For Adults in New York, Massachusetts & Vermont
Relationship therapy
Healthy relationships are linked to happiness and satisfaction. We might know when a relationship feels unhealthy, but we may not know how to get to a healthy place.
Key points
Strong relationships are linked to good physical, mental, and emotional health.
Your home environment in childhood, previous experiences, and other factors can get in the way of connecting in a healthy way with other people.
Communication and conflict resolution skills and your willingness to be vulnerable in relationships are valuable skills that can be learned.
Professional support can help you resolve whatever is getting in the way of your having beautiful relationships.
Your quality of life is largely determined by the strength of your relationships
Strong interpersonal relationships are the key to a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. Generally, people who have strong, supportive relationships report greater levels of happiness and life satisfaction, lower stress levels, and better mental health. Healthy relationships correlate with healthier lifestyle choices, better physical health, and fewer unhealthy coping strategies.
How healthy relationships lead to a better life
If you are surrounded by people who encourage and bring out the best in you, you are more likely to feel good about yourself, take better care of yourself, challenge yourself to try new experiences, and have more opportunities to enjoy life.
Not everyone knows HOW to have good relationships
It’s probably safe to say that everyone wants to have good relationships and feels dissatisfied in their life if they don’t. You might long to have better relationships, but simply don’t know how.
You might feel the void of not having someone special to share your life with but don’t know how to find or hold onto a meaningful relationship long-term. Perhaps you keep getting into relationships only to get burned by break-ups. Or you might have difficulty connecting emotionally with others, making it difficult for you to connect meaningfully with those around you, and develop close, satisfying long-term relationships.
It’s not your fault if you struggle with relationships
Without supportive relationships, you might not get the reassurance and validation that you need or the support and encouragement to improve your circumstances. You might also be overly self-critical and blame yourself for not having enough friends or being in a romantic relationship.
If you struggle with relationships, there is almost certainly a reason for that! Your background, childhood experiences, family upbringing, and internalized belief systems all contribute to who you are today, and how you interact with those around you. Your personality also plays a big part, as well as how you were taught to interact with others, your belief in your own abilities, and your overall level of self-esteem.
It can be helpful to try to figure out why relationships have been hard for you
In therapy, you can get help to identify what is getting in your way. Once you identify the obstacles to healthy relationships, you can develop a plan for addressing the issues that have been sabotaging you.
Some common factors that make it difficult to have a healthy relationship include:
Negative past experiences can impact your ability to trust and fully engage in relationships.
Your attachment style, shaped by your early childhood experiences, can affect how you relate to others and your ability to be emotionally vulnerable with others.
Communication and self-esteem issues can greatly impact your ability to form close meaningful relationships.
Unrealistic expectations can easily sabotage the good relationships you already have.
Or you might simply not yet have learned the important social skills necessary to develop or maintain good relationships.
The good news is that you can learn how to have better relationships
Whatever the reason is that makes relationships hard for you, you can learn how to have healthier relationships. Developing self-awareness and practicing self-compassion can help you be open to having healthy relationships with like-minded people.
Learning to trust and be emotionally vulnerable can expose you to the richness that relationships can offer. Improving your communication and conflict-resolution skills can enable you to navigate disagreements. Developing the capacity to set and enforce healthy boundaries can protect you from being hurt in future relationships.
Therapy for better relationships
By taking advantage of skilled, professional help, you can be supported in resolving the difficulties within your relationships, and learn how to have deeply fulfilling relationships with the people you want to have in your life.
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Who Can Benefit From EMDR Therapy?
EMDR is an evidence-based psychotherapy that helps you to integrate upsetting and traumatic experiences.
I’m an EMDR Certified Therapist. I work with clients experiencing the following: anxiety, panic attacks, chronic Illness and medical issues, grief and loss, attachment trauma, intergenerational trauma, performance anxiety, sexual assault, sleep disturbance, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other trauma and stress-related issues.
The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs/Dept. of Defense, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the World Health Organization recognize EMDR therapy as an effective psychotherapy.
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Grief is an individual experience. Move through your loss at your own pace.
Whether you’re struggling to grieve your loss, feeling like you’re going through the motions with no relief, or are unsure what moving through a loss looks like, you’re not alone.