I'm Chaela Stewart, licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and President of Connecting Couples Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Corporation, a private practice and therapist training center. Â My practice includes both licensed marriage and family therapists, as well as associate marriage and family therapists working toward licensure. Â Each therapist at my office has a slightly different style, but we all work systemically and experientially, using attachment theory as the basis of how we facilitate increased connection between family members. Our work is primarily influenced by Dr. Sue Johnsonâs Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT), Stan Tatkin, PsyDâs Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), Gottman Couples Therapy, and the parenting work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld.Â
Our style is present and empathetic. By caring deeply for each client that we work with and honoring each person's story, both the strengths and challenges, we treat you from a place of compassion. Â By tuning into the experience of each client we help them access somatic experiences that the body is holding, as well as confront learned ways of defending that are no longer working. Prioritizing a strong therapeutic relationship with clients, we drawing out feelings, fears, and experiences that need healing. Â Our goal is to help clients address what is holding them back from potential growth and intimacy. With therapy, clients can be deeply seen for who they are. Â We then work with clients to call them to greater capacity both within themselves and within their relationships. We do this safely and through modeling an authentic relationship.
Individuals are all part of a larger system, where their fears and vulnerabilities are
bumped and bruised by those around them, most specifically by those closest toÂ
them. Where needs are unmet and a relationship is not secure, negative cyclesÂ
can begin to dominate the relationship. When we work with couples, we workÂ
actively in the moment, helping you move towards a more secure attachmentÂ
style with your partner and encouraging you to take the risks that you are readyÂ
for. Â Since most wounds are created in relationship, they are best healed inÂ
relationship as well. Â This is why couples therapy can be an excellent vehicle forÂ
both couple as well as individual growth.
Most couples, by the time they enter into therapy, have become so disconnectedÂ
that partners are stuck in opposing and polarized roles. Â Conflicting ideas of whoÂ
needs to change and how things aren't working mix with hurt and resentment toÂ
create a poisonous cocktail that keeps distance the only safe thing to depend on. Â
You really can find the path back to being loving and connected! Â
Therapy helps you navigate an increase in safety and trust, which in turn leadsÂ
to the kins of honest, vulnerable, intimate and connected relationship you areÂ
capable of. Connection is at the core and essence of human existence and theÂ
thing we all crave and need for survival, from birth through death.  When theÂ
attachment of a primary relationship is not currently strong, it's a set up forÂ
all kinds of triggers, fears, and unmet needs. Â By addressing the root of theÂ
problem, and not getting caught up in the symptoms (the he said, she saidÂ
details) you can finally have the kind of relationship you have always wanted.
License #LMFT98110