Intimacy and Relationship Issues
Therapy for Intimacy and Relationship Issues — Heal Disconnection, Rebuild Trust, and Deepen Connection
Individuals cannot begin to help take care of another human being if they are struggling to take care of themselves. In our early work, we will center on how you take care of yourself.
Only when self-esteem and self-confidence are actively being built can people seek properly to help with the wants and needs of those closest to them.
However, these actions (or inactions) almost always backfire, leading to a buildup of frustration within oneself and toward others. Over time, individuals become overwhelmed with emotions such as resentment, guilt, shame, and loss of self-control, ultimately losing sight of their purpose.
Understanding Intimacy and Relationship Issues
When Closeness and Communication Feel Out of Reach
Many individuals and couples struggle with feeling distant, misunderstood, or emotionally shut down in their relationships.
Past experiences, fear of vulnerability, misunderstandings, and emotionally shutting down are common and normal relationship struggles, which can lead to lack of intimacy, not feeling safe with your partner, and unhealthy relationship cycles. Therapy can help both individuals and couples gain deeper understanding on these relationship issues.
What Causes Disconnection Between Partners
Relationship stress, unresolved conflict, trauma, and unmet emotional needs can lead to patterns of avoidance or withdrawal.
When communication feels closed off in your relationships, problems continue to persist, and disconnection grows, it’s time to pause and reflect. Therapy for intimacy and relationship issues can be that space for you to break free from the loops and cycles that keep you stuck in unfulfilling relationships.
How Intimacy Issues Affect Relationships
Emotional and physical distance can erode trust, reduce satisfaction, and make it hard to feel supported or seen.
Emotional, and even physical, gaps in relationships can build up to lasting resentment, increased communication issues, and emotional disconnection (such as withdrawals and avoidances). Intimacy therapy can offer relief and effective tools to help you gently and effectively move through these experiences with confidence.
"Psychotherapy isn’t a twentieth-century artifice imposed on nature, but the reinstatement of a natural healing process.”
Patricia Love
How Therapy Helps You Reconnect and Strengthen Relationships
01.
Identifying Patterns That Block Connection
Therapy helps uncover how past experiences, beliefs, and communication habits shape current relationship dynamics.
Therapy for intimacy and relationship issues offers an opportunity to genuinely explore and dive deeper into the whys behind the patterns, coping mechanisms, and other important factors that affect the way you show up in relationships. With a compassionate therapy approach, we allow open, honest, and understanding conversations to take place — an essential part of your healing journey.
02.
Restoring Trust and Emotional Safety
Through guided sessions, you’ll learn to rebuild safety, repair ruptures, and create openness in your relationship.
Relationship struggles can cause us to lose trust in ourselves, and others, and make us feel that relationships are unsafe. In personalized individual therapy, we help you gently remove the walls that have prevented you from enjoying rewarding relationships and connections. Every session is defined and directed by your unique needs, your pace, and your journey.
03.
Developing Healthy Communication and Boundaries
Gain practical tools to express needs, listen effectively, and resolve conflict with respect and empathy.
Some of the most common causes of relationship obstacles are miscommunication (or lack of), which can also lead to the lack of boundaries (defining and enforcing them) and emotional disconnection. We give you the support you need to examine communication issues that continue to cycle throughout your interactions and relationships with others.
04.
Rebuilding Emotional and Physical Intimacy
Learn to reconnect on both emotional and physical levels, fostering genuine closeness and mutual understanding.
With therapy, rebuilding trust and intimacy in your relationships is possible. It can be defeating when relationships don’t work out as we wish, but by identifying recurring themes and problems that surface, we can unveil what was hidden before and unlearn habits or behaviors that have caused those issues.
Reach out to us today for more information
Common Patient Concerns
Common Concerns Addressed in Intimacy and Relationship Therapy
Emotional Disconnection or Avoidance
When one or both partners struggle to express emotions or feel distant despite wanting closeness.
Emotional (and even physical) withdrawal/avoidance commonly happen in relationships when partners are unable to communicate, want to “keep the peace” after arguments, or fear being vulnerable with each other. These behaviors can be due to trauma and relationships from the past, and therapy can offer a supportive space that allows you to deeply understand yourself and help you develop healthier practices that lead to happier relationships.
Communication and Conflict Patterns
Frequent arguments, defensiveness, or silence can block connection and prevent healing.
Unresolved conflicts, resentment, and lack of communication (or misunderstandings) can bring more conflict into a relationship, adding fuel to the fire and amplifying unhealthy patterns. This only leads to emotional and mental exhaustion, broken trust, and a weakened relationship foundation. With relationship therapy for individuals, we can help you shift from viewing relationships as unsafe to experiencing the rewards and joy of healthy intimacy and connection.
Navigating Desire Differences or Physical Intimacy Issues
Addressing mismatched needs and restoring closeness without pressure or shame.
Intimacy and sharing your desires are a part of being vulnerable in a relationship. When there are differences or imbalances in desires, or there is shame or pressure around desires, this can create disconnection on both the physical and emotional sides of a relationship. By working with our licensed therapists, we can work through communication issues, addressing differences in desire and needs, and restore intimacy with a stronger, healthier foundation.
Rebuilding After Betrayal or Infidelity
Working through trust violations and rediscovering safety after emotional or physical betrayal.
One of the services we provide at our practice is therapy for infidelity and betrayal. When emotional and/or physical betrayal happens, it can feel like trust and safety can never return in a relationship, or you can’t move on completely from a past experience, transferring fears from one relationship to the next. But you can heal and come to a more open, compassionate place where rebuilding trust and enjoying healthy relationships are possible.
Our Approach to Intimacy and Relationship Therapy
A Safe, Compassionate, and Confidential Space
You’ll be met with empathy, honesty, and respect — free of judgment or criticism.
In our sessions together, you can rest assured that we will always meet you with openness and compassion; we’re not here to judge you. We’re here to support you through every part of your journey.
Trauma-Informed and Emotionally Focused
Our work integrates evidence-based methods to help you understand and shift your emotional patterns.
Healing is a highly personal journey with no one-size-fits-all. We offer the practical tools and support you need to help you create attainable goals and make progress toward those goals for lasting positive change.
Personalized to You and Your Relationship
Each session is tailored to your unique story, goals, and readiness for change.
You guide your sessions while we support you in each step of your healing journey. Every client has their own pace, and we respect that and ensure that we follow your needs first.
About Me
Expert Therapy for Relationships, Addiction, and Life Transitions
I am a lifelong New Yorker fulfilling my childhood dream of helping individuals navigate life’s challenges and build meaningful connections. I specialize in supporting those struggling with intimacy, relationship issues, addiction recovery, vulnerability, and life transitions. My practice offers a safe and judgment-free space where we can begin the healing process together. My goal is to help you rebuild your emotional wellbeing and move forward toward a healthier, more purposeful life.
With over seven years of experience in clinical practice, I dedicated four years to working at New York City’s Center for Intimacy Recovery, where I helped individuals and groups overcome barriers to connection and emotional closeness. I earned my Master’s Degree in Advanced Clinical Practice from Columbia University’s School of Social Work, graduating at the top of my class. Under the guidance of seasoned therapists with over 30 years of expertise, I have accumulated thousands of hours of hands-on, patient-focused experience. My most recent and impactful work has been treating gambling addiction, for which our society is wildly under-resourced and is just now entering the early stages of what will soon become a nationally problematic epidemic.
Asking for help is not easy, but just by being here, you have taken the first (and often hardest) step. I am committed to creating a space where you feel supported in establishing trust and connection. Together, we will work to help you feel emotionally strong, deeply connected, and in control of your life.
Professional Affiliations & Features
How I Have Helped Others
“Therapy is a place where you can be yourself, without judgment."
⎯ Carl R. Rogers
Begin Rebuilding Connection Today
Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation
Let’s explore what’s been keeping you disconnected and how therapy can help you reconnect and thrive.
Please choose a date and time that works best for you in the calendar. We look forward to our time together.
You Deserve Relationships That Feel Secure and Fulfilling
Reach out today to take the first step toward healthier connection and lasting change.
If you would like to book an intimacy therapy session with us, please contact us by phone, email or contact form. We’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible!
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