Couples Therapy in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles many couples appear to have it all together: the home, the career, the lifestyle, the image. From the outside, everything looks enviable. But behind closed doors, a different experience often unfolds: quiet disconnection, conversations that never move beyond logistics, conflicts that circle without resolution, intimacy that feels strained, performative or absent altogether. Many couples seeking couples therapy in Los Angeles tell me the same thing: “We function well, but we don’t feel close.”
What’s often missing isn’t love; it’s clarity about what love actually is. Many partners are unconsciously measuring their relationship against an inherited fantasy;  the idea of perfect compatibility, effortless understanding or being completed by the other person. Part of our work is gently untangling the difference between real love and romantic fantasy or soulmate expectations, and understanding how rescue longings and fear of abandonment can quietly shape how each of you shows up in the relationship.

Couples therapy isn’t about fixing what’s “broken.” It’s about uncovering the relational patterns that keep you from truly seeing and hearing one another. It’s about creating a relationship where both partners feel emotionally safe, engaged, and deeply connected, and not just maintaining appearances or managing roles.
Many couples also struggle not because they fight, but because they never learned how to navigate conflict in a way that builds connection instead of distance. Disagreements either escalate too fast or get avoided completely. In therapy, we slow these moments down and help you understand what’s happening underneath the reactions, so conflict becomes something you can move through together rather than something that erodes trust.
We also look honestly at coping strategies couples rarely talk about out loud  including using sex to replace emotional intimacy or avoid vulnerability. Physical connection can be meaningful and bonding, but when it becomes the only place closeness is expressed, emotional intimacy often quietly starves. Our work helps you expand the range of connection so desire and emotional safety can support each other rather than substitute for each other.

In our therapy work together, we go beneath the surface. We explore how your histories: the families you grew up in, the attachment wounds you carry, and the defenses you built to survive shape how you love today. Then we begin practicing new ways of relating in real time: more honesty, more emotional presence, more repair, more courage to be known.
The goal isn’t a perfect relationship. It’s a real one where both partners feel chosen, understood, and emotionally met. A relationship that feels alive on the inside, not just successful on the outside.

Couples Counseling in Los Angeles and Online in California