Couples Therapy and Relationship Counselling in Vancouver & Online

Relationships can be places of deep connection, care, play, and growth. They can also become places where people feel painfully alone, stuck in repeating conflicts, emotionally reactive, shut down, unseen, or caught between closeness and self-protection.

In relationship therapy, we slow things down enough to begin understanding what is happening underneath the patterns. Rather than focusing solely on communication techniques or deciding who is right, we explore the emotional, relational, and nervous-system dynamics that emerge between people in real time.

Part of the work involves learning how to stay connected to yourself while also remaining in relationship with another person. This may include working with conflict, differences in needs or pacing, attachment wounds, sexuality, neurodivergence, emotional reactivity, intimacy, resentment, or the ways past experiences continue to shape present relationships.

I aim to create a space where both people can feel engaged and where the relationship itself becomes a place for greater honesty, differentiation, repair, and connection.

“We are born in relationship, live in relationship, suffer in relationship, and are transformed in relationship.” Harville Hendrix & Helen Hunt

An image of a couple leaning against each other while their inner children reach for each other that illustrates the type of trauma-informed couples counselling offered at recognition therapy space.

Relationship therapy is for couples of all orientations, ethically non-monogamous people, roommates, and friendships.

FAQ

  • That is very common. People often enter relationship therapy with different levels of openness, hope, hesitation, or urgency.

    The goal is not to force either person into a particular position, but to create enough safety and structure for more honest and workable conversations to become possible.

  • Part of my role is to remain engaged with both people and with the relationship itself. This does not mean agreeing with everything equally or avoiding difficult conversations, but rather trying to understand the emotional and relational patterns affecting both partners.

    At times, each person may feel more challenged, more understood, or more vulnerable depending on what is emerging in the moment.

  • People seek relationship therapy for many different reasons, including recurring conflict, communication difficulties, intimacy challenges, trust ruptures, neurodivergence, differing attachment styles, sexuality, resentment, emotional distance, life transitions, caregiving stress, or feeling stuck in painful repeating patterns.

    Some couples also come to therapy not because the relationship is in crisis, but because they want to deepen connection and understanding.

  • Yes. Trauma, attachment wounds, chronic stress, dissociation, or overwhelming past experiences can deeply shape the way people relate within intimate relationships.

    Sometimes this may look like conflict escalating quickly, difficulty trusting, emotional shutdown, people-pleasing, reactivity, fear of abandonment, difficulty with boundaries, or feeling overwhelmed by closeness or distance.

    Part of the work involves slowing things down enough to better understand these patterns with care and nuance, rather than reducing either person to “the problem.” We work not only with communication, but also with the emotional and nervous system dynamics that emerge between people in real time.

  • My preference is generally for the therapy to take place with both partners present, as the relationship dynamics themselves are often most visible and workable in the room together.

    Occasionally, individual sessions may be incorporated if they seem clinically helpful or supportive to the process.

  • I usually recommend beginning with weekly or bi-weekly sessions so there is enough continuity and momentum for the work to deepen.

    Over time, some couples transition to less frequent sessions depending on their goals and circumstances.

  • Yes. I work with many neurodivergent individuals and relationships, including dynamics involving ADHD, autism, sensory differences, differing communication styles, masking, shutdown, emotional overwhelm, and pacing differences.

    Part of the work may involve understanding each partner’s nervous system and relational experience with greater nuance and less pathologizing. Some couples also come to therapy not because the relationship is in crisis, but because they want to deepen their connection and understanding.