Couples & Marriage Counseling Gig Harbor, WA
In couples and marriage counseling, I help partners work through conflict, rebuild trust, and strengthen their relationship.
Whether you’re frustrated with each other and want things to improve, dealing with a crisis and wondering what to do, or looking to make an already good relationship better and secure your future as a couple, I’m here to help.
Experienced Therapist Helping Couples Overcome Crises and Strengthen Relationships
For more than twenty years, I’ve worked with couples facing a wide range of relationship challenges, including communication problems, recurring disagreements and conflict, broken trust after infidelity or substance abuse, and the experience of feeling distant or disconnected from one another. Some couples come to counseling because they are trying to decide whether to stay together, while others want to optimize their relationship for today and the future.
In addition to my counseling work, I’ve written numerous books about interpersonal dynamics. Some focus on how to build stronger, healthier relationships, while others explore dysfunctional patterns and the ways relationships can go wrong.
"We have worked with other counselors before, but never with the results we got with Ann. She has a way of making things easy to understand. She taught us how to listen to each other, express ourselves with tact, problem solve, and so much more.
We are very happy together now. We have small bumps along the way as a couple, but they are just bumps. What used to blow up into big messes and hurt feelings we now work through easily.
We are so grateful we found her."
Skill-Building for Healthy, Happy Relationships
After meeting with you as a couple to hear your goals and concerns, I will suggest a plan of action for our work together. That will typically include a strong focus on building relationship and communication skills that can be used to clear up your relationship messy buildup — hurt feelings and resentments from misunderstandings and poor message delivery.
Typical skill-building components of my couples counseling include:
2. How to express yourself with tact (the honesty/respect combo).
3. How to listen in a way that actually works (your partner feels heard, you understand what they have going on, and you feel closer together).
5. Relationship do's and don'ts learned from years of experience with clients and life (e.g., apologies that aren’t apologies, replacing “but” with “and”, avoiding absolutes, etc.).
The focus on skill-building is meant to give structure not rigidity, so that your particular situation can dictate the content and length of each session.
I designed many of my published products through my work with couples. Using these products during sessions makes the learning relatively easy and enjoyable and provides an opportunity for you to continue the work at home between sessions if that works for you.
As one couple put it, “It’s like we get our own workshop. You teach us the skills and we can practice with our personal stuff without an audience of other participants.”
Support for Every Stage of Your Relationship
I work with couples in many different stages of their relationship. Some come in during a crisis, such as infidelity, while others simply want to strengthen a good relationship and make it even better.
I work with straight and LGBTQ+ couples who are:
- Dating (relationship coaching)
- Living together
- Preparing for marriage (premarital counseling)
- Married (marriage counseling)
- Navigating separation or divorce (divorce coaching)
Unique Approach to Session Time
Unlike most counselors, the length of each appointment with me is determined by what you need that day. I expect you to be at least an hour for any appointment, but we don't have to be confined to that hour. We can keep going until it feels like the right time to stop that day. We take finances and schedules into account, but I have found that if we can work open-ended, it is the most gentle and efficient for you. We don't have to stop in the middle of something and you make progress faster. You pay for the time used (charged in 5-minute increments).
"Working with Ann, I get to come full circle to completion in each session. I have enough time. I don’t have to rush through things. She doesn’t let me go too far and she doesn’t have to bring me back too soon just because an hour is up."
Couples Therapy and Coaching Rates: In-Person and Virtual Appointments
My fee is $200 per hour. After the first hour, charges are in 5-minute increments. I accept cash, checks, and credit cards. Clients pay me at the end of each appointment and I can supply an invoice for you to submit to your insurance for reimbursement at whatever rate your insurance covers an "out of network" counselor.
My Counseling and Coaching Office in Gig Harbor, WA
I currently offer both in-person and teletherapy sessions.
My counseling office in Gig Harbor, WA (near Key Peninsula, Tacoma, Port Orchard, and Bremerton) offers a quiet, comfortable, relaxing setting with a view of Colvos Passage and Vashon Island.
Free Consultation
For Couples Counseling, Pre-Marital Counseling, Marriage Counseling, or Relationship Coaching in Gig Harbor, in person or via video chat, contact me for a free initial consultation.
Call 206-660-9840 or email me by completing the contact form:
