Sometimes a couple decides to stay together and other times the couple needs to end the relationship. They decide what to do. If the decision is to separate, I help them do so with integrity and leave them with the chance for a compassionate ending.

Dissolution

Communication that takes during the painful time of dissolution can save months and years of hurt and trauma, especially if there are children involved.  This is a time when both the individual, couple and child need tremendous support.

Children of divorced parents can save many an agonizing hour of therapy if they come from a family where divorce contract is handled with the same care and integrity as the marriage itself.

Breakups can be the most painful experience of someone’s life. For many, dissolution of a relationship is more painful than a death.

Great care needs to be taken with people in this transition. The present culture often does not give a person the space to grieve for a long period of time.

It may take many months to years to heal from breakups. They often create a major crisis in an individual’s life.

The ramifications of divorce or dissolution of Civil Unions cause extra stress, because they include many more legal problems.

My greatest hope is to get both partners into a therapy process that will encourage completion and a amicable breakup.

Example of emotional infidelity in my San Francisco therapy practice

I helped a woman who had an emotional, not physical, affair. This means she was sharing a level of intimacy with another that had never been expressed in her own relationship.

This escalated to the point that both people put their primary relationships in jeopardy. Though the process was very painful, she was able to communicate with her partner.

They started couples therapy and are currently working through issues that have not been spoken about in years.

It enabled my client to grow rapidly in understanding of herself and express what she needs in her life.

Click here for more information on couples counseling and Power Dynamics in Relationship in my San Francisco relationship therapy practice.

Click here for more on Communication in Relationship and Family therapy.