Relationships are one of the most rewarding aspects of our lived experience.
They have the capacity to bring with them a deep sense of fulfillment, security, and connection.
It takes effort to build, maintain, and recover these healthy qualities in your relationship when you get off track.
Some of common challenges we see in relationships include lack of trust, difficulties communicating, prior relationship/family trauma negatively impacting engagement and attachment; as well as shifts in sexuality or identity which necessitate change within the relationship.
Our counsellors help you identify the dysfunctional patterns you got trapped in that are creating disconnection in the relationship. We work with you to get re-connected, understand one another, feel heard, and communicate more effectively; so, you can both experience greater fulfillment in your relationship.
Couples' Counsellors
Diana Svenda (RCC)
As a human and therapist, I’ve witnessed the true power of having safe and loving relationships in our lives. Our relationships bring us joy, love, laughter, security, fulfillment, and help support us through the many crossroads we encounter. Navigating life’s challenges can take up our time and energy, leaving us feeling disconnected from our relationships. I work collaboratively with couples to foster re-connection, build new ways of relating with eachother, and re-establishing safety and trust in the relationship. Together we can move towards having you feeling like you are on the same team again!
Whether you are dealing with communication issues, trust concerns, intimacy challenges, relationship burnout, family conflict, cross-cultural issues, or just feeling disconnected from your relationship altogether; I provide a compassionate and non-judgmental space for both partners to express themselves openly. Through evidence-based techniques and a collaborative approach, I aim to facilitate understanding, strengthen emotional bonds, and foster healthier patterns. My goal is to empower you both to rediscover the connection that brought you together, build resilience, and re-connect you to a more fulfilling relationship.
I work from an integrated approach, drawing from both Relational Life Therapy for couples and Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Using a holistic approach allows me to specialize each session to meet the unique needs of each couple and co-create lasting, positive change in your relationship. Clients often describe working with me as warm, non-judgmental, and open to feedback.
Jodie Read (RCC)
I believe relationships are one of the most rewarding aspects of our lives. They have the capacity to bring with them a deep sense of fulfillment, security, and connection. It takes effort to maintain and recover these healthy qualities in a relationship when we get off track. I bring couples back to the root of what brought them together by helping them negative patterns they've been trapped in that threw the dynamic of the relationship into disarray.
Clients will come to discover the root of common, debilitating, and perpetuating patterns that prevent them from connecting, understanding one another, feeling heard, and communicating in effective ways. Some of these challenges include trust, communication, prior relationship/family trauma, and attachment; as well as shifts in sexuality or identity which necessitate change within the relationship. Through increasing awareness and understanding of how these arise, we work through alleviating these stuck patterns and learn to engage in ways that lead couple's back to intimacy and connection.
I primarily approach Couples' Counselling with Relational Life Therapy techniques which I use to create permanent, positive change in relationships. Through my practical, empathetic, and direct therapeutic approaches and interventions I help couples recover, reconnect, and work in partnership towards having their needs met in the relationship.
I provide couples' counselling for those in non-monogamous, monogamous, polyamorous, and kink.
Tajah (RCC)
The primary approach I use in couples' counselling is Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT). I use EFT because it is based on emotions being the center of how we experience ourselves and our relationships. When we go through life suppressing and invalidating our emotions, the bond within the relationship weakens leading to disconnection. I aim to help clients break these cycles so they can get back to connection.
Emotions can explain so much about what is happening in a relationship, including poor communication, distress, or conflict resulting in negative interactions such as attacking or withdrawing. My goal is to help clients strengthen their emotional bond through teaching them how to understand and attend to emotions, rather than suppress or invalidate them.
During therapy, clients will learn to identify, regulate, and effectively communicate their experience. If emotions are constantly suppressed, the relationship bond weakens, and over time, the relationship gets caught up in a repetitive negative cycle. Clients will learn how to make sense of their feelings, manage them, and use them positively to meet their needs and goals and improve their relationship with their partner. When this happens, this builds intimacy, closeness, security, and closeness, autonomy for the couple.
