Couples Trauma & PTSD Therapy
Whether you are a person suffering from PTSD, or you have a partner with PTSD or a trauma-related diagnosis, you are welcome here.
Symptoms & Impact of Trauma on Couples
Trauma can be tricky for
couples to navigate.
If you or your partner experienced a single traumatic event or complex trauma, trauma can feel like an uninvited third person in your relationship.
● Physical touch (including non-sexual touch)
● Stonewalling
● Avoidance
● Feeling hopeless or that your relationship is
doomed to fail
If your relationship is struggling with:
● A lack of communication and connection
● Avoiding your significant other
● Isolation
● Pursuer/distancer dynamics
● Sexual intimacy
Trauma-informed and evidenced-based couples therapy can help you improve communication, increase closeness, and instill hope.
Overcome past wounds with Trauma-informed couples therapy
Couples therapy will give you the tools to regain closeness to your partner in a way that feels safe and is not re-traumatizing.
You will learn how to respectfully ask for what you need in the relationship while also respecting your partner’s boundaries.
PTSD undoubtedly affects both partners in a relationship. It impacts whether you want to be emotionally and physically close or distant from your partner. It impacts your ability to express yourself. And it takes us a lot of space in a partnership or marriage.
If you are the person with PTSD in your relationship, you may be avoiding intimacy altogether. Perhaps you don’t want to explain what you’re going through. Or perhaps you are struggling to feel safe. If you are on the receiving end, you may be feeling confused, frustrated, and that your needs are not being met.
While this lack of communication and connection takes a toll on both partners, it can be particularly challenging for the partner without PTSD — who may be reaching out — only to be met with avoidance or stonewalling.
In couples therapy, you are not the clients, the relationship is. We help you and your partner improve your relationship by teaching both of you how to communicate, identify and verbalize your emotions, and increase closeness and intimacy.
How Does Couples Trauma Therapy for PTSD Work?
In our first session, we will discuss your needs and goals as a couple. I will then meet with each of you individually as this will allow me to establish the therapeutic relationship. Our sessions are going to be based on improving your relationship. We will discuss your communication patterns, identify areas for improvement, and replace unhealthy communication patterns with healthier ones. We will give you the tools to identify your emotions, verbalize them to each other, and increase your intimacy. You’ll have out of session assignments where you will get to practice what you learn in session in real life.
We are here to tell you there is hope.
How Do We Know if Couples Trauma Therapy is Right For Us?
In couples counseling, I often hear partners with PTSD say, “[My partner] would be better off without me.”
This can be very distressing for the partner without PTSD to hear. But you may feel responsible for the unhappiness in the relationship and truly believe your partner should leave you.
The partner without PTSD will often say things like, “I feel like I lost my best friend.”
Even if you and your partner are aware that PTSD is impacting your relationship, you may not fully understand the diagnosis or know what to do to navigate the trauma.
It can feel impossible to move forward.
Couples trauma therapy will help you heal, grow, and understand each other more deeply, so you can turn toward the relationship rather than away from it.
Time and time again, we have seen how couples with trauma learn to support each other and become a united front.
You will not only gain a deeper understanding of what’s going on in your inner world — you will learn to appreciate and understand your partner’s inner world, too.
If you and your partner are ready to address the trauma that’s negatively affecting your relationship, trauma-informed couples therapy can be a wonderful tool.
At Reflection Psychology, we create a safe, inviting space where you can get your questions answered and come to understand the PTSD or trauma-related diagnosis.
If you’re struggling with emotional and sexual intimacy, trauma-informed couples therapy can help you navigate these issues while also cultivating a safe space for the trauma to be acknowledged.
We create space for a collaborative discussion where you can come to understand your partner’s PTSD while also taking an active role in addressing it — together.
Improve communication. Increase closeness. Instill hope.
Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Couples Therapy for PTSD (CBCT-PTSD)
If you or your partner have PTSD, CBCT-PTSD is an evidence-based therapy to address the trauma in your relationship.
Typically CBCT-PTSD is 15 sessions long. Couples therapy sessions are 75 minutes.
● Gain awareness about how PTSD impacts your relationship
● Identify thoughts and beliefs surrounding safety, trust, power, and control
● Learn strategies to overcome avoidance
● Increase communication, closeness, and emotional intimacy
● Address the PTSD and the areas of your relationship PTSD has impacted
● Work toward your relationship goals together (e.g., if you aren’t going on dates, you’ll start going on dates again)
With CBCT-PTSD, you will:
SERVICE DETAILS ABOUT COUPLES’ TRAUMA THERAPY
Monthly booster sessions for relationship maintenance are available once the initial 15 sessions have ended.
We have experience working with same sex couples and members of the LGBTQA+ community.
All are welcome!
We do not work with couples who are experiencing infidelity, as I believe the affair should be ended before we begin our work together.
Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT)
You don’t need to have experienced trauma to go to Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy.
The purpose of this therapy is to change your relationship.
Typically IBCT is 12 sessions long. Couples therapy sessions are 60 minutes and can occur once a week or every two weeks — whatever works for your schedule as a couple.
With IBCT you will:
● Practice accepting your partner (and yourself)
● Exercise compassion toward your partner (and yourself)
● Change negative interaction patterns in your relationship
● Address emotional and sexual intimacy issues
● Identify helpful and unhelpful relationship patterns
● Learn to express your emotions, thoughts, and beliefs clearly to your partner
Are you suffering from a trauma-related diagnosis and convinced you are holding your partner back from having the happy life they deserve?
Couples therapy can help you improve your communication skills, re-establish closeness and intimacy with your partner, and instill hope that you can work through even the most difficult problems with the right support.