In-Person & Online marriage therapy
Here at Ray Family Therapy, our team of therapists are all trained in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and we specialize in helping couples reignite passion and romance. We use targeted interventions that help ignite the spark in your relationship. Repeated fights and miscommunication can lead to distancing, anger, hurt, and a feeling of distrust and lack of appreciation. We work with couples every day to help them navigate challenges in their lives and relationships.
How can marriage counseling help our relationship?
A relationship is like a house. It needs a strong foundation in order to survive and be long-lasting. If your house has an unstable foundation, no matter how many pretty decorations or lavish details, the house won’t feel safe and secure. Likewise, a relationship needs a solid structure where there’s trust, clear boundaries, excellent communication and expression of needs, and mutual respect. Your relationship can look great on the outside — with your Instagram feed full of cute couple pictures and people saying you’re #couplegoals — but how does it feel during your day-to-day life? How do YOU feel in your day-to-day life?
The goal of marriage counseling is to strengthen the factors that influence the health of a relationship, including communication, trust, respect, and understanding. Whether your relationship is on the rocks, or you simply want to build and maintain a solid foundation, having a trained therapist to facilitate important conversations and provide guidance and insight can be game-changing.
⚠️ signs Marriage counseling is necessary
If you can relate to any of this, we’re here to help. There’s a better way to be in a partnership.
You never dreamed it would come to this. Yelling, screaming, name-calling, and crying–all over a fight. You and your partner repeat the same fight over and over again. You are caught in a repeating cycle of shouting and spending hours or even days acting coldly or bitter toward each other. You want more in your life. Your marriage feels like the marriage your parents had, except you know you can’t make it a lifetime with this misery.
You go weeks without sex, spend your days working, shuttling kids to various activities, and it seems you have nothing in common anymore. People think you have the perfect marriage, perfect family, and perfect life. You feel immense shame at the thought of people seeing through you; seeing your problems for what they are and your imperfect marriage. You worry that if you divorce, you will be left with nothing, and you worry about how splitting your family will create the same nightmare childhood you experienced after your own parents’ divorce.
You worry that coming to marriage counseling will be hours spent enduring your partner’s criticism while a third party sits and watches. You can’t imagine talking about the lack of sex, anger, and disappointment, but you also have immense hope that seeking help could change your marriage. You want things to change, and you’re done with this cycle of anger and blame. You wish you could trust your partner to be there for you, no matter what, and trust that they love you.
If things don’t change, you know your marriage will end in divorce. You will be left alone, splitting your time with the kids, struggling to make ends meet on one income. You will resent your partner, left to co-parent with someone you hate.
We help couples who struggle with communication and the angry cycles that lead to divorce. We provide marriage counseling and premarital counseling and help couples reignite passion and intimacy. We understand the problems that women face in the bedroom, and together we work to help you experience fulfilling and exciting sexual intimacy. You will learn skills that help you cope and identify patterns that increase anxiety and anger and impair your ability to connect with your partner.
Take the quiz to see if therapy is a good option for you.
LGBTQIA Couples Counseling in Texas
We at Ray Family Therapy believe that love is love. Our therapists are collaborative and affirming and provide LGBTQIA couples counseling online and at our office in Houston, Texas. You want someone who gets you, and is comfortable discussing your relationship, sex, and intimacy and understands that your relationship is unique with its own set of problems and strengths.
Our Approach
We create a structured plan for managing conflict and creating emotional and sexual intimacy. Our therapists don’t take sides, and never let partners sit and berate each other during sessions. We are calm and direct, and help couples untangle their complex relationship patterns. We will work together to improve communication, learn to fight fairly, and avoid relationship pitfalls that lead to “four horsemen of the apocalypse”: criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. Our therapists have specialized training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy.
Couples often experience sexual problems when one or both partners start hormone therapy for a gender transition. The decision to medically or surgically transition can be a stressful and difficult time to navigate. We offer support to the couple to help you develop understanding and empathy for one another during this process. Libido can increase or decrease, and sometimes as these changes occur people struggle with their self-image and are trying to make sense of the changes they see in their body. This can impact a couples’ relationship in the bedroom, lead to weeks or months without sex, and feelings of guilt, shame, and hurt in both partners. We help couples navigate this delicate process while tending to your relationship, communication, and intimacy to help you experience freedom in your newfound way of being.
We hold our couples accountable during the process while offering encouragement and support. We will help you implement this plan in the upcoming months and support your progress as you find your way back to intimacy and love.
