One of my specialties is working with clients in individual therapy in combination with their experience in couples therapy. Oftentimes, when two people engage in couples therapy, the work starts out on communication and relationship dynamics, but eventually, we get to a point where we realize that the work that really needs to be done to improve the relationship is individual work. Once we identify that their relationship dynamic involves one partner or the other reacting a certain way, we want to explore Why, and this Why is often best explored individually.

This individual work often involves drilling down into what a client wants or doesn’t want, how they feel about certain aspects of their relationship, and why they react the way they do to their partner. In discussing these topics, I try to be especially aware of how to put the awareness we develop into words. Simple sentences made up of simple words. We work on developing a way to express simply and clearly the feelings that up until now had been showing up in their relationship as vague and undefined. In a sense, we are writing a script.

There are certain aspects of my screenwriting career that continue to show up in my work as a therapist. One of these is the ability to figure out what a character........

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