4220 California St. Suite 201
San Francisco, CA 94118

275 Miller Avenue, Suite 101
Mill Valley, CA 94941

(415) 845-2337

In couples therapy, we aim to help you to reconnect with your partner or spouse. Our work with couples is based upon Susan Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), a relational model for helping couples. EFT is recognized by the American Psychological Association as empirically validated by scientific research; in fact, no other couples therapy besides EFT can yet equal its proven success-- twice as effective as skills-based approaches, with positive outcomes that have been shown to be far more long lasting.

Though we will gladly use other tools when they are useful, we depend mainly upon EFT for a very simple reason: it works. An impressive body of research evidence into EFT shows that 90% of couples report significant improvement within 12-20 sessions. Two years after couples therapy ends, 80% of those couples appear to have maintained or increased their gains, as compared to only 35% using formerly-standard couples therapy techniques.

We say "formerly" because Dr. Johnson and her colleagues are quickly revolutionizing the field of couples therapy. Process-wise, EFT is based on the observation (not original to EFT) that couples mostly have the same argument(s) over and over. Couples think that they are arguing about (or, sometimes, ducking arguments about) whose parents to see for Thanksgiving or who forgot to pick the kids up from school, but actually are hitting each other's buttons in the same ways, over and over, with each attempt to resolve (or duck) the conflict only making it worse.

EFT therapists assist the couple to get underneath the reactions to the fight, to uncover the empathy & soothing beneath. We teach the couple to repair ruptures so that they can soothe, connect and collaborate more readily, and more deeply.

There's a ton of research- we think that it's the best thing since chocolate.