Top Rated Couples Therapist NYC & New York State

couples counseling nyc

Takeaway: Amidst the vibrant tapestry of New York City life, relationships can face unique challenges. The fast pace, differing aspirations, and external pressures can strain even the strongest partnerships. Fortunately, it is possible to navigate these complexities. Working with a couples therapist in NYC can empower you and your partner to build a resilient foundation, fostering love, connection, and shared growth. Embark on this journey today and rediscover the joy of a thriving relationship.

 

Do you ever find yourself wishing for a deeper connection with your partner? Do you ever look at other people's relationships and are left wondering, how you can create a fuller life, improve communication, or obtain greater relationship satisfaction?

Many couples often find themselves in this same position.

Conflict, a loss of connection, waning commitment, hurt feelings, and a lack of communication prevent growth and focus on your long-term relationships. Everyday life routines and unhealthy relationship patterns can trigger the same fights and ultimately develop dynamics that erode what once was a much stronger relationship.

With even just an initial couples therapy session, you can gain insight into what step to take next and gain valuable clarity into the relationship issues you and your partner face.

In my experience as a therapist, I have found that more often than not, one partner is the one who starts the search for professional help and often begins their own individual therapy as a means to ultimately seek couples therapy.

Seeking couples therapy can seem overwhelming in New York; not to mention, getting your partner on board!

Does this sound like your relationship?

 

  • Constant conflict, a loss of connection, waning commitment, hurt feelings, and/or poor quality of communication.

  • Everyday life routines and unhealthy habits are provoking the same fights between you and your partner.

  • One person shifted their needs and wants in the context of the relationship, leaving you feeling alone and confused.

  • You might be finding that your communication challenges and hurt feelings often manifest themselves in the context of life transitions in your family, making these transitions very difficult or stressful to navigate.

  • You feel like there is no safe space between you and your partner to discuss your sex life and intimacy needs.

  • It could be that one or more of these issues are causing conflict in your relationship and your ability to communicate and talk freely has decreased.

 
 

If so, it might be time to explore couples therapy.

With even just the first session busy New Yorkers can improve their communication, and find other resources, as well as tools to strengthen their commitment to each other once again!

Seeking couples therapy can help you and your partner decide what you need to do in order to move forward and feel fulfillment in your relationship and connection to each other. Couples therapy sessions will allow a safe space for you to explore and work on the quality of communication that feels right to both of you and will provide you with the tools to reach your goals. Whether this means parting ways or figuring out what it'll take to make the relationship work, a huge benefit of couples counseling can be clarifying your feelings.

Family and Couples Counseling can be brief, and solution focused. It will provide a wider perspective of the individual experience within the context of a couple or family. Couples Therapy can look different depending on cultural, linguistic, and religious values.

I strive for quality care; I believe that it is important to offer care that is culturally sensitive, empowering, and never demeaning. It is always my goal to provide a safe and nurturing space where you and your partner can feel free to express yourselves, open new ways of communicating and create a greater level of intimacy.

 
marriage counseling nyc
 

How relationship counseling in NYC can help

 

Research over the last decade shows that couple therapy positively impacts 70% of couples receiving treatment. (Lebow J, Chambers A, Christensen A, Johnson S. Research on the treatment of couple distress. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 2012;38(1):145-168.)

Furthermore, the relationship between couple distress and individual disorders such as depression and anxiety has become well-established over the past decade. Research also indicates that couple therapy clearly has an important role in the treatment of many disorders.

Some of the many benefits of taking part in couples therapy are:

  • Creating more freedom to freely express yourselves and learn more effective ways to communicate with each other.

  • Learning how to be vulnerable and truthful with each other in a safe space

  • Learning to build compassion and understanding about concerns in the relationship.

  • Rebuilding commitment to one another

  • Reviving romance and intimacy

Meet Karina Diaz | New York Couples Therapist

As a therapist, it is important for me to get to know you, learn what is important to you, listen, and remain present enough to discover your personal language. Together, we will discover what is most important to you, and your partner. I will create a safe space to process and support you in making choices that feel meaningful to you. My clients can expect genuine compassion and quality care. I listen with an open heart and draw from my 20+ years of experience. My goal is to be personable, and relatable to work with clients so that you are able to embrace my perspective without it feeling too analytical or distant.

My approach to NYC couples therapy

My training and approach to couples therapy is informed by Structural Family Therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy. I apply these modalities to tailor treatment to the unique needs of each client. 

Structural family therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on the interactions between family members. Looking at the family as a system, structural family therapists work to improve communication between members of the family and encourage adjustments in the rules that govern how the family functions (its structure). Structural Family Therapy allows everyone in the family to hear the viewpoint of the others and allows the therapist to observe how the family interacts in real life, in contrast with individual therapy, where the therapist hears about family dynamics recounted by a single individual.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is a form of short-term therapy that aims to improve couple relationships by re-igniting the physical and emotional connection of a couple.

The therapy regards the security of the couple's connection as the best lever for change in an impacted dynamic and a necessary source of both couple and individual growth. Love, in short, is transformative. Restoration of the emotional ties enables partners to be physically and psychologically open and responsive to each other so that they can construct a mutually supportive and satisfying relationship in the moment and for the future.

FAQs about couples counseling in New York

 

  • In NYS there are different licensed professionals with additional couples and family counseling training and experience. Regardless of credentials, the best type of therapist for you is the one that makes you feel listened to and offers an open judgment-free space where you and your partner can feel comfortable to explore and feel safe enough to share vulnerabilities in the relationship. Emotionally focused therapy and structural family therapy offer the principles of attachment science using non-pathologizing experiential and relational systems techniques to focus on and change core organizing factors in both ourselves and our relationships.

    • LMFT: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists

    • LMHC: Licensed Mental Health Counselors

    • LMSW: Licensed Master Social Work

    • LCSW: Licensed Clinical Social Worker

    • LCAT: Licensed Creative Arts Therapists, this license includes, drama, dance, music, and art therapists

    Psychoanalysts and Ph.D., Clinical Psychologists all have licenses in the State of NY to practice psychotherapy.

    The main difference between these mental health professionals is the focus of practice during graduate school, which can be anywhere from two to five years. Additionally, whether or not marriage and family counseling was their main focus as it is for marriage and family counselors, all licenses require more than one thousand clinical hours of post-graduate school and a state test in order to become licensed mental health professionals.

    Independent of license or focus during graduate studies, your therapist should have additional training in family or couples counseling post-graduate training and experience working with couples outside of training. You may find that there may be a few couples therapists who are practicing under supervision and currently going through training. It is up to you and your partner if that feels comfortable to you. It is important to ask if the couples counselor is licensed or not. There are many relationship coaches out there who hold a certification to practice, and this is different than therapy.

  • Couples counseling, marriage counseling, relationship counseling, and couples therapy are used interchangeably in the field. Therapists may have a preference for the words they choose to market themselves simply due to the methodology they use to help solve relationship problems. Most therapists have a preferred treatment method to aid in the communication and intimacy problems shared by many couples and families. Some couples may choose services with someone who markets themselves as a relationship therapist rather than a marriage therapist simply due to the fact that the couple in search of therapy sessions might not be currently married.

    Not being married in the traditional sense does not mean that a couple should avoid searching for couples therapy because they are not "legally married". Couples and their respective relationships can look very different during the different phases of their lives.

  • Happier relationships mean happier people and happier people make for a better society. Relationship therapy will provide a safe space and help support you on your way to creating a happier more fulfilled relationship.

    Isolation and marital problems are high-risk factors in a person's overall well-being; inversely feeling successful in maintaining a healthy fulfilling relationship can promote healing and lead to further emotional and physical rewards.

    Couples counseling is an investment for you, and your partner. Every couple can benefit from therapy; seeking support doesn't mean that you are doing it wrong. We all carry messages from our past about how things should be. Couples therapy can help you to gain perspective around patterns that you feel are no longer useful and grow more into who you want to be for yourself, for your partner, or your family.

    There are limitations to couples therapy. It is not appropriate for couples where domestic violence exists. The nature of a partnership where there is DV is very confusing, and it takes place in a dynamic where there is consistent emotional manipulation or coercion, constant gaslighting, and victim blaming. It can also be very visible in instances where there is outward physical violence from one partner to another and where the victim finds themselves attempting to defend themselves physically or verbally, often blaming themselves for the abusive behaviors. In these instances, couples therapy is not the solution. Therapy will not work to strengthen the relationship and preserve the use of current strategies for meeting the needs of an abusive partner or relationship.

    If you or someone you know is in this position, there is help and there is no shame in seeking help. Regardless of socioeconomic status, and cultural or religious backgrounds, DV can affect anyone. There are several organizations that focus specifically on the intricacies of domestic violence. Please contact the New York City Family Justice Centers - ENDGBV (nyc.gov) page for more information.

    If someone is in immediate danger, please call 911.

 
new york couples therapy

Working with a couples therapist in New York can help your relationship flourish.

As a therapist, it is important for me to get to know you, learn what is important to you, listen, and remain present enough to discover your personal language. Together, we will discover what is most important to you, and your partner. I will create a safe space to process and support you in making choices that feel meaningful to you. My clients can expect genuine compassion and quality care. I listen with an open heart and draw from my 20+ years of experience. My goal is to be personable, and relatable to work with clients so that you are able to embrace my perspective without it feeling too analytical or distant.