I am Level 1 trained in the PACT (the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Counseling) model and I strongly believe that PACT can help couples move towards a secure functioning relationship. It can help you to be a team instead of advisories, help you to work on the problem together instead of seeing each other as the problem.

In PACT sessions you will spend most of the time sitting across from each other and directly looking at each other. This is so you can notice your partner’s reactions in real time and so you are in the moment together instead of just in your mind retelling the problem.

PACT is an active therapeutic approach; you won’t just tell me about what happened last week and get advice. I will create a space where you can talk with and interact with each other, because that is really what this is all about. I will ask questions and give prompts and exercises that help create a new, more collaborative way of interacting together. It can be uncomfortable to be in the hot seat at times, and it can also be really rewarding and deepen your relationship through new experiential learning.

It is important for your relationship to have a shared vision and shared purpose, your why. It is important to create this vision together and so often couples don’t really talk about why they are together. Also, often couples don’t make agreements on how to be together to support each other and to support the shared vision and purpose of the relationship. In PACT we will work on creating a shared vision and purpose and shared agreements that support both partners. YOU get to design your relationship; you get to work together to create a relationship that you WANT to be in.

PACT is best for couples that want to make their relationship work but are stuck and don’t know how to make it happen, or for couples that want to deepen their relationship.