Couples Therapy in DC

I offer couples therapy in Washington, DC for partners seeking deeper connection, improved communication, and more satisfying emotional and sexual intimacy. I work with couples across relationship stages, including married and unmarried partners, gay, queer, and LGBTQ+ couples, and individuals seeking a couples therapist in DC who understands the complexities of modern relationships.

Most couples come to therapy late, at a point when they may be contemplating separation. By this point, persistent and patterned cycles of disrepair, conflict, and avoidance have beleaguered what was once a source of great joy, aliveness, and eroticism. There is still hope for these couples, though it will be with persistence that they are able to claw back what once felt precious to them. Others, noticing the seeds of this unhappiness or navigating a new stressor that has revealed the cracks in their once pristine foundation (hello, firstborn!), choose a different path to address their brewing resentments sooner than later.

In either case, both sets of couples feel stalled out in some way, frustrated or discouraged, and unsure how conversations keep going off track or why familiar patterns seem so hard to change even when they mean to. Some are deciding whether their relationships are even worth the work of saving, if salvageable at all. 

Couples therapy can be helpful in these situations, where you and your partner are:

  • Experiencing frequent conflict or emotional distance

  • Struggling to communicate or feel understood by one another

  • Navigating transitions or decisions about the future

  • Working to rebuild trust or repair past hurts

  • Coping with changes as individuals and partners

  • Wanting to strengthen intimacy and connection, even if things are “mostly fine”

  • Longing for more satisfying, pleasurable, or frequent sex

Put simply, if what you’re already doing is not working, it’s time to find a new way of working.

Credentials & Training as a Couples Therapist in DC

In truth, many therapists providing support to couples are doing so not with specific training, but based on their general clinical expertise. While many may be working successfully with couples nonetheless, I am of the persuasion that your couples therapist should understand couples therapy as a unique and harder form of therapy, for which specific training is not only helpful but necessary. For this reason, I began working with couples only after completing a post-graduate two-year training program in addition to my six-year doctoral degree. This was completed under the supervision of master couples therapists through the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, a highly esteemed training program for couples therapists in DC. Today, I regularly invest in the care I provide couples by working under the tutelage of an expert couples therapist among a cohort of colleagues, with whom I regularly meet and consult to ensure the best care possible for the couples I treat.

Couples Therapy: Approach & Philosophy

Every relationship develops patterns over time as partners negotiate their own and each other’s needs. Some facilitate closeness and security; others foster distance, misunderstanding, or tension. Often, these patterns are not the result of a lack of effort or care, but of deeply ingrained ways of coping, communicating, and protecting oneself, many of which are initially unconscious and most of which begin developing at a very young age. For these reasons, I help couples draw attention not only to what’s happening between them, but also to why it’s happening— the figurative thumb forcing a thumbprint on their relationship.

I help couples to slow down, consciously step back from these patterns, and look at them together—with curiosity rather than blame. Rather than focusing only on resolving individual arguments, we will work to understand how emotions, histories, and expectations shape how each of you shows up in the relationship and use these insights to build a better one. From the very beginning, I view the relationship itself as the focus of our work—a living system shaped by two individuals, each with their own inner world, needs, and vulnerabilities, and one which can be matured, cultivated, and fortified against stress.

In our work together, I aim to help couples:

  • Develop a deeper understanding of their emotional and relational patterns

  • Improve communication in ways that feel authentic but nurturing

  • Navigate conflict without escalation, withdrawal, or shutdown

  • Strengthen emotional connection, trust, and intimacy

  • Make intentional choices about how they want their relationship to function

  • Move from self-preservation to mutual understanding and connection

Gay, Queer & LGBTQ+ Couples in Washington, DC

“Love is love,” as they say, but too often this simple phrase overlooks the myriad ways queer people often can and do experience partnership differently. Every stage, from the way we meet and partner to the way we negotiate roles, exchange pleasure and have sex, build and structure families, and manage boundaries, commitments, and intimacy, has its own unique flavor. As a gay couples therapist in DC, I believe queer, LGBTQ+, and gender-diverse couples benefit most from couples and relationship therapists who appreciate these differences, rather than insisting they don’t exist. 

Through this unique lens, queer couples confront many of the same challenges that come with being in a long-term, loving relationship. In therapy, we will focus on these internal dynamics of your relationship, making improvements to:

  • How each of you experiences closeness, independence, and vulnerability

  • Your approach to conflict, disrepair, repair and resolution

  • Your mutual understanding of each other’s attachment styles, communication patterns, or emotional expressivity

  • Navigate mismatched timelines around commitment, disclosure, or future planning

  • Negotiate intimacy, desire, and sexual connection without assumptions

  • Clarify boundaries and expectations, including around monogamy or openness, and repair trust following boundary violations (e.g., infidelity)

We will further consider the broader context in which your relationship is struggling to thrive, particularly where it meaningfully shapes how you relate to one another. This may include family dynamics/rejection, social support, mental health challenges, or past experiences navigating life as queer people that may influence how closeness, conflict, and vulnerability are navigated—while also honoring the creativity, resilience, and intentionality many queer couples bring to their relationships.