would be up for it. Thankfully I assumed wrong.
I have a new found hope for our future. Although it’s only been less than a week, the little changes have made a huge impact and we’re determined to make them lasting changes. We’re making time to connect every day, planning our weekly date night, being intentional with expressing gratitude and showing affection.
Dr Evelyn De Villiers’ ability to understand both sides without making either feel like she was siding with one of us, she really was rooting for the marriage. It felt great to have her cheering us on the whole time.
This has been the best decision we’ve made for our marriage. It was definitely worth the investment. I feel lighter mentally. It’s made a big difference on my mental state, just overall in a peaceful state. I’ve noticed a difference in our kids moods as well, more chatty, giddy, loving.
If you want to save your relationship, this is absolutely the way to do it! It’s so productive and healing, yet easy and straightforward.
We were lost, confused and very frustrated.
This was our first time with couples therapy.
We were afraid of the reality that it was possible we were not good for each other.
Jenny Fang was very direct. She seemed to really understand us as individuals and as a couple.
I felt we were enlightened. It was a breath of fresh air to truly understand what our issues were and how we can go about repairing our relationship. We now have (1) better communication skills, (2) a better understanding of spouse, and (3) refreshed hope of a long-lasting marriage
Jenny Fang was truly a blessing when we needed it most. My wife and I were on the verge of separation and after our weekend we are stronger than ever.
I highly recommend CTI. I couldn’t imagine a better way to gather the tools to work on a successful relationship
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
You have absolutely nothing to lose. At very least you will get a lot of questions answered in regards to how you and your spouse are feeling and where they are coming from.
It was transformative for our relationship.
Absolutely incredible. Rebecca Lanier is so skilled, empathetic, discerning, and she has a healing disposition. Rebecca is simply amazing and we are enormously grateful for her guidance.
Our relationship was tense.
We were looking to understand each other, communicate better, and clarify the expectations around our household and kids.
We chose Couples Therapy Inc for their experience withneurodivergent couples, friendly therapists, and the intense weekend experience.
I was thoroughly impressed with how Catherine Pfuntner took the BIG BIG Book and was able to pull out and identify a key area where my husband and I misaligned in our thought processes. I believe the understanding gained of where each of us come from on the position Is invaluable and now that we are home hope to implement some discussed changes.
I appreciate how she facilitated the conversations, she was honest about what was and was not appropriate ways to speak to one another. Catherine was very knowledgeable and shared her information with us which quickly established trust.
My husband and I better understand each each other’s position. We have learned what to say, how to say it, and what not to say. We have learned more about each other. We have learned that we still have a lot to learn about one another. And that we need to improve our friendship and the amount of fun that we have with one another.
I think that many marriages and challenges could benefit from such an insightful therapist. If you think that you need it, then you definitely need it do it and you will be pleasantly surprised with the knowledge that you gain.
I truly enjoyed working with Catherine. The intensive weekend was intense and long and also very short all at the same time I thank her for her expertise and insight.
We had a stressful marriage, different views on every life topic.
Religion, money, opinions, ideas and friends.
Previous couples therapy was a negative experience, learned nothing.
With Dr. Eliane Herdani we learned a few things and my wife doesn’t argue, belittle and criticize since returning.
We were at the point of possibly breaking up.
We chose instead to double down on our efforts to salvage our relationship and needed lots of help repairing trust and actually re-committing
We had several years of bi-weekly sessions that sometimes slowed the progress of our deterioration and sometimes provided almost no relief and sometimes actually exacerbated our core issues
We liked the more definitive approach at Couples Therapy Inc and the approach that the BIG BIG book could take. We believed that our core issues were not unique and were very likely the same types of issues that lots of couples have. We thought that if this were the case that there must be some basic recipes for us to follow to better enjoy our relationship and to find more success in partnering.
Frankly, the financial commitment was my hesitation. It was a significant commitment but after floundering with piecemeal solutions offered by inexperienced counselors we felt that our relationship deserved the investment.
First of all, Dr. Patricia Gorman was awesome. Second of all, she was very focused on both of us. She did not show favorites and she did not lose interest or show disdain for any of these issues that we brought to her. In spite of the fact that in her decades of experience, she likely has heard this same story time and time again. My experience with her was that she really kept me on track. The intensity of my situation with my spouse could really get me revved up at times as if I was spinning out of control. Dr. Gorman seemed to have a real talent at being able to stop me from spinning out of control while also allowing me to share when it was “on track”.
We reconnected in a way we hadn’t in years. We both seemed to have several “ah-ha” moments where things just clicked. We found out that we weren’t uniquely unqualified to be married. In fact, our huge arguments have always been about some pretty basic, very human, and very forgivable issues around ourselves.
We were shown practical tools that we could take individually as well as a couple. After years of trying and asking the needing, we were sick of platitudes and temporary solutions. We feel connected in a way that we haven’t in years. Lastly, we feel really safe now knowing that we have a place and a program that we can turn to should things go off the rails again.
It was really disturbing to us both to feel like there was no answers to our problems. We now know that there are answers in that it will take work but that if we want to find the answers and to solve our problems there is a way because honestly we didn’t get married for nothing.
We got married because we loved each other. We’re going to stay married, at least for now, because we found that we still love each other and now we know there is a way to be married. That’s better than the way we were shown by our parents. Things have changed from when they were married and we needed to find a different way to be married than the way we were shown by our parents.
Dr. Gorman was awesome and allowing us to kind of realize this in an organic fashion and to come to the realization that we really wanted to succeed and that there was a way we could do that.
I would tell other couples that in spite of the length, the weekend seems to fly by and I can’t imagine how my wife and I would stay together without the learning what we learned from Dr. Gorman.
Havi was wonderful and our work with her was transformative.
We are so happy we spent the time with her. It was time well spent. Therapist: Havi Kligfeld
Still with us? That says something.
These stories are real.
So is the care behind them.
Our relationship was strained there was infidelity.
Previous couples therapy wasn’t as effective because it was hard to get into topics, we chose Couples Therapy Inc in desperation.
Angela Voegele was both empathetic, knowledgable and calm. We had several very challenging moments and she helped us navigate each one very adeptly.
We have significantly improved communication and understanding. We “redefined the narrative” and have a better understanding of each other.
I trusted her. She listened deeply.
We had tried couples therapy 18 years ago. It was at the beginning of our relationship. It was helpful, but we worked more on each individual than the actual relationship. I wanted to improve communication, conflict resolution, intimacy.
We liked Couples Therapy Inc’s credibility as indicated on the website and knowing that Gottman Approach and EFT would be employed.
Catherine Pfuntner created a safe container. I trusted her. She listened deeply. She clearly had studied the Big Big Book and it was evident she understood the earlier life experiences that are still affecting us. That meant a lot to me. She was empathetic, compassionate. She was honest and set the stage early on that she would be interrupting at key moments to help show us a better way of communicating. We were receptive and we learned many new skills regarding vulnerability, communication, conflict resolution thanks to her expert facilitation. We are definitely going to keep working with her until we can hone our relationship skills. We are so grateful to Catherine for creating this opportunity for us to go deeper and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable with one another in a way that we would not have done without professional facilitation.
We’ve experienced re-connection at the heart level. And an open mind about the possibility for our future. We experienced vulnerability which opened us both up. We have new skills we are practicing and it is working. Avoiding the 4 horsemen; attempting repairs when we notice we are heading down the wrong road, and it is working! Seeking to understand before being understood. We both feel much closer, honest about the fact that we have a ways to go before we are skilled at communication and conflict resolution, but we are practicing, using our handouts as guides, and wanting to schedule more time with Catherine in the next few months so that we can keep progressing and address some of the more hot perpetual problems while she is present and can help coach us in our communication until we are more skilled on our own.
She is a brilliant, highly skilled therapist.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.? Do it! It is the best investment if you truly want your relationship to not only survive, but to thrive! We were seriously questioning if we should stay together and after our intensive, our hearts were opened as we experienced vulnerability and honest sharing with one another as a result of the expert facilitation of our therapist. I saw my husband in a new light and much of my criticism and contempt has been replaced with curiosity and compassion. We now have the communication and conflict resolution skills that we were missing in our relationship tool box.
We have profound gratitude to all of you at Couples Therapy Inc. for providing the service that you do. From Dr. K and the leadership team, to the behind the scenes tech people, to Olivia and the administrative staff, and of course, Catherine, Gottman and all the other researchers that have developed effective methods of restoring and deepening relationships. Thank you!
We needed connection and understanding. Communication/problem solving. We needed help that wasn’t long and dragged on.
Dr. Carolyn Cole was very helpful. We are working together and have better communication/problem solving
It’s expensive, and so is divorce, separation, and emotional damage. I would rather pay for the help than the latter. It was wonderful.
Our experience was transformative.
Carolyn Cole was incredible.
She is caring, attentive, so well prepared, responsive to what we needed and instructive in getting us where we need to go.
I can’t imagine the tight rope she walks to help navigate couples through deep pain; both personally and as a couple.
I am looking forward to continuing our work with her in strengthening the bricks she has already helped lay and to continue to guide us to lay down more.
It has been an emotionally heavy week post retreat and our train has left the rails a few times but the deep rootedness of what Carolyn taught us has brought us back EVERY TIME and able to move forward each day in a positive more safe way for each other. We are very very new to these concepts and reassure each other that with practice we will build the “safe, positive house” we both want.
I am immensely grateful for Carolyn.
Our relationship was strained. We were trying to reconcile after a long affair.
Our relationship was struggling – we both were trying really hard to communicate, but weren’t being heard/seen by the other person in the ways that we needed. There was a lot of hurt and defensiveness getting in the way of meaningful connection.This was our first experience with couples therapy. We liked the fact that we could be intensively focused on us for an entire weekend. We are busy people and this worked well for us.
I was nervous about opening up to a stranger about the intricacies of our marriage. I was ashamed that we were even in this situation in the first place.
Eliane Herdani was very kind. She spoke with compassion for our situation and allowed us space to be vulnerable with each other. Eliane gave us communication tools to help in the future.
We are more patient with each other. We allow emotions to occur in safe spaces. He recognizes my anger and sadness and helps us work through those times. We talk more about how we are feeling. We listen to what the other has to say before starting our own conversation. We understand our pasts better to help us move into our future
This was a great experience for us. Eliane is amazing and we really connected with her. We were able to explore our entire lives, from childhood to present day in a way that was comforting and safe. We plan to do intensives again in the future. To help build on what we already have achieved.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Take the entire weekend. Do not attempt to do this right down the street and return home each evening to the stress of kids and family life. Travel to your intensive. Turn it into a weekend getaway. So that you can focus 100% on each other. Yes, this is expensive. But in my opinion, worth it in every way.
We needed connection and understanding. Communication/problem solving. We needed help that wasn’t long and dragged on.
Dr. Carolyn Cole was very helpful. We are working together and have better communication/problem solving
It’s expensive, and so is divorce, separation, and emotional damage. I would rather pay for the help than the latter. It was wonderful.
Rebecca was FANTASTIC!!!!
My husband and I feel as though we thoroughly benefitted from our intensive therapy weekend. (Therapist: Rebecca Lanier)
We had done every other week sessions and it didn’t do anything.
My husband and I feel as though we thoroughly benefitted from our intensive therapy weekend.We had done every other week sessions and it didn’t do anything. We had lots of road blocks, and no clue how to process moving forward.
We had never gone to an intensive. We had done every other week sessions and it didn’t do anything.
The fact that we could sit down for a block of time and face these issues without heading back to our chaotic lives made us choose Couples Therapy Inc. We hesitated considering the cost/investment. If it would be worth it.
Couldn’t have asked for a better therapist for us. We loved Dr. Paulette Sherman’s knowledge, quick responses, structure, easy to talk to, everything. We left with a clear plan of action and all parties being in agreement. I did not see that happening, and am beyond thrilled with our experience.
We found compromises on two major core issues, and have learned about how to communicate with each other moving forward so it is effective. We’ve discovered ways to help put ourselves first instead of getting lost in the mix of the day.
If a couple has larger core issues that they are struggling to resolve, and weekly therapy isn’t working, no question I would recommend Couples Therapy In
Our relationship was good in many ways but we were unable to get past enduring wounds/past traumas.
We learned a few skills in pervious couples therapy, but it was not especially helpful overall.
We were referred to Couples Therapy Inc by my friend.
Dr. Doug Burford was absolutely fantastic. He was kind, warm, thoughtful, skilled, and 100% committed to our relationship improving.
The most obvious improvement is that we have such deeper understanding of one another which has resulted in much deeper compassion. This has impacted the way we communicate every single day, already, and it’s just a week out. We understand so many things now: the need for us to protect one another, the need for us to nurture our relationship as though it were a living thing, ways to address problems that are solvable, ways to treat unsolvable problems with grace and compassion and humor, ways to communicate with empathy, the differences in our personalities from using the Enneagram, and more.
He helped us get past things that we have not been able to get past in 14 years. I feel closer to my husband now than I ever have. My deepest fear in this marriage has completely disappeared.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Do it. Nothing is more important than investing in your marriage!
Thank you thank you thank you
Highly recommend her.
Dr. Kayla Ennett was incredible and a wonderful facilitator and therapist. Highly recommend her and she made us both feel very comfortable while working through some delicate topics.
Previous couples therapy was a bad experience because we stopped going after 4 weeks because the therapist didn’t even know who we were.
So we would spend the first 15 minutes reviewing information and the next 40 just arguing about the same issue. No skills were ever taught.
We needed the intensive sessions because we were in crisis and we liked the scientific perspective of the program.
Debbie Woodall-Carroll was good at discerning what our tendancies are and how we need to own up to them. She was compassionate but also during the difficult moments she had us sit there and feel that emotion. Sometimes sitting with your feelings are the hardest and most beneficial thing you can do for yourself. And then, she worked with us on processing them. It gave us a better perspective on our partner.
She was very good at listening and directing our discussions. She kept us on task and would not let us get caught up going down rabbit holes instead of handling the issue at hand.
The intensive is the only way to do treatment for couples. We had time to deal with issues that went back 20 years and there is no way we could have done this in 1 hour weekly sessions. It would have taken twice as long to address issues and we probably would have gone back to our old habits way before we even dealt with them.
We were also happy that we went to another city from our own to do this. We found it beneficial not to go back to our home at the end of the first day. It is very emotional and we were forced to just be together, just relaxing and letting our minds process the days events. If we would have went home, we would have probably gotten caught up in doing household chores instead of relaxing.
We had decided to end our 30 year marriage.
We contacted a realtor to get the house on the market and told our immediate family. I was lonely, unhappy and didn’t enjoy spending time together anymore. He had withdrawn, feeling unwanted, and was living for himself. We were roommates essentially. Our core issues related to trust, communication, and emotional intimacy.
Our experience with couples therapy previously was just a few EAP sessions that provided no help.
Couples Therapy Inc was a last resort, we Googled and read credentials and reviews. My husband didn’t believe in therapy. He only did it for me and the remote possibility it could save our marriage. The other hesitation was that it wouldn’t be worth the money.
Rebecca Lanier has a gentle, disarming nature. She actively listens with an open-mind and provides her observations with empathy while still holding you accountable. Intensives are emotionally and mentally draining but necessary for change. The 16 hours of focused therapy verses months of drawn out and interrupted weekly sessions leaves you with a fresh start.
We are attuned to each other, more now than we’ve ever been. With the soft start skill we learned, we are communicating our thoughts and feelings openly and honestly as we experience them. We feel a connection again and are more affectionate. We acknowledge and appreciate the little things we do for each other. We look forward to planning our weekly dates and state of the union talks. The magic 6 hours is helping to keep us on track. We worked through past resentments and built back trust. We practiced the skills needed to help us communicate more effectively. We were provided with tools to help us improve our emotional intimacy.
It was a transformative experience that saved our marriage. The Gottman method works but we couldn’t have gotten here by just reading the books. Rebecca played a pivotal role in helping us work through past issues and change our behaviors.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
If you really want to make things work and see change, invest in your relationship. Couples Therapy Inc. provides skilled and highly credentialed therapists.
The intensive therapy centers around the BIG BIG Book. Put the time and effort into thoroughly completing this. It provides your therapist with the background so your time is spent discussing the core issues. Come to therapy with an open mind. Be vulnerable. I promise you won’t regret it.
We wanted to communicate effectively, resolve trust issues.
My husband and I feel as though we thoroughly benefitted from our intensive therapy weekend.Previous couples therapy was helpful but not as helpful as this was.
We both liked the Gottman method and the intensive technique made sense.
Dr Nathaniel Chapman is extremely patient, listens intently, nonjudgmental, able to communicate effectively with different personality styles, has incredible insight. It was safe and effective. I released past trauma, understand myself and my husband better, feel more at peace and filled with hope
I feel like a weight has lifted. We are reconnecting emotionally.
It’s effective, quick and painless. Very supportive environment.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
I highly advise it! Do not hesitate at all.
Our relationship was very distant. I was looking to improve our communication and closeness and if possible out sex life.
I was specifically looking for help from Gottman trained therapists as well as someone with experience with sexual difficulties.
We had tried [previous couples therapy] twice before. Our experience was not good. The therapy offered little help.
I searched online and found Dr. K and the program offered – it ticked all my boxes – Gottman certified, sex therapist, extensive experience in couples counseling, intensive opportunity.
At first cost was a hesitation, but then it was less expensive than getting a divorce.
Dr. K offered so much guidance and support for both of us. She also offered methods and practice of those methods to help us get through issues – solvable and perpetual problems. She helped normalize complaints and the way we can communicate those that bring closeness rather than build walls and resentment. She offered examples through her experience of other troubled couples experiences that was helpful in addressing some of our issues.
We are working on our improved communication techniques. I think some of the past hurts that I was having were spoken and now are understood by [my husband]. I truly think this will be life changing for us.
Infidelity was revealed to me and while that hurts tremendously, at least it is out and known and we can begin to work through it. Clear techniques for how to communicate our complaints that do not create defensiveness and or flooding. Techniques to work through our perpetual problems.
I would recommend them. As I mentioned, this is life changing for me. We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but having this experience and the learnings on how to relate to one another have already begun to improve our marriage.
I would say it is worth the investment. Doing the intensive, completing the BIG BIG Book is such a jump start on improving your relationship as opposed to weekly appointments. Being able to work through conflict with Dr. K observing and being able to call out areas that show defensiveness or lack empathy is helpful. Having a neutral party in the room provides a psychologically safe space to reveal hurts that previously were not revealed.
Thank you for all the help and the compassionate and understanding care given to us during our weekend.
We were dealing with the fallout of my wife’s affair and there were a lot of questions around how to move forward for both of us.
Previous couples therapy was not the best. We were given some exercises to work though, but the therapist didn’t ask poignant questions and felt a bit judgmental against my wife.
My individual therapist recommended working with someone trained in the Gottman Method. In search for a therapist in Atlanta, we came across Couples Therapy Inc.
Dr. Alexis Johnson-Nelson asked a lot of questions that got both of us to open up. My wife is definitely the more quiet non-sharer and so Dr. Johnson-Nelson was able to recognize our differences and help lead her to open up and share more of her thoughts and feelings. Dr. Johnson-Nelson checked in frequently with us, making sure to see how we were feeling.
I feel like we both are making more of an effort to be more open and talking about our feelings. We have created some new boundaries that we are trying out, which hopefully helps us meet both of our needs. The methods employed were very helpful for us to open up and discuss our issues and we now have strategies for handling future discussions and disagreements. Our therapist asked questions that help us consider different perspectives and got my wife to open up to me again. It’s intense, but so worth it.
I was given a designated time and space to ask the remaining questions I had about my wife’s affair and for her to share her thoughts and feelings about it. We were given new ways to communicate with each other so as to avoid stonewalling and create a space for dialogue. I came out with more reassurance with where my wife is at with respect to us moving forward, which has been a big issue on my mind for the last few months.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
You should move forward and trust the process. My thoughts and emotions were all over the place prior to our intensive- should I stay or should I leave her, what do I want, what does she want, are we both still in this? The therapy really helped us answer many of these questions and consider each other’s thoughts ad feelings differently.
We were in crisis, desperately needing help to understand the unhealthy cycle we were in.
We did a short stint of on-line therapy as a couple. It felt awkward, we didn’t have anywhere really private to be for the session, and we didn’t get very deep into what we needed to…we just glossed the surface.
After lots and lots of research we felt what was offered at CTI met our needs, being able to get in for an intensive weekend rather quickly, at a price that felt doable. It was a big time and financial commitment to leap into, I hoped it would be worth it, yet also felt we couldn’t afford to not take this step.
Debbie Woodall-Carroll was SO good at listening well, asking just the right follow up questions, and also knowing when to interject and challenge our thinking. She balanced compassion with accountability and guidance in a way that was highly impactful for both of us. From our side of the couch, it felt really big to try and start to explain what brought us here and what we were hoping for. Unraveling two decades of marriage is so complicated. Debbie made that experience positive and helped support us along the way.
We gained tools that we have LONG needed. To communicate clearly and directly. To better understand where the other is coming from, assuming the best first of each other and also holding ourselves and each other accountable. I feel more deeply connected to and more trusting of [my partner] than before our retreat. When Debbie asked us to press into the deep wounds of the past in our relationship, we felt safe to lay everything out. It was healing for us both to have that place and guidance to do so. We needed help to navigate certain topics in a way that would move us closer to one another instead of further apart.
Big thanks to Debbie for everything! We have so much hope for our future and a renewed love for one another.
It is worth the time and resources to pour into your relationship. This is a safe and incredibly helpful method to work on your marriage. I highly recommend CTI, especially Debbie.
We wanted to be more connected and were looking for tools to help us work through issues with the bigger family.
We had a few sessions with a counselor a few years ago, but it did not help much.
Sierra Kehoe was very well prepared from our BIG BIG Book work, a great listener and problem solver. We are more connected, this gave us a forum for talking through difficult topics, and great tools were suggested to continue our work. We feel more connected.
We have a strong relationship with some challenges to work through.
We wanted to learn skills to have the strongest relationship forever.
I had tried couples therapy in a prior relationship. Not with this partner.
We liked the intensive approach and are big fans of the Gottman’s research.
Dr. Scott Wolfe had clearly spent a great deal of time preparing for the intensive. He had a deep understanding about our background and always a willingness to learn more. He is an extraordinary listener, and easily referred back to important comments we had made hours or a day before. He has a deep understanding of the Gottman tools, and as importantly, he had a very effective way of teaching the tools and allowing us to try the tools with his guidance and support.
[We now have a] deeper understanding of each other. Deeper understanding of triggers and the root cause of the triggers along with ways to address difficult situations tied to those triggers. Greater confidence in the strength of our mutual commitment to each other.
We were given the Gottman tool kit, and we had a chance to use each tool in a supportive environment. We learned how to use the tools safely and effectively. We had several important insights into our partner’s feelings and how they rationally tied to our life histories. This is an invaluable perspective that supports a healthy relationship.
Dr. Wolfe is extremely knowledgeable and has decades of experience. He is kind, intuitive, empathetic. He was willing to follow our prioritization of issues and help us work through challenges effectively in safe space. He is a hugely gifted therapist. LOVED Scott. He is a huge talent and a lovely gentleman. We are enormously grateful to have chosen him, and to have had his guidance.
If you can identify the right therapist for you, and you are willing to do the follow up work to make the tools a routine part of your relationship, it is a very very wise investment.
My partner confessed to having an affair,
which seemed connected to some of the work-related tension in our relationship. We wanted to give the relationship a chance to move forward, and we knew we needed professional support to have any chance of success.
This was the first time we had tried couples therapy.
The program [at CTI] was clear and structured. Many others seemed a bit nebulous based on their websites. CTI was also very quick to respond to our inquiry, and I really liked Olivia (Messnier, Head of Operations) and felt I could trust her.
I was worried that the whole thing would devolve into hurtful revelations. With the affair, I knew I needed to ask questions about it, but I also didn’t want to learn things I would regret knowing. I was concerned that the therapist might just sit back and let us talk rather than guiding the conversation. I also had some fears that my partner and I would default to people pleasing and toxic positivity, which is our normative pattern but was not going to get us to where we needed to be.
Dr. Doug Burford was fantastic. He had clearly read our BIG BIG Books and knew about our backgrounds. He was very good at guiding us through conversations without being intrusive, and he shared so many tools and frameworks that we have already started using.
I was most impressed with how Doug handled the “surprise” revelation, which my partner had revealed in his BIG BIG Book—he’d had multiple affairs and may be a sex addict. Doug was amazing at guiding my partner through sharing this with me. Obviously it was horrible to hear, but Doug was very careful to help manage the timing and tone of the revelation without ever seeming to butt in—my partner was able to share this with me without us having to deal with it on our own. I’m really grateful for that.
Working through the affair and sex addiction will take some time. But we had also struggled with overwork and evening complaining/negativity. The tools we got from CTI have already helped us to break that pattern, less than a week in. We are loving the “6 hours to a better relationship” framework. It is helping the relationship AND I am personally feeling much calmer and more relaxed in the evenings.
Would you recommend your couples therapist and Couples Therapy Inc.? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, with no hesitation. As a betrayed partner who really had no idea I would be learning about multiple affairs at our intensive, I believe CTI saved me from intense trauma. If my partner and I had been on our own in that conversation, I don’t think we could have been as open and honest, and I don’t think I would have been as comfortable really feeling my feelings. Having Doug there to support and structure the conversation made me feel like I could really focus on myself, because I knew he would step in if things started to get too intense.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
Do the intensive and stay in a hotel while you do. Because it was just 3 days away, all contained, none of the negative stuff spilled into our day-to-day relationship. I really felt like we were able to leave the retreat with hope, and almost have a fresh start.
Our intensive with Sierra was all I had hoped for.
We learned how to talk about hard stuff and stay connected. We learned how to build intimacy through connection. I feel we are back on track for the future. Sierra Kehoe is highly skilled and has a ton of knowledge. She is also 100% tuned in. I attribute the success of our weekend to her delivery and skill.
Once we talked to her there was no hesitation.
We needed support with forgiveness, dealing with conflict, expressing my needs.
Our previous couple therapy was somewhat helpful, but not enough. We had tried everything else, an intensive weekend seemed like the last option and CTI seemed like the best solution for us. We wanted to make sure we connected with the therapist. Once we talked to her there was no hesitation.
Paulette Sherman really made me feel heard. She got me. That was extremely helpful. I felt very safe with her.
We do seem to be communicating better so far even though we continue to have challenges this past week.
We now have: 1. Insights into how our childhoods are affecting our relationship. 2. How to voice my needs in the relationship 3. Tools for soft start up.
Although the 3 day intensive was quite a lot to digest and work through in a short amount of time, Rebecca truly orchestrated each day very efficiently.
We immediately felt comfortable opening up to her and she demonstrated genuine compassion, knowledge, understanding, and empathy. She was a great listener, but also navigated difficult moments well and knew when to reroute our conversation when needed. The Gottman theory is extremely beneficial in leading a healthy relationship. (Therapist: Rebecca Lanier)
CTI was the first time we had couples therapy.
Debbie Woodall Carroll had an ability to understand and provide unbiased feedback. It was eye-opening to core problems within the relationship.
Ultimately, my marriage ended in divorce. But this was a good thing for me to get out of an extremely unhealthy and emotionally abusive relationship. Eye opening experience that gave me validation and confidence I personally needed to move forward.
I walked away with excellent resources for future relationships, understanding the importance of two willing partners in the relationship, understanding the importance of therapy for healing.
Our relationship was very bad. We were trying to figure out if we would divorce.
.After this intensive we have now reached an agreement on how to be with each other. We communicate better. We have a clear idea what to do. The weekend provided structure for us and some good tools to use when we argue.
We have a good plan for the next six months. (Dr. Wolfe’s client.)
Our relationship was very close to ending.
Our core issue involved intimacy and the ability to communicate about intimate feelings. I was desperate to save my marriage.
Years ago we tried traditional couples therapy and were frustrated at the length of time invested and the lack of success.
My wife chose your organization mainly because of the intensive weekend format and the direct approach. You are also well regarded by other counselors.
The specific issue causing our problems was confronted immediately. Both of us were assisted with a way to discuss the problem and come up with a plan of action. I am confident that we are moving forward together as a couple.
Angela was extremely easy to talk to about the most intimate of issues. She offered frank caring advice. She is an extremely considerate person.
The format allows a couple to “get down to business” and quickly focus on the problems. Angela has great expertise and provides practical advice.
I feel closer to my wife, there is virtually no tension when we talk, and we made passionate love.
It was hard to accomplish anything in previous couples therapy. We wanted to work through big issues with more time and expertise.
Reservations were cost and my husband’s participation.
I made small mentality shifts. Hopeful for more in the future with a focus on basic skills.
We worked with Dr. Carolyn Cole, learning the difference between concession and compromise. I learned the skill of compromise.
We had time away from kids/life, intensive time with an unbiased third party/expert, small shifts in mentality/perception.
Come with an open mind and ready to work! We were lucky to have this opportunity—and we deeply wish more couples could access something this effective.
Our relationship was in trouble.
My husband and I feel as though we thoroughly benefitted from our intensive therapy weekend.The core issues included years of poor communication and unresolved conflict regarding difficult life experiences.
We were intrigued by the scientific approach of the Gottman Method and felt that matched our personalities.
Dr. Wolfe was an excellent representative of the Gottman Method. He made us both feel very comfortable discussing difficult topics. He provided us with tools that we could continue to use in the future that we hope will be invaluable.
Scott created a safe place for us to talk to him and to each other. Even though it was via Zoom, it felt like he was with us and completely committed to our weekend intensive. He has the experience and knowledge necessary to assist couples in a caring and structured atmosphere, free of judgment.
With a scientific approach, the Gottman method gives you clear-cut tools to help couples work through challenges that arise in marriage. We wish this was available at the beginning of our marriage.
We now have improved communication, increased empathy for each other’s position, and a better understanding of how to deal with our perpetual problems.
What would you say to couples that are considering working with Couples Therapy Inc.?
We would wholeheartedly recommend it
Some couples ask us about cost at this stage. It’s a fair question—and the answer isn’t simple. Here’s what we want you to know about the real cost of couples therapy.
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