At the Arizona Center For Marriage and Family Therapy, we offer the following services:
Our marriages can be the source of our greatest joy and our greatest pain. When we feel connected and secure in our marriages, we are able to deal with whatever challenges life brings us. But when our relationship is falling apart, we are miserable, no matter what success we are experiencing in life.
Our therapists are trained in the most effective approaches to help couples achieve happiness and satisfaction in their marriages. Research has shown that Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is the most effective approach to helping couples experience emotionally close, secure relationships. EFT helps couples learn how to repair and experience more intimacy in their relationship. In addition, our therapists utilize methods based on John Gottman’s research to help improve couples communication and conflict resolutions skills.
If you are dealing with some kind of mental health issue, you are not alone. Recent statistics show that anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue affecting 40 million adults. In addition, depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44. It affects over 16 million American adults. These issues are highly treatable, yet only about 1/3 of those suffering from them receive treatment. At The AZ Center for MFT we help clients identify and treat the underlying issues of anxiety and depression. These issues may include current stressors (i.e. losing a loved one, or going through a divorce) or ongoing difficulties with shame, anger, emotional pain, relational problems, trauma, or family of origin issues.
Parenting children and adolescents can be a huge source of stress in our lives. Problems with children come in a variety of forms. Dealing with teenagers who are defiant, anxious, or depressed can be challenging and confusing. In addition, trying to navigate a relationship with a step-child, can be especially tricky and frustrating. Sometimes individual therapy for your child is needed. Other times getting some tips on how to deal with the conflict between you and your child or doing some family therapy to help improve the communication is necessary. In addition, conflict for couples around parenting issues can be a source of distress in a marriage. Our therapists are trained to help parents resolve such issues and improve their family relationships.
Oftentimes individuals will turn to some behavior or substance as a way to manage underlying hurt and pain. And while such behaviors can bring temporary relief, they often create additional problems (e.g. legal, work, or relational problems), making our lives more out of control. Gabor Mate, a well-known addiction therapist says we should not ask “why the addiction?” but instead “why the pain?” Most approaches to addiction focus on controlling the behaviors and overcoming a lack of self-control. But recent research shows that overcoming addictions is not about control it is about connection. At AZ Center for MFT, we specialize in treating addiction by treating the pain that comes from our disconnection with others.
Underneath many of our struggles and difficulties are traumatic experiences. Sometimes the impact of these experiences are not known at the time and don’t show up for years. Many times they surface when coping behaviors have broken down or have become out of control in and of themselves. Trauma happens in a number of different ways. It can come from abuse or neglect as a child. Or it can come as an adult from the experiences in a relationship, or a live event (e.g. death, suicide, divorce). Either way, traumatic experiences effect us and often times changes who we are, how we feel about ourselves and the world around us. However, just like physical injuries, the emotional wounds from traumas can be healed. At our Center, we help people overcome the effects of trauma so you don’t have to go it alone.
One of the greatest sources of conflicts and dissatisfaction in marriages is the couple’s sexual relationship. This can be caused by differences in sexual desire, or the result of unresolved conflict and resentment in the relationship. Our therapists help couples improve their sexual intimacy by helping them enhance their emotional connection and sexual communication.
Pornography addiction and engaging in other problematic sexual behaviors (e.g. sexting, strip clubs, massage parlors, sexual contact with other people) can be another source of conflict and pain in a couple’s relationship. We work with individuals and couples to address these behaviors, to restore trust and to heal as a couple. Often times this includes a combination of individual therapy and couples therapy.
When a person discovers their spouse engaging in sexual behaviors outside their relationship it is very traumatic. In fact it is referred to as a betrayal trauma, because it is such a betrayal of trust and commitment. Our therapists help partners to deal with the overwhelming and devastating impact that such a discovery has on them. Therapy can help them to make sense of what has happened, help them to heal and to figure out how to move forward in their life.