Counseling for LGBTQ+ Couples and Partners in North Carolina

If any of the following sounds like you and your partner/s, we might be a good fit:

• You often feel like you argue about the same things over and over again. No matter the trigger or how you try to approach it differently, the conversation always seems to end up in the same negative cycle. You want to work through it but you don’t know how to get past this one thing.

• You and your partner have different desires for intimacy. You want to want the same things, but often one of you is interested in sex when the other is not. Sometimes, it feels like you speak different sexual languages. Trying to “work” on it feels sad and often leads to conflict and/or one or both of you spiraling. You miss each other and you miss intimacy, but this gap often feels impossible to bridge.

• You and your partner disagree on how much time to spend together. You both love spending time together, obviously. But one of you would prefer to spend every second of every day together, and for the other, that feels like a bit much. Trying to negotiate time together often leads to hurt feelings and takes away from the quality time you could be enjoying! One of you feels abandoned and rejected, while the other feels crowded and smothered.

• You are considering changing the “structure” of your relationship (i.e. “opening,” “closing,” or otherwise changing how you engage in monogamy or consensual non-monogamy). You have been considering making a change for a while, but you and your partner are struggling to reach an agreement about the new terms of your relationship. You both have concerns about how this will affect you but you also share an interest in taking this a step in a new direction. You want to make sure that your foundation is solid and that you’re on the same page before making a major change.

• You and your partner have a different “style” of fighting. No matter what the argument is about, you and your partner have very different preferences for how you hash it out. One of you prefers to take time to yourself to regulate and the other wants to talk through every feeling right away. This leads to a lot of tension and frustration. Often, by the end of the argument, you’ve both forgotten what you were even arguing about in the first place because the whole thing has turned into a fight about the fight itself. You might not even have much to argue about, but whenever you get into it, you go in circles until everyone is at their most dysregulated!

• You and your partner are going through a big life change. Whether it’s moving, marriage, kids, or another one of life’s strange curveballs, you are under a lot of stress and your partnership is struggling. You want to act as a team through this challenging time, but when everyones’ emotions are running high, it’s hard not to let it get between you. You need some outside support to help you both cope and keep your partnership strong through this difficult time.

• One or both of you is exploring a new gender or sexual identity. You want to support your partner, but this change is affecting your partnership in ways you did not anticipate. You don’t know what this will mean for your future, what it means about your identity, or how it will change the life that you have imagined together. You are worried about the ways that this exploration will affect how you relate to each other romantically and you suddenly feel unsure about how to approach intimacy.

Whether one of these situations sounds exactly like you, or you and your partner/s are facing a different challenge, counseling can help you strengthen your bond, clear up communication struggles and find the balance and closeness that your love deserves.

Reach out today to schedule a free 20 minute phone consultation!