Gottman Method Couples Therapy in Asheville
Strengthen your friendship. Deepen understanding. Create a more connected partnership.
Relationships grow through everyday moments of listening, affection, trust, and care. Gottman Method couples therapy offers practical ways to strengthen those moments, navigate differences, and build a shared life that makes room for both partners’ needs and dreams.
Whether you are investing in an already strong relationship or working through a difficult season, we begin with understanding where you are and what you hope to build together.
What would you like to strengthen?
Couples seek therapy for many reasons. You may want to:
- Feel closer and renew friendship, affection, or intimacy.
- Communicate with greater empathy and understanding.
- Prepare for marriage or a deeper commitment.
- Navigate parenting, family expectations, or life transitions.
- Approach recurring disagreements more constructively.
- Heal from hurt or rebuild trust after betrayal.
- Understand how your backgrounds and experiences shape your relationship.
- Develop shared goals while supporting each other’s individual dreams.
I welcome couples across sexual orientations and cultural backgrounds, with respect for the many ways people build a meaningful partnership.
A research-grounded approach to your relationship
Developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, the Gottman Method draws on decades of relationship research and is supported by published treatment studies. It offers a structured approach to strengthening friendship, managing conflict, and creating shared meaning.
In our work, that framework becomes personal. We explore your relationship’s strengths and challenges, identify goals together, and practice skills that you can bring into daily life. Both partners have room to be heard, understood, and involved in the direction of therapy.
The Sound Relationship House: A guide for our work together
We begin with the Gottman Relationship Checkup, an assessment that each partner completes independently. Alongside our conversations, it helps us understand your relationship’s strengths and challenges—from friendship and intimacy to communication, conflict, trust, and shared meaning.
Together, we review what emerges and use the Sound Relationship House to guide a personalized treatment plan. We identify the areas you want to strengthen, build on what is already working, and choose practical skills and exercises that support your goals.
The house gives us a shared framework for understanding your relationship and focusing our work. As your needs evolve, we revisit those priorities together.
The Gottman Method focuses on strengthening relationships through friendship, conflict management, and shared meaning. Together, we explore your strengths and practice ways to deepen connection, navigate differences, and create a fulfilling life together.
Skills for connection, understanding, and repair
Our sessions give you opportunities to practice new ways of relating with guidance and feedback.
Listen with empathy and validate each other’s experience. Work toward understanding what your partner feels and means, even when your perspectives differ.
Accept influence and share decision-making. Take one another’s needs and ideas seriously while making room for your own.
Express concerns with care. Use a softened start-up to communicate feelings and needs without blame.
Recognize patterns that undermine connection. Identify criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling—the Gottman Four Horsemen—and practice more constructive responses.
Respond to bids for connection. Become more attentive to everyday invitations for interest, affection, reassurance, and support.
Make and receive repair attempts. Learn to pause escalation, acknowledge hurt, and find your way back into conversation.
Support intimacy and shared meaning. Talk openly about closeness, affection, expectations, and the experiences that help you feel connected.
Care that considers both partners
I bring a collaborative approach and Gottman Method Level 3 training to my work with couples. In sessions, I guide you in talking directly with one another—expressing your needs, listening with curiosity, and responding with empathy. I offer structure, coaching, and feedback as you practice, helping each partner feel heard and understood by the other.
Each of you brings a different way of understanding relationships, shaped by your family history, cultural values, identity, and experiences. Becoming a couple means bringing those two systems together and creating a shared way of relating that works for both of you. Through these conversations, you explore what to carry forward, what to reconsider, and what you want to build together—with room for both connection and individuality.
Begin with a conversation
You may have a specific concern or simply want to invest in your relationship. A consultation offers a chance to discuss your goals, ask questions, and explore whether working together feels like a good fit.
Complimentary ConsultationWhat to expect
Session 1 · Getting to know your relationship
We meet together to discuss what brings you in now, hear your “story of us,” and explore your backgrounds and hopes for therapy. You’ll receive a link to the Gottman Relationship Checkup, which each partner completes independently.
Sessions 2 and 3 · Understanding each partner’s experience
Each partner has an individual appointment to discuss their Checkup responses and share concerns that may not have come up in our first session.
Session 4 · Creating a plan together
We meet together to review your relationship’s strengths and challenges. Using the Sound Relationship House as our framework, we develop a personalized treatment plan guided by your shared goals.
Session 5 onward · Putting the work into practice
You practice talking directly with one another, with my coaching and feedback. We focus on the skills and conversations that support your goals, strengthen connection, and help you build a partnership that works for both of you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Couples Intensives
Where is your relationship right now?
Relationship intensives offers a proactive space for couples who want guidance, structure, and tools to support the relationship they are building. It's not therapy—it's a time-bound, skills-based experience designed to help you grow together with intention.