Dr. Paulette Sherman

Relationships Therapy & Counseling

Couples Therapy & Counseling

Therapist Taking Note While Couple Is Speaking

In couples therapy, we seek to uncover any blocks to having a great healthy relationship and we work together to heal those and put into place great habits in communication, boundaries, respect, intimacy and more.

Couples therapy involves helping couples to improve their relationship or sometimes to make a decision about whether to stay together.  This decision remains with the couple.  A couples therapist facilitates communication, compromise, listening and may offer suggestions about how to navigate issues, patterns and stumbling blocks.  Sometimes couples are given homework so they can integrate new skills and patterns into their daily lives.

Gottman Couples Therapy

Gottman Couples Therapy disarms conflict in communication, increases intimacy and affection and creates greater teamwork and understanding.  Dr. Sherman is trained in Advanced Gottman Couples Therapy Training (Levels 1, 2 and 3) in the areas of affairs, addiction recovery and trauma. She completed 1000 hours post graduate experience and over 100 hours of Gottman therapy under the supervision of a Gottman therapist.

Gottman Couples Therapy first includes an assessment with the Gottman Relationship Checkup, a conjoint session, followed by individual interviews and feedback on the relationship. Couples learn tools that promote friendship, conflict management, shared meaning and admiration.  Then, couples learn tools to address weak areas and to promote conflict management, friendship, shared meaning and admiration.  Gottman therapy is science based and very helpful. It is state of the art couples therapy training. 

Marriage & Pre-Marital Counseling

Marital Counseling

I can help you as a couple to discover what is not working in your relationship so we can implement solutions.  I teach you to create strategies and techniques that improve your relationship.  We will work together to build great ‘couple habits’ and deeper foundations of trust, good communication, fun, and friendship.

Here are some common couples issues:

  • Communication
  • Fighting too much
  • Lack of Intimacy
  • Lack of Romance
  • Affairs & Trust issues
  • Money Issues
  • You aren’t on the same page with Parenting
  • You don’t have a Shared Vision

Pre-Engagement Counseling helps couples who are getting ready for marriage a chance to understand how to handle differences and key issues as a team.  It can be a preparatory period to make sure couples are on the same page, have a shared vision, good communication, shared values and the ability to compromise going forward.  Going into a marriage is a threshold experience and a lifetime commitment. It pays to have state of the art relationship tools to prepare you for this journey. You can learn tools for compromise, addressing conflict, discussing a shared vision and more.

Discernment Counseling

Discernment Counseling

Dr. Sherman is a Certified Discernment counselor with specialized training for confused couples who are not sure how to move forward. Discernment counseling is 1-5 sessions for couples considering divorce or separation, to help them offer clarity and confidence around what got you to this point in your relationship and what direction to take.  There are 3 paths:

  1. Do not pursue divorce or couples therapy
  2. Pursue separation or divorce
  3. Full-out, six-month effort at couples therapy, with divorce off the table

Discernment Counseling is offered if you want to take one more look at your decision and to help your spouse get clear as well about what has happened to the marriage. If you end up sure that you want to divorce, we can assist you in making it the best possible divorce, offering you a, ‘Family First,’ approach to the ups and downs of your divorce process. If you have children, we can help you to well by them as well as helping you not to overreact or act badly towards your spouse. If your spouse is not interested in Discernment Counseling, then you still have a lot of work you can do on yourself to improve your marriage. I will be glad to walk with you through these terribly stressful times in the hope that you can get your marriage to a point where your spouse is open to couples work.

Family Issues & Counseling

Family Issues & Counseling

Few families are without family issues and the roles and patterns we learn early on tend to be played out in our own families and relationships when we don’t bring them to awareness and address them.

Clients can do this in individual therapy (without their families being present) by looking at old memories and current family situations, expressing their feelings, examining their past roles and working on problem-solving and consciously choosing their roles, alliances and reactions in the present.  We can’t change others, we can only change ourselves.  Having said this, family therapists have long noticed that when one person’s role in the family changes, the whole family system often has to shift and accommodate.

The client with family issues has a safe separate place to gain support to work on these family issues and to individuate, apart from the pressure of the family unit.

Weekend Marital Intensives

Weekend Marital Intensives

Weekend Marital Intensives involves a whole weekend of couples therapy, which is equivalent to three months of weekly sessions. Couples get an Airbnb or hotel and come Friday night two hours and all day Saturday and Sunday from 9:30-4:30, with a lunch break. They usually identify their top three goals. They get an assessment of how their relationship fits into the sound Relationship House and tools that are customized to their goals. All Marital Retreats are arranged for Dr. Sherman through Couples Therapy Inc.  Learn more about the intensive weekend retreats and to book an appointment by clicking the button below.

Vision Boards for Couples

Create Marital Vision Boards

Dr. Sherman also offers a service to help couples make a shared Vision Board as a springboard to creating a road map and an inspiring shared vision. It is usually done in a 90 minute session.