Couples

Couples and Family Counseling

We understand that for many family is above everything. Yet sometimes issues arise, tensions creep in, or concerns in your family history cause you to think “This isn’t how I envisioned married life or family life.” At Believe to Achieve Wellness, we can help you figure it out.

Services offered in these primary areas

Relationship struggles
Family therapy
Medical complications
- Hormonal or medical conditions that contribute to sudden behavior or mood changes
- Postpartum anxiety or depression
- We work with a select group of area providers to help diagnose and treat
Trauma
- Traumatic Event
- Re-experience
- Avoidance
- Unable to function
- One month at least
- Arousal

As a Marriage & Family Therapist who co-taught adult Natural Family Planning for 12 years and taught abstinence education in area schools before becoming licensed as a therapist, Kay is comfortable talking about many sensitive and challenging topics. While she taught substance use prevention for many years, she refers current or prospective clients out when substance use potentially is considered excessive and would be better treated by a substance use expert.

Is it the right time to start couples counseling?

Surprisingly, the answer may be “Not yet. Not until we get ourselves figured out individually first.”

One recent trend amongst Marriage & Family Therapists is that better success in couples counseling or family counseling may be achieved if some core individual work occurs first. We may discover this during your 15-minute screening call, or it may become apparent after a few sessions of couples counseling. If you think you need time to work out some areas individually first, we encourage you to connect with us or another therapist to do this.

Learning to recognize the signs that you may benefit from Individual therapy FIRST before starting couples therapy can be challenging. If any of the following is actively occurring or recently occurred, the Individual therapy route may be the preferred first step.

These 4 As can Unravel a Marriage:

Adultery
Addiction in any form (alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, tech, etc.)
Abuse (emotional, physical and mental)
Competing Agendas (one of you is committed to the relationship and the other is not)

Using Premarital or Marital Assessments to Customize your Plan of Action

Kay is certified as Prepare\Enrich Facilitator. If married in the Catholic church, you may have taken a Prepare Enrich assessment during your PreCana or marriage preparation. Kay leverages both the solid evidence base of both Prepare Enrich combined with the best from Gottman to customize what is needed for your marriage.

To learn more:
Prepare Enrich https://www.prepare-enrich.com/the-assessment/

Gottman Relationship Checkup https://checkup.gottman.com/

Reach out to B2AW today

Let’s journey together to figure out what you need. You may be married or contemplating marriage. We can use a Prepare-Enrich or Gottman Relationship Checkup in the beginning to work from a position of strength and opportunities vs. focusing on what is wrong.