Experiential therapy for improving relationships

Improving relationships is difficult. I often apply techniques from experiential therapy to accelerate change and help you improve your relationship. Experiential therapy can include role playing, use of props, and a range of other active experiences.

During experiential therapy, you and your partner may be more likely to be more open and genuine than would be the case during a traditional talk therapy session. By removing the focus from the therapy session itself, experiential therapy creates opportunities to experience successes, identify obstacles, improve self-esteem, and take greater responsibility for your actions.

Experiential therapy can accelerate change, emotional growth, and personal empowerment. Experiential therapy can be effective for treatment of individuals and couples.

Changing the habits that hurt our relationships is really hard

For many people, it’s really difficult to to break free of of habits that have been in place for years. Talk therapy can help us identify the habits, even the bad habits, that shape our relationships. But, talk therapy is often insufficient to help us change destructive ways of responding to our partners.  Brain studies suggest that patterns of thinking and reacting can be woven into our brains and triggered automatically when we get upset. Healing conversations alone are, often, insufficient to overcome neurologically encoded triggers.

All partners in long term relationships feel upset with each other from time to time. One of the most important differences between people who succeed in intimate relationships compared to those who fail is how we  react when we get upset.

Experiential therapy can help couples change how they respond to upsetting situations

I can help you, or you and your partner, recognize when your thoughts and actions in stressful or upsetting situations trigger relationship problems. In therapy with me, you can develop the skills to start responding differently to situations that could have been triggers for relationship-damaging reactions. You can learn how to handle challenging moments in ways that cultivate respectfulness, receptivity, and intimacy.

Your next step

Call (408) 963-6694 ext. 466 now to make an appointment in San Jose with me, or just fill out the contact form and click Send.