Relational Issues

Couples/Marital Counseling

Couples counseling is one of Kim’s favorite types of therapy to provide. She believes that relationships require work and are bound to face challenges large and small. Simple, everyday stressors can strain an intimate relationship, and major sources of stress may threaten the stability of the relationship. As long as each partner is willing to address the issue at hand and participate in developing a solution, most relationship problems are manageable, but when challenges are left unaddressed, tension mounts, poor habits develop, and the health and longevity of the relationship are in jeopardy.

Some common relationship concerns that Kim works with include financial difficulties, barriers to communication, routine conflict, emotional distance, sexual intimacy issues, and lack of trust. She also provides pre-marital counseling for couples who are considering marriage or who are engaged.

Family Counseling

Kim finds it helpful, and at times imperative to work with families facing a variety of issues including, but not limited to,  a loved one facing an addiction (chemical or behavioral), eating disorder, mood disorder, poor emotional regulation, or dysfunctional relational patterns.

She uses the following techniques in assisting families to heal:

• Educates family members about healthy family dynamics and the roles that families play.
• Helps redirect focus from the member who has been identified as ill onto the family as a whole.
• Identifies conflicts and anxieties and helps the family develop strategies to resolve them.
• Strengthens all family members so they can work on their problems both individually and together.
• Teaches new and more effective ways to handle conflicts and changes within the family. Sometimes the way family members handle problems makes them more likely to develop symptoms.

During therapy sessions, the family’s strengths are used to help them handle their problems, and all members take responsibility for problems.