Compassionate and supportive marriage counseling for couples in Nassau County, Queens, and the entire NYC.

Rebuild Your Relationship With Marriage Counseling

At Haven Mental Health Counseling, we offer compassionate, supportive, and judgment-free marriage counseling. Our relationship therapist will remain neutral throughout the process. Using this method, we can identify how each party contributes to the conflict for an effective resolution. Our client-centered and strength-based approach helps couples find practical solutions to their issues.

What is Couples Therapy?

Couples counseling is a type of psychotherapy focused on helping a couple understand their relationship better, work through challenges, and develop a healthy relationship lifestyle. A marriage therapist uses therapeutic techniques and interventions to help the couple achieve their goals.

At Haven Mental Health Counseling, our passion is to see couples succeed in their relationship whether they are embarking on their journey or have been together for decades and need help refocusing their relationship.

We offer both premarital and marriage counseling, in which we address issues surrounding communication, intimacy, parenting, in-laws, and finances, to name a few. Our therapists are trained in both the Gottman Method and EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) which are renowned for their efficacy in improving marital satisfaction with little evidence of relapse.

Confessions from couples such as “I just want him to understand me.” Or “I just need her support” are heard and understood. Here at HMHC, we want to help bring an end to any and all defensiveness, criticism, stonewalling, and contempt. No more walking on eggshells or just going through the motions.

Real intimacy and vulnerability can be fostered with the help of a neutral third party that can expertly help you navigate through your relational pitfalls and back to feeling safe with one another once more. Together we will identify toxic relational patterns and create new ones.

You will be shown a new language for resolving conflict with compassion and respect which will help rebuild the fractured lines of communication. You will get insight into your partner’s perspective and learn how to advocate for your own without alienating them. Both of you will begin to build trust as you see the work being invested into yourselves and your relationship as a unit.

When to Go for Relationship Counseling

Marriage is something that takes work. It’s been said time and time again. Still, after a few years in (or maybe even a few months) and you might already be thinking, “I knew this wasn’t going to be easy…but does it have to be this hard?”

The person you had felt so strongly about is now apathetic and seems unwilling to meet your needs. The easy communication and laughter left some time ago and you do not know how to get it back. You may be the partner who thinks nothing is wrong but your significant other is seemingly impossible to keep happy and you are tired of trying to make them so.

If you are having similar fights over and over without resolutions, it may be time for marital therapy. Also, see a therapist if you are feeling stuck in the relationship or if there’s a major stressor on the marriage. This may include trauma, infidelity, or financial strain.

Are You Experiencing Marital Distress and Distance?

Years of negative experiences, suppressed emotions, unresolved disputes, and unspoken resentments can make speaking a simple sentence to one another an anxiety-provoking endeavor. With other couples, it’s the silence. Cellphones and TVs are consistently siphoning time and attention away from real life and from your partner’s bids for attention.

What signals for intimacy and connection are literally zinging over your head or never sent, lost to the latest WhatsApp or news story? Perhaps you are both using technology as a means to escape from one another without having to leave the room? One of the most devastating experiences we see amongst couples is feeling lonely despite being in a relationship.

If may feel like there is a need to place blame on the other. The lack of acknowledgment, the unmet needs, and the feeling of not being enough can be frustrating. You may want to shut down as the arguments feel overwhelming and eventually, disconnect emotionally.

This process of shutting down is called flooding and is a natural instinct the body has to protect itself. If you have been experiencing this in your relationship, you are not alone. The therapists at HavenMHC can provide you with the information and resources you need to rebuild the bridge between your world and your partner's world.

Almost all couples are bound to go through periods of distress and distance. When the initial newness of the relationship begins to fade, couples often find that they become stuck in patterns of miscommunication, which may over time build resentment. Over time, as you grow, interact, and change, the friendship you had changes.

Reestablishing Connections in Your Relationship

Our process in couple’s work allows us to assist you in reestablishing these connections. Just like we use Google maps for navigating the physical world, love maps allow partners to get a vision of each other's worlds which makes it easier to navigate and understand one another.

We work on building rituals to create shared meaning, admiration, and fondness. We also work on rekindling the passion and intimacy you may be missing once the newness of the relationship begins to fade. As the renowned marriage therapist Dr. John Gottman says, every positive thing you do in your relationship is foreplay.

By virtue of being human, we all come into our adult relationship with a history of hurt and possible emotional injury. There are certain types of communication patterns and expressions of love that we lean towards, which may or may not be the best fit when engaging with our partners.

As a result, couples can find themselves unknowingly stuck in a miscommunication loop which, in turn, may cause either or both partners to feel unheard, invalidated, and hurt. The outcome is often that both partners feel lonely despite being in a relationship.

By exploring the various ways you and your partner give and receive love, you can make all the difference required to go from feeling lonely to feeling fulfilled. In our sessions together, we will help you explore the different ways of receiving and giving love, identifying triggers, and being present in your relationship.

Couples Counseling: Schedule an Appointment Today

When breakdowns in communication go from being periodic to chronic, it can create a sense of hopelessness that many of the couples who come in for therapy are feeling. According to research done by Dr. John Gottman, the average couple waits 6 years before getting help for marital problems. Don’t let that be you!

All good things in life require intentional effort, and a healthy marriage is no exception. Love is more than a feeling. Love is a choice. If you are at a loss of how to get across to your spouse, choose to do something about it today rather than wait and see if things will get worse.

If you feel like your relationship is off to a rocky start, has lost its passion, or that you and your spouse are stuck in a cycle of negativity- don’t give up, pick up the phone and contact us instead and let’s get to work!

Couples therapy can help lift a huge weight from your relationship. Talk to our relationship and marriage therapy specialist today.