Relationship & Couples Therapy in the Arts District, Los Angeles and Online
For couples navigating change, conflict, and the question of what comes next.
The love is still there. But so is the distance, and it's been growing slowly, in the spaces between you.
You wonder why you keep having the same argument. You don’t know why one of you always seems to shut down right when the other needs to connect. You’ve tried talking it through on your own, but find yourselves circling back to the same place.
Maybe you’re navigating a transition, a loss, an identity shift, a decision about your future together. You want to feel like a team as you go through this, but you have your doubts. Things between you feel okay for the most part, but you want them to be better. You know this will take intentional work.
In any relationship, conflict is inevitable.
Relationships are shaped by our histories — through time, intensity, and transition. The way you witnessed conflict growing up may influence how you approach it now. For those who grew up in immigrant homes, your parents' ideas of love and commitment may differ from your own. For LGBTQ+ couples, there is an added layer: most of us grew up without relationship models that looked like ours, left to figure out the rest on our own.
Couples therapy with me is an opportunity to slow down, understand each other more deeply, and build new patterns together. Ones grounded in your shared values, your individual needs, and the relationship you actually want to have. Drawing on the Gottman Method and Internal Family Systems Therapy, I help couples move from recurring conflict to genuine understanding. Not just managing the problem, but transforming your day-to-day lives.
I SUPPORT COUPLES NAVIGATING:-
When one or both partners are exploring their gender identity or sexual orientation, a relationship can experience profound shifts — in dynamic, in language, in intimacy.
This is a space for both partners to be honest about their needs, their fears, and their hopes.
My clients navigating this together share feeling better able to communicate openly, develop a shared understanding of identity development, and clarify what this transition means for their relationship.
-
Whether you're combining households or preparing for a legal commitment, this transition deserves intentionality. Couples therapy at this stage helps you develop a shared vision, establish healthy patterns of decision-making, and talk openly about anticipated challenges before they come up.
-
Miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility — these experiences leave couples holding grief, trauma, and complex decisions with very little cultural support. Therapy at this stage creates space to process together, stay connected to each other, and find a way to envision what life can hold moving forward.
-
Whether you're building a family through adoption, foster care, sperm donation, or surrogacy —or navigating the experience of raising a queer or trans child — this is a space for clarity, confidence, and connection.
I help couples feel grounded in their path, prepared for the challenges ahead, and empowered to create a home where their child feels safe and celebrated.
What to expect
After your initial free consultation, the first two sessions focus on understanding the history of your relationship and what's brought you to this moment. In the third session, I share my observations and work with you to develop goals and a clear path forward.
From there, our sessions focus on building the skills, understanding, and communication tools that allow you to work as genuine partners — through conflict, transition, and change.
I offer 55-minute sessions and 75-minute sessions. Session lengths and rates are listed on the Contact + Fees page.
Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place, the foundation upon which more can be built. Where trust is, love can flourish.
— Barbara Smith
Your relationship deserves the same care you give everything else in your life.
Offering in-person LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy at my office in the Arts District / Little Tokyo, Los Angeles — and online throughout California.