counselling sessions are offered in person or virtually
Individual Session
In these appointments, we work one-on-one to understand what you are experiencing. In our sessions, I want you to feel heard and seen and know that your story is important. Clients leave their sessions with me feeling that they are in good hands and that they can trust me to work with them having their best interests at heart.
When you book, please be sure to choose your correct time zone. If you do not find a time that suits you, email me at francescaterpoorten@gmail.com
Couples Counselling
Your most intimate connection should be a place of refuge from the rest of the issues in life, not a main source of stress.
If you miss the closeness, excitement, and sense of coming home that you and your partner once shared, counselling could help.
Has distance grown between you and your partner so that you feel lonely in your relationship? Or has conflict increased between you and your partner so that you can barely get through a conversation without a fight starting?
Are you tired of cycling through the same frustrating arguments without resolution?
Are you sad that your relationship will end, or that it will always be unhappy or unfulfilling?
If you want to renew the intimacy and connection between you and your partner, counselling will give you the tools.
Relationship issues can be isolating and overwhelming when you and your partner aren’t on the same team.
Like many couples, you and your partner might have busy lives, with jobs, families and other obligations that leave you feeling stressed and drained. You may want to be seen, validated, understood, and supported by the person you love.. Instead, it may feel like your relationship is stuck in conflict, disconnection or both. As time goes on, you might wonder if it’s possible to build the nourishing relationship that you crave.
Relationships can be hard. They can push all of our buttons and touch our most vulnerable places. After all, your partner is the person who matters most to you—the person you’ve entrusted with your heart, along with your dreams for the future.
As human beings, we are wired to connect. We find strength in feeling seen, heard and valued. And we find joy in offering that same care to someone else. However, that doesn’t mean connection is easy. Few of us have good models of what it means to cultivate a loving, secure relationship. We don’t always know how to be open and honest. And, it can be challenging to establish both healthy boundaries and healthy intimacy.
Social media or romantic movies can lead us to compare ourselves with others. We may wonder why you can’t have what seems to come so easily for everyone else. You might worry that there’s something wrong with you, or something wrong with your partner. Relationship issues are nothing to be ashamed of. The images captured in mainstream and social media only tell part of the story. In reality, you and your partner are far from alone.
Neither are you doomed to a tense, unsatisfying partnership. Your relationship can and should be a space of comfort and renewal—a safe, strong foundation that offers the support you need to navigate life.
A skilled, experienced relationship therapist can help you and your partner reduce the hard moments in your relationship. You can move forward together, as your best, most authentic selves.
Couples Therapy Can Help You Build a Trusting, Intimate Relationship
I know how painful relationship strain can be. I also know that it’s possible to make positive, lasting changes in your relationships.
Whether you’ve been together for months or decades, your relationship matters. I’m committed to helping you find your way back to one another.
Conflict can be difficult to resolve on your own. During arguments, things usually move very fast. Your adrenaline rises. Your heart races. You enter a fight/flight/freeze state, with few avenues for a careful response. When your emotions and senses are heightened, it’s hard to understand what your partner is trying to communicate. It can also be difficult to process your own feelings. And, when you can’t hear or hold your own feelings, it’s impossible to truly hear and hold your partner’s.
Counselling provides an opportunity to slow conflict down. I can help you notice when you are turning away from one another and how to help each other become a source of peace and safety.
Couples counseling will help you and your partner address:
Repetitive arguments (e.g., conflict around careers, in-laws, parenting, finances, etc.)
Patterns of shutting down and/or lashing out
Old, unresolved hurts
Broken trust and crossed boundaries
Feelings of loneliness and rejection
With relationship and marriage counseling, you and your partner can:
Build deep trust
Show your partner your true self
Understand and accept your partner’s true self
Recognize each partner’s role in the overall relationship dynamic
Shift unhelpful patterns
Bring out the best in one another
Foster harmony, connection and love
No matter what you and your partner are struggling with, change is absolutely possible. You are already doing the best you can with the tools you have. With new, more effective tools, you can make things better. You can begin to take shelter in one another.