Marriage/Couples Therapy

Track 1: Couples Preventative Maintenance Track

(50, 75, 100 min. session – 2-4x a month)

For couples who both are committed to the marriage/relationship and are open to the process of change and healing. This is NOT for couples who have recently experienced a life changing marital/relationship event such as infidelity/betrayal, emotional divorce or separation.

Track 2: Marriage/Relationship Repair

(50, 75, 100 min. session 1-2x a week)

For couples who both are committed to the marriage/relationship and are open to the process of change and healing. These couples may be experiencing struggles such as significant conflict, communication problems, family of origin issues, long-standing resentment, emotional reactivity, partnership problems, parenting/blended family issues or intimacy struggles. Some couples take advantage of this track who are dealing with significant issues such as infidelity/betrayal, emotional divorce, separation or discussing divorce.

Track 3: Mixed-Agenda Couples (Discernment Counseling)

(1-6 sessions, 50 min. each, including joint and individual sessions)

This track is for mixed-agenda couples where one partner is leaning out of the marriage, struggling with whether to stay in or get out of the marriage. The other partner is leaning in and ready to do whatever it takes to save the marriage. Research tells us that 30% of the time, couples come to therapy with one partner leaning out and one partner leaning in. Successful marriage counseling is not possible unless you have two partners who are leaning in to the marriage and are open to change. Discernment Counseling provides another option for couples who aren’t ready for marriage counseling, because one partner is leaning out. Discernment Counseling is a process that creates a holding environment or container for the couple to gain more clarity and confidence regarding the future of your marriage by achieving a deeper understanding of the negative patterns that got them to this point in the relationship. Additionally, with the guidance of an unbiased third party, the couple works to see if the marriage is worth saving. Lastly, this path is for couples who want to see if there is a possibility to can create a third option, meaning they want to see if they can create a new relationship. They don’t want to get divorced, but they can’t continue in the marriage as it is currently.

Track 4: Divorce Counseling

(50 min. session 1x a week)

When couples come in for marriage therapy, Dr. Gornto works with the couple to exhaust every healthy option in order to avoid divorce. However, some couples choose to get divorced. As a result, Dr. Gornto provides counseling, guidance and support to couples and individuals who decide to divorce.

Divorce counseling offers the option to stay connected to your care and love for one another while changing the parameters of your relationship.

Divorce counseling options include:

• *Conscious uncoupling
• *A Structured Trial Therapeutic Separation or Healing Separation
• Negotiating the early stages of a divorce
• Healthy communication and co-parenting through the process of divorce

Whether you’ve been dating for a year, or married for twenty years, the ending of a romantic intimate partnership is an exceptionally painful situation to face. It is common to feel overwhelmed with feelings of grief, despair, fear, anger, sorrow and guilt. It is natural to mourn the loss of such an important person in your life. You must grieve not only the person you have loved, but also let go of the dreams and hopes you held together for your relationship. Separation does not have to be rife with hatred, resentment and spite. By mindfully and consciously uncoupling, you can part in a healthy and loving manner. Psychotherapy and Counseling can help you achieve this.

*Consciously uncoupling refers to the act of ending a marriage or relationship, but in a way that is seen as a positive step by both partners. The couple chooses to continue to remain friends, co-parent if they have children, and for some couples, they still have significant love for each other.

* A Structured Trial Therapeutic Separation or Healing Separation is a step to separate for a period of time to reduce reactivity, tension and/or long-standing resentment. These are considered working separations, where you dedicate yourself individually to your own personal growth without the conflict of the relationship. The goal is to strengthen both partners individually to see if there is a possibility to build new, healthier relationship.

Auxano Marriage/Couples Intensive

*Designed for Couples in Crisis, Seeking Marriage/Relationship Repair or Couples Who Want Faster Results

1 day intensive (4 consecutive hours) or 2 day intensive (8 hours total over two days)

This intensive is for couples who are both committed to the marriage/relationship and are open to the process of change and healing. Additionally, this is for couples who are experiencing long-standing problems with communication/conflict, resentment, family of origin issues, emotional reactivity or intimacy/sexual struggles. The half-day, one-day or two-day intensive is for couples who are also dealing with multiple significant problems, whose level of hopelessness is severe and the marriage is headed toward divorce without treatment. *Some couples take advantage of this track who want to expedite the process of growth and change.

Benefits of Intensive:

• Remove distractions of home and work to focus solely on your marriage
• Break your emotional gridlock and unhealthy cycles with back-to-back sessions
• Receive powerful tools to help you continue your work back home
• Create goals for the relationship
• Work together to establish a relationship identity
• Create a shared, future vision/picture of the relationship (i.e. what kind of relationship are we trying to create)
• Get more accomplished
• Get faster results

Affair/Infidelity Repair Intensive

The Affair/Infidelity Repair Intensive is a 8 session intensive that creates stabilization for your relationship after an emotional and/or sexual affair.

Benefits include:

• Provides a structure, stabilization and solutions in the crisis
• Learn critical and healthy do’s and don’ts in order to repair your relationship
• Gain a clear path of where you are and what work needs to be accomplished
• Understanding the why question behind the affair
• Create a shared, future vision/picture of what you want the relationship to look like, and work together toward said vision
• Establish new, shared boundaries for the relationship
• Work toward a path of healing, restoration, and recovery from the affair
• Instil hope back into the marriage

Includes: 8 hours of therapy, 3 books, workbook, articles, worksheets and take home assignments and a written structured step-by-step plan toward healing and repair of the marriage (Additional consulting available upon request)

Sexual and Relationship Recovery Intensive

This intensive is focused on solutions for sexual addictions, emotional trauma, and dual diagnosis issues faced by men and women. Focusing on sexual addiction, pornography addiction, relationship/love addiction, and internet sex addiction.

Benefits include:

• Learn strategies to stop unwanted behavior and explore underlying issues causing addiction
• Free yourself of guilt and shame that drive unwanted behavior and find freedom from the addiction cycle

Includes: 8 hours of therapy written structured step-by-step plan recovery, 2 books, workbook, articles, worksheets and take home assignments (Additional consulting available upon request)