Relationship Counseling
Relationship(s) can be romantic, sexual, or platonic, and they can be nearby or long distance; they can be monogamous or non-monogamous, and they might be functioning well or not as well as we might like. Regardless of the type of connection, all relationships are valid. We will work on how to build, maintain, and understand the relationships that make life worthwhile, starting with your relationship with yourself.
In romantic relationships, social culture often tells us that one day we will find our “perfect match” and everything will be perfect and feel like a fairytale moving forward. It tells us that if you're with the right person, you should never fight-- and if you do, making up is easy! You should have similar perspectives and values on big life decisions and your sex life should be spectacular! Well, I will be the first to tell you that this is rarely the case, and partners that appear to be this way have done a lot of work (often including counseling and therapy) to get there. Communication/listening and argument styles may not match, or they may change with more stressful topics, and sexual appetites/libidos change throughout lifespan; fetishes/kinks are not always encouraged by your partner, the idea of what is romantic or intimate varies, and sometimes we have different ideas of the structure (boundaries, living situations, monogamy vs non-monogamy) for our relationships.
We will work together to identify wants and needs, discuss different types of relationship education each partner has received, how we want those needs addressed, boundaries that should be put in place individually and within the relationship as a whole, develop new patterns of successful communication, and/or learn how to connect with each other in a way that feels most authentic to your current dynamic.
