Couple Counselling
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples is a leading-edge approach to relationship therapy. It is based on over 50 years of research into bonding — not only between couples but also the natural bond between mother and child.
Because EFT is grounded in this deep research on attachment and bonding, it gives the therapist a map:
• A map to what matters most in intimate relationships and how they work.
• A map to how they can go wrong.
• And a map to what is needed to help repair and strengthen them.
EFT for couples feels like a conversation between Carl Rogers (the father of Experiential Therapy), Salvador Minuchin (the father of Systemic Therapy), and John Bowlby (who developed the science of attachment and natural bonding).
EFT is experiential, focusing on how people experience their relationship — how they construct their emotional worlds, how they express emotions, and how they connect. It is also systemic, as it looks at the entire relationship dynamic and the repetitive patterns couples get stuck in. We help partners shift their emotional signals, change unhelpful dynamics, and create more positive, secure bonding patterns.
The goal of EFT is not just to change the way you and your partner argue, but to help you both learn to negotiate your needs, resolve conflicts, and feel more deeply connected and satisfied with each other. The ultimate aim is to create a secure emotional bond that supports growth, intimacy, and trust.
How can Couple Counselling Help?
EFT focuses on the present moment. Change happens in the here and now — in the relationship, in the interactions that unfold right in the session. As your therapist, I guide you to go deeper into your emotional experiences, make sense of them, and explore aspects you may not usually notice. Together, we put those experiences together in a new way, always with gentle validation, support, and safety.
I also integrate mindfulness and body awareness into my couple counselling sessions. Mindfulness helps each partner slow down and truly notice their inner world — the subtle shifts in breath, body sensations, and emotions that often go unnoticed during conflict. This embodied presence supports deeper understanding of each other and allows you both to respond rather than react.
By learning to attune to your own body and emotional signals, you create space for more compassionate, grounded, and authentic connection. Over time, this helps transform not only the way you communicate, but also how you hold each other emotionally and physically in your relationship.
Through this process, you and your partner learn to truly see each other, understand the patterns you are caught in, and co-create a new way of relating that feels more secure and alive.
As counselling progresses, you and your partner may find a way to overcome your difficulties and strengthen your bond. Or you may discover that it is time to part ways. Either way, my hope is that counselling offers you both a space to grow, reflect, and decide what you truly want your future to hold.
We use our mind not to discover facts but to hide them. One of the things the screen hides the most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean, the ins and outs of it, its interior.
Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day.
– Antonio Damasio.
Please get in touch
Alternatively, you can call me on 07449 484819
Feel free to text my mobile number with your name and telephone number and I will phone you back as soon as I am available.
– Janaina
