We specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video sessions elsewhere.
To begin, click to improve your emotional connection and start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Holistic Child, Teen, Family, and Marriage Counseling and Coaching For Your Whole Family
Why Start In Couples and Relationship Therapy and Coaching?
Has sex lost its emotional significance and become transactional?
Are you disappointed that your spouse doesn’t care about you in the way you want and you feel emotionally neglected?
Wishing your partner prioritized your emotional needs, helped you feel important, and thought of you more?
Do you feel too ashamed to initiate sex with their partner or struggle to fully engage in the present moment?
Stuck in a cycle of vicious conflict, where talking only seems to escalate conflicts, leaving you both resentful, hurt, and hopeless about your future?
Have you been turning towards pornography instead of your partner or other compulsive sexual behaviors?
Do you struggle with sexual performance anxiety during real-life sex?
Are you feeling lonely even though you’re still in a committed relationship?
Even though you want to stop because you see the betrayal it causes, do you keep going back to compulsive pornography use, having affairs, or an online sex addiction?
Feeling emotional disconnection or unwantedness from your spouse?
Did you grow up in a dysfunctional home with childhood trauma with unstable, avoidant, addict, or emotionally chaotic parents that had narcissistic traits, and you want to have a better marriage than the one you saw you parents have?
Do you avoid sexual intimacy with your partner altogether?
Struggling with confusion and uncertainty about your marriage?
Do you feel compounded by social pressure and expectations about what marriage “should” be like?
Wanting professional help breaking free from unhealthy patterns including sex addiction, pornography addiction, infidelity, and secret keeping,
Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut gives you skills to start rebuilding trust, emotional closeness, and a healthy sexual connection with your partner.
Watching other couples who seem happy and intimate heightens the sense of sadness, rejection, and pain you feel because you feel something essential is missing from your own relationship.
Katie Ziskind and the team at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching help you and your partner rebuild emotional intimacy, reestablish trust, and rekindle sexual desire in a healthy and connected way.
Working with Katie Ziskind, a certified sex therapy-informed professional, Gottman Level Two trained marriage specialist, and Imago therapist, and the team at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, you get vital skills for rebuilding sexual desire by focusing on emotional intimacy and security as a foundation.
Often, sexual desire wanes in a relationship because emotional connection and feelings of safety have eroded. Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut can help you both reconnect on a deeper level, which is crucial for reigniting sexual desire.
Katie Ziskind and the marriage and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut uses a combination of therapeutic techniques to help you explore the emotional barriers that may be preventing sexual closeness.
For example, through Gottman marriage counseling methods, Katie Ziskind and her team will guide you to identify negative communication patterns—such as criticism, contempt, and defensiveness—that are contributing to emotional disconnection. Replacing these harmful habits with more supportive, validating, and empathetic communication skills will build trust and a stronger emotional bond. Emotional validation paves the way for bonding, making it easier to be sexually intimate.
Imago therapy, another modality Katie Ziskind specializes in, can help you understand how unresolved childhood wounds and unmet emotional needs from the past may be showing up in your relationship today.
By exploring “what I wanted and needed most as a child but didn’t get,” you can start healing these wounds together.
Your current romantic relationship frustrations, power struggles, and marital conflicts activate and re-trigger feelings from the most painful childhood experiences and worst moments from childhood.
This healing fosters emotional safety, which is the key to rekindling sexual desire in your relationship. When you feel seen, heard, and valued, it opens the door for deeper connection and intimacy.
Let’s talk about your upbringing in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
One critical element of marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut is helping couples remove shame, guilt, or anxiety related to past sexual experiences or conservative upbringings. These emotions can create barriers to authentic intimacy. The team at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching offer compassionate, non-judgmental guidance will help you break down these walls.
Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut is a positive place to have open, honest conversations about your desires, fantasies, and emotional needs. We give you a a safe and supportive environment to increase emotional intimacy and sexual intimacy.
Katie Ziskind’s integration of Gottman and Imago techniques will also provide you with the skills to turn towards each other during conflicts, rather than turning away.
By addressing emotional triggers and validating each other’s feelings, you’ll build a stronger emotional connection.
Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut gives you concrete skills to build a more secure and satisfying sexual relationship, where you both feel understood and desired.
Through regular sessions, Katie will help you focus on rebuilding your “couple bubble”—a term that refers to creating a protective emotional space where both partners feel prioritized and secure. This emotional security is a powerful driver for sexual desire, particularly in long-term relationships where trust and vulnerability are essential for intimacy to thrive.
Does you want to gain more emotional closeness and safety, feel heard, valued, important, desired, and rebuild sexual intimacy?
Let’s make your marriage a priority again after betrayal, infidelity, loss, and trauma.
Wanting to break cycles of sexual avoidance and rejection and create a passionate, playful sex life?
At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video as well.
Looking for a safe place to talk about emotional intimacy and emotional expression?
Have you not been getting along for a while? Was being romantic or sensitive not something you were taught growing up? Did you feel that your emotions were a burden to your parents? As a child, were you parentified, and had unstable, inconsistent parents or caregivers where you were terrified because you didn’t know who you were going to get and couldn’t rely on them?
Did you learn to avoid conflict as a child because you felt very alone – your mom abandoned you and your dad withdrew emotionally and was conflict avoidant himself.
Now, in your marriage, are you feeling unappreciated like you do “invisible work?” Do you feel overwhelmed giving and not getting the love you give back from your spouse? As well, do you fear saying the wrong thing as it might make matters worse and push your partner away more?
Build emotional and sexual intimacy skills for a stronger marital bond.
You marriage can become a safe haven and place to heal after experiencing physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse in childhood.
As well, are you looking for a safe place to talk about sex, sexual desires, and sexual needs?
Emotional intimacy needs rebuilding when you are struggling sexually. Sex is true vulnerability. We offer sex positive education on female sexual needs like what an adequate length of foreplay looks like as well as emotional intimacy support. Right now, you feel like you can never make your spouse happy, that you will always disappoint your spouse. And, you feel inadequate and not good enough.
Let’s talk about these together in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut. Part of couples therapy means sharing core emotions under anger.
You can work together with our sex and intimacy specialists to build a fulfilling, satisfying, and pleasurable sex life.
Right now, you might be feeling disconnected from your spouse, especially when it comes to sex.
It’s a place where both of you feel vulnerable, and instead of bringing you closer, it may feel like it’s driving a wedge between you. You might even feel like you can never make your spouse happy, no matter what you do. This constant sense of inadequacy can weigh heavily on your relationship, leaving you feeling like you’re not good enough or that you’re always falling short. But the truth is, sexual struggles are often about emotional intimacy, and rebuilding that connection is the first step toward healing.
At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, we understand how intertwined emotional and sexual intimacy are, and we offer sex-positive education to help you and your partner reconnect.
When sexual intimacy falters, it’s not just about physical needs—it’s about the emotional bond between you and your spouse. And when that bond feels weak or damaged, it’s common to feel like you’re failing or that your efforts aren’t enough. But the good news is, with the right support, you can rebuild that bond and create a stronger, more fulfilling relationship.
One of the biggest challenges couples face is understanding female sexual needs, especially when it comes to foreplay.
Often, male and female partners have different biological responses when it comes to sexual desire.
While a man might feel ready for sex after just a few minutes of physical touch, women typically need 45-90 minutes of both emotional and sexual foreplay to be fully aroused and ready for orgasm.
Without this understanding, it’s easy for both partners to feel frustrated—one feeling rejected, and the other feeling pressured.
At our practice, we teach you what adequate foreplay looks like and how to meet your partner’s emotional and physical needs.
We also focus heavily on emotional intimacy support, helping you build the kind of emotional closeness that makes sexual intimacy easier and more fulfilling.
When emotional intimacy is strong, sex feels less like a performance and more like a shared, vulnerable experience.
But if you’re struggling emotionally, sex can feel like a source of stress and insecurity.
You may find yourself feeling inadequate, worried that no matter how hard you try, it will never be enough to satisfy your spouse. These feelings of inadequacy are common when emotional intimacy is lacking.
If you’ve found yourself stuck in this cycle of trying to make your spouse happy but feeling like you always fall short, it’s important to understand that it’s not about you not being good enough. It’s about both of you needing more emotional connection. Sex, at its core, is an act of vulnerability, and when the emotional foundation isn’t strong, it’s hard to feel safe enough to let go and be truly present in the moment. Our couples therapy is designed to give you both the tools to rebuild that foundation, so you can come to each other from a place of love and understanding.
At our practice, we’ll help you identify the emotional roadblocks that are preventing deeper intimacy in your relationship.
Often, couples come to us feeling like they’ve lost touch emotionally, and that’s reflected in their sex life.
Maybe your partner feels distant, or you feel rejected when they don’t respond to your advances. It’s easy to let resentment build, but we’ll work with you to break down those barriers and get to the heart of what’s really going on. By addressing the emotional intimacy first, you create the space for sexual connection to follow naturally.
We understand that when you’re struggling sexually, it can feel like a personal failure. But your sexual relationship is not a measure of your worth. Often, feelings of inadequacy stem from miscommunication or unmet emotional needs that neither of you may fully understand. That’s why we offer sex-positive education tailored to your relationship. We’ll help you understand your partner’s needs, both emotionally and sexually, so you can feel more confident and connected.
Through therapy, you’ll learn that emotional intimacy doesn’t just happen in the bedroom—it’s built through everyday actions like empathy, validation, and open communication.
When you learn how to connect emotionally in your daily life, it naturally leads to a better sexual connection.
We’ll guide you through this process, helping you both feel more secure and confident in your relationship, so that when you do come together physically, it’s not about performance or pressure, but about sharing a deep emotional bond.
It’s normal to feel inadequate when you’re facing challenges in your sex life. But you don’t have to go through it alone. With the right support, you can learn how to rebuild the emotional intimacy that’s the foundation of a healthy, fulfilling sexual relationship. We’re here to help you and your partner reconnect on every level—emotionally, mentally, and physically.
If you’re ready to take the next step toward healing, we invite you to work with our skilled team at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching.
Together, we can help you build a relationship where emotional and sexual intimacy are in harmony, and where you both feel truly valued, understood, and connected.
Struggling with sex addiction, compulsive pornography use, or affairs and infidelity?
When couples face the struggles of online sex addiction, there are often deep, hidden emotions beneath the surface, particularly under the anger and frustration they may feel toward one another.
Anger is frequently the outward expression of more vulnerable feelings like hurt, fear, shame, disappointment, unwantedness, abandonment, rejection, or loneliness.
When your partner discovers or suspects infidelity or compulsive sexual behaviors, their anger may really be masking their deep hurt and fear of rejection. On the other hand, the person engaging in these behaviors may feel intense guilt, shame, or inadequacy, which fuels their defensive or avoidant reactions.
Couples therapy with professionals like Katie Ziskind helps you and your partner uncover these core emotions hidden under the anger.
When you’re both able to move beyond the reactive surface level of anger and explore the deeper emotions driving the conflict, it opens the door to healing.
In couples therapy in Niantic, Connecticut, you learn how to express these emotions safely and constructively, fostering understanding and empathy between both partners.
You may begin to say things like, “I feel afraid that I’m not enough for you” or “I feel hurt and rejected when you turn to pornography instead of me.” These deeper conversations create opportunities for emotional reconnection.
In many cases, the emotional disconnection caused by online sex addiction can trigger intense fear of abandonment or inadequacy in a partner. These feelings of unworthiness, whether on the side of the person with the addiction or the partner affected by it, fuel high levels of frustration and emotional distance.
Furthermore, marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut can help you both identify where these feelings come from, often tracing back to unmet needs or wounds from childhood.
In couples counseling, you can start to understand how your emotional reactions to the addiction and the secrecy around it are often rooted in a desire for love, attention, and validation that wasn’t fully met earlier in life.
For example, a partner who feels neglected by the secrecy of their spouse’s online sexual behaviors may have a history of feeling overlooked or dismissed by caregivers in childhood. When these old wounds are triggered by the emotional unavailability caused by an addiction, it can escalate into intense, unresolved anger. Couples therapy guides you to explore how these early unmet needs—like the need to feel important, valued, or nurtured—may be playing out in your adult relationship.
Understanding the connection between your past and present helps you approach conflict with empathy rather than blame.
Once you uncover the emotional roots behind your anger, couples therapy teaches you how to express your core emotions without escalation. This means communicating feelings like hurt or fear instead of leading with anger or frustration.
For instance, instead of saying, “You never want to have sex with me because you’re always online,” you might learn to say, “When you turn to the internet, I feel abandoned and unimportant.” This shift in communication makes a big difference in how your partner responds. When you address the underlying emotions, it invites empathy and understanding rather than defensiveness or more anger.
Gottman-based therapy, as practiced at Wisdom Within Counseling, emphasizes techniques like emotional validation to help couples rebuild trust and intimacy.
Validation means acknowledging and understanding your partner’s feelings, even if you don’t agree with them. In the context of online sex addiction, this might mean validating your partner’s sense of betrayal or insecurity while also sharing your own feelings of shame or inadequacy. This mutual validation creates a safer emotional space, where both partners feel heard and understood rather than criticized or dismissed.
The emotional reconnection that happens in therapy can have a significant impact on your physical intimacy.
Once both partners feel emotionally safe, understood, and valued, they are more likely to engage in sexual intimacy with each other.
Trust is a vital foundation for a healthy sexual relationship, and without it, there’s often a lack of desire or comfort in being vulnerable. Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut helps you rebuild this trust by encouraging honest conversations, shared emotional experiences, and a deeper understanding of each other’s needs and fears.
Couples therapy and marriage counseling in Niantic, Connecticut can also help you break the cycle of secrecy that often comes with sex addiction and infidelity.
When your partner feels like you’re hiding something, it creates emotional distance and tension in the relationship.
But once the underlying issues are brought into the open in therapy, you can work together to create new, healthy patterns of openness and trust. This transparency is crucial for rebuilding both emotional and sexual intimacy.
Your therapist will guide you in creating agreements and boundaries around these behaviors, helping you establish a sense of security in your relationship.
As you and your partner begin to share your core emotions more openly, therapy helps you build new emotional skills to stay connected, even during difficult conversations.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by anger or frustration, you learn to turn toward each other with curiosity and compassion.
This emotional closeness paves the way for deeper intimacy, both emotionally and physically. Therapy teaches you how to stay connected during conflict, leading to a more secure bond where you both feel safe enough to express your needs and desires without fear of rejection or judgment.
Working through online sex addiction and the emotions beneath it can be a painful and challenging process, but it’s also an opportunity for growth.
By addressing these difficult topics in couples therapy in Southeastern Connecticut, you begin to heal old wounds, restore emotional trust, and create a stronger, more fulfilling relationship.
As you gain skills to express your core emotions, validate each other’s feelings, and build emotional intimacy, you’ll find that your sexual connection can also improve. In the end, therapy helps you and your partner turn a painful pattern into an opportunity for deep, meaningful healing and intimacy.
After having parents and caregivers who never showed you how to be emotionally close, learn how to show affection, express appreciation, and help your partner feel safe, wanted, and desired.
At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video as well which supports you both in helping each other feel loved, appreciated, and heard.
We teach positive communication skills for healing after childhood trauma is getting re-triggered in current conflicts and fights, and healthy relationship skills.
Break the negative cycle of high conflict fighting, defensivness, and the silent treatment in marriage counseling.
Wanting to build a strong, healthy, secure couple bubble and feel a deeper connection than ever before?
If you have struggled with infidelity, pornography addiction, secret keeping, carry shame and guilt, at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video as well to help you build intimacy and meaningful connection.
Looking to heal as a couple after having parents or caregivers in childhood who were emotionally neglectful, abusive, narcissistic, and emotionally chaotic?
Video sessions offer you the opportunity to meet with a specialist from the comfort of your home.
Testimonials:
“Katie at Wisdom Within made me believe that therapy really works. My wife and I were looking for a way to strengthen our communication and Katie helped us do that and so much more. I would recommend Katie to anyone. It was my first experience with therapy and I can honestly say it was the best decision for my relationship that we ever made!”
“Katie is a wonderful therapist and she truly goes above and beyond to assess our needs for each session and focus on what we are there to address in that day. She was thoughtful of my ADHD diagnosis while in session and brought along many tools to make us comfortable. Highly recommend this practice to anyone, even if you’ve never been to therapy before.”
“Katie is amazingly empathetic and exceedingly helpful in working through both the long term and more recent challenges in my life. I would definitely recommend her to anyone who wants to make a positive change in their lives.”
“My family turned to Katie after a traumatic event. While the focus was on my tween, my husband and I also had sessions and received support. We started once weekly, eventually tapering to biweekly, then monthly sessions. We met first in person then transitioned to video calls once the connection was made and my daughter was comfortable. Katie introduced different methods and tools of therapy including outdoor walks, games, music, meditation, dance, art, and her two wonderful papillons. We are grateful for the almost year and a half (2022-2023) Katie worked with our family and highly recommend her.”
To begin, click below to work with our team of therapists who specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video as well.
Child, Family and Young Adult Therapy and Coaching
Does your teen need help overcoming depression, anxiety or self-harm?
Would you like to paint, do art, yoga, or walk and talk by the beach?
We Specialize In Helping Anxious Kids, Depressed Teens, and Distant Couples Build Positive, Meaningful Relationships
To start, click below to book and gain confidence and clarity through therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut!
At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut and offer video as well.
To begin, book below to gain positive coping strategies.
Couples Therapy in Southeastern Connecticut
Walking on eggshells in your relationship?
Have conflicts been getting out of hand with the silent treatment and yelling? Fearing an explosive reaction?
Feeling anxious like your partner will be upset with you?
Do you feel more like roommates than romantic partners?
Wishing you had more quality time together?
We understand that your sex life isn’t frequent enough, you feel distant and alone in your relationship, you want conflict resolution skills, you want to feel valued, heard, and understood, and you deeply want to create more quality time together.
Marriage therapy is a safe space to help you feel connected in so many ways as a couple again! Couples therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching can help you grow and develop a loving, strong, and secure bond.
We are a team of intimacy experts who teach you skills for playfulness, which help you prioritize your marriage, communication skills, and rebuild emotional connection again.
At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut to strengthen emotional intimacy and sexual intimacy.
If your relationship is conflictual, you’re in the right place for emotional connection, deeper love, and couples therapy.
- After betrayals, regain trust and deeply bond
- Overcome intimacy issues
- Create a playful, passionate, and satisfying sex life
- Prioritize your marriage and bring the spark back in your romance
- Foster meaningful connection and emotional closeness
The team at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching are a group of East Lyme therapists who love helping couples create meaningful connection, emotional intimacy, playfulness, and rebuild desire.
Right now, you may feel exhausted, down, and anxious about the state pf your romantic relationship.
- Gain better communication skills
- Feel heard, desired, respected, and loved
- Have a safe place to talk about issues you are avoiding
- Resolve conflicts in calm, healthy ways
- Individual and couples therapy sessions support more trusting, secure, and playful romantic relationships
Unresolved conflict in your marriage can lead to trouble sleeping, low motivation, physical stomach and head aches.
With marriage and family therapy, you and your partner can also learn effective communication skills to tackle past trauma together in a supportive way.
Your therapist can also help you heal from emotional pain, hurt, and betrayal, and rebuild trust and meaningful connection with your partner.
Couples in counseling and coaching receive
- A safe place to talk about love, desires, fantasies, trust, sex, and intimacy
- Educational skills about female body for more pleasurable sexual experiences
- Tools for creating emotional intimacy and emotional closeness as a foundation for physical intimacy
To begin, click below to book and gain skills for a healthier, more playful, and sexually satisfying marriage.
Why start at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching with our team of marriage and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut?
You and your spouse feel distant.
Currently, you stop talking to one another in a fight and use the silent treatment, sometimes for days.
You feel emotionally unwanted and unimportant, as well as sexually rejected, abandoned, and cast aside this is causing issues with your sex drive.
Couples therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling helps if when you deeply want to feel supported, recreate trust, and improve communication. At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in person in East Lyme, Connecticut. We are trained in Gottman marriage therapy, emotionally focused couples therapy, sex and intimacy, certified sex therapy informed professionals, complex trauma, imago therapy, and narrative therapy.
If your romantic relationship is not where you want it to be, couples therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut can help.
Yelling and door slamming seems to be a negative part of all fights that are happening right now.
Working with a holistic marriage counselor when dealing with loss, loneliness, betrayal and distance can help you have a safe place to slow down. You can rebuild trust and create playfulness. From better communication, to emotional intimacy, our marriage therapists can help.
We help your overcome intense, painful, negative communication tactics in your marriage and instead teach you how to build a healthy, meaningful communication skills.
- Deal with losses together
- Feel important to one another again
- Learn to express anger, jealousy, frustration, loss, and hurt in a calm way
- Talk about what you need from your partner when you are upset
- Create a healthy, positive, and secure romantic relationship
Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut gives you a strong, emotionally secure couple bubble, so you can show up as the best parents you can be.
To begin, click below for to gain confidence and clarity from marriage therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Child Therapy in Southeastern Connecticut
Wisdom Within Counseling supports adolescents and young adults in therapy.
Perhaps, your adolescent or teenager feels overwhelmed with peer stress, school drama, getting good grades, and needs emotional confidence.
Signs Your Child or Young Adult Will Benefit From Therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut
- Nail biting, skin picking, or anxiety behaviors
- Experiencing loss, trauma, and challenging, big life events
- Trouble concentrating, sleeping, or eating
- Peer, friendship, sibling, and social problems
- Social withdraw, moodiness, tearfulness, or selective mutism
- Gender questioning feelings or desire to explore LGBTQIA+
To begin, click the button below for child and teen counseling.
A lot of times, children just get frustrated and angry when they don’t know how to release emotions and let go.
Our team of holistic marriage and family therapists can help you and your child build a toolbox for creating inner peace and confidence.
Children and adolescents can gain positive outlets for anxiety through painting, art, mindfulness yoga, musical instruments, and nature therapies.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, children, adolescents and young adults can gain self-worth skills, learn to believe in themselves again, and also create more positive friendships.
Our team of therapists specialize in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut. Your child or teenager learns alternatives to self-harm, self-criticism, hanging with the wrong crowd, and vaping. From marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, your young adult learns how to think positively about their body image. And, they can gain wisdom to know which friends may be positive, or not really friends at all and who are negative influences.
Our holistic marriage and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut can also help your child or teenager learn ways to cope with anger, anxiety, and loss through self-acceptance tools.
Does your child need help handling anxiety, fear, anticipation, anger and frustration in holistic, healthy ways?
- Youth can gain self-confidence and self-esteem skills
- Children and teens learn positive coping strategies
- Find outlets for social anxiety, worries, and depression
- Improve positive self-talk
- Use art, yoga, music, and outdoor therapies to gain confidence
To begin, click the button below to start in play therapies to identify emotions and learn positive coping tools.
Play Therapy For Children
At Wisdom Within Counseling in East Lyme, Connecticut, our team knows how to step into a frustrated child’s world.
Whether your child is having disruptive behaviors at school, or they are getting into fights with their siblings, or just have been saying things that concern you, we can help.
Also, children may have social anxiety and need help with bullying and developing social confidence.
Marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut with our team of therapists means your child gets to work with therapists trained in child-centered play therapy, board certified music therapists, and creative art and painting, yoga therapists.
To begin, click the button below for child therapy and play therapy.
Teen and Young Adult Therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut
- Teens can learn positive coping strategies
- Manage academic stress, break ups, and family issues
- Adolescents gets to talk to a trusted professional outside of their family
- Teens can find alternatives to impulsive behaviors such as self-harm, OCD, and ADHD
- Gain self-love and self-acceptance tools
- Teens find alternatives to self-harming and can gain holistic strategies and skills to be emotionally confident to navigate independent living
Art, yoga, and also walking by the beach in therapy can help make chaotic life transitions simpler and calmer.
We offer nurturing support. When teenagers are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or sad, it can feel overwhelming.
To begin, click below to get your teen help now.
Does your teenager or young adult need help slowing down the emotional rollercoaster?
Is your teenager hiding alcohol and drug use or developed an eating disorders, self-harm, or other impulsive behaviors?
For teenagers, stress, peer pressure, and dating is hard to balance. Additionally, teens often experience perfectionism without healthy coping skills.
Essentially, adolescents and teens show they are hurting with negative behaviors. One of our specialities is working with adolescents and teenagers.
For a teen who doesn’t want to talk much in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut, art and painting becomes a language beyond words.
To begin, click below to start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Creative Art and Painting For Emotional Expression
Painting and art in therapy can provide a sense of inner peace when you are struggling with intense inner emotions.
Child, family, and teen therapy supports anxiety coping strategies, self-love tools, and self-confidence using creative painting, art, yoga, meditation, and outdoor therapies.
- Gel pens promote creative expression
- Acrylic paints support a language beyond just words
- Watercolors provide freedom and inner peace
- Modeling and sculpting clay can be an outlet for anger and tension
Having the option of talking alongside painting can help your child or young adult cope with strong emotions while building self-esteem and confidence.
We love to offer a variety of art options including painting, tie-dye, beads, vision boards, clay, drawing, and more!
Our creative therapies offer a language beyond words for emotional expression.
- A language children use to communicate beyond traditional talking
- Supports releasing anger, anxiety, and sadness
- Offers mind-body connection and positive outlets for big feelings
To begin, click below to start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut for creative, holistic arts as a language beyond words in therapy.
LGBTQIA+ Counseling for Children, Teens, and Couples
Are you questioning your gender, sexuality, or coming out?
Our marriage and family therapist team specializes with LGBTQIA+ expressive children, queer and non-binary teenagers and adults, transgender children and adults, and lesbian and gay couples. We work with adults who cross dress and adults who identify as bi-gender.
If you or a loved one identifies in the LGBTQIA+ community and is looking for support, Wisdom Within would love to support you.
Your therapist’s office is an LGBTQIA+ queer affirming safe space.
This way, you can better navigate challenges, process intense feelings, and develop meaningful connections with others.
You can talk about gender identity, sexual orientation, gender expression, open and alternative relationships, sex and intimacy, and BDSM.
To begin, click below to start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
What is more specialized, unique, and more effective about Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching?
The team of marital and family therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching help anxious children, depressed teenagers, and distant couples thrive. Through talking, play, art, yoga, mindfulness, and nature therapies, you can attract healthy relationships, build coping skills, and trust intuition.
A Holistic Approach To Family Therapy
- Supports self-regulation and a centered nervous system
- Helps children and adults calm themselves down
- Offer lifelong holistic stress outlets
- Foster mental clarity and inner peace
- Help families communicate frustrated emotions calmly and effectively.
Online and in person, our therapists work with rambunctious children, depressed young adults, and distant couples.
We help anxious children, self-harming teenagers, and distant couples develop meaningful connections with themselves and their mind, body, and spirit.
Plus, in addition to traditional talk therapies, your child can choose from creative art, yoga, mindfulness, music, and outdoor nature therapies. Breathing, yoga poses, and meditation are calming. Your teenager can learn to center and calm themselves from the inside out.
To begin, click below to start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut to turn resentments around, make conflicts opportunities for togetherness, and to strengthen your couple bubble.
Some of Our Testimonials – How Was Your First Session?
“Our appointment with Haley was incredibly helpful! In fact, it was the most honest and constructive conversation we’ve ever been able to have. I appreciate the way Haley helped us to navigate the difficult topics and tears. She also closed our talk on a positive and hopeful note!”
“The first session was really great. Renee really gave my husband and I a good, positive feeling about herself and how she can help our daughter. Honestly, I felt really at ease when I left and felt that I had made a good decision contacting you. I am looking forward to Renee meeting our daughter and I think it will be a really positive experience.”
“Better than I could’ve even imagined! She was fantastic and her office and waiting rooms were incredibly warm and welcoming.”
“My first session was fabulous. She is an excellent therapist, and I can tell she’s a very kind and caring person. I look forward to working together. Thank you.”
“First session for intake went excellent. I’m looking forward to working with her and growing through future sessions. I walked out feeling a huge weight lifted and can’t wait for our next session.”
“I found her to be extremely kind and compassionate. She made me feel safe sharing my feelings in a period of my life where that has been rarer than desired. I look forward to continuing to work with her to develop better-functioning tools and habits for self-improvement.”
“My parent-only first session was a good experience. I think Haley is going to be a great match for my son. She was very open to trying different options to make sure he’s comfortable opening up and had a really good understanding of some of the issues he’s struggling with. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to meet with her in advance.”
“Katie was so awesome. She made me feel very comfortable I feel like I can tell her anything. I felt so relieved after our session and it was very nice talking with her. I am excited to keep moving forward with her.”
“Maureen was lovely and professional – I will see her again.”
“It was great. My son really enjoyed his session with Maureen. She connected very well with him!”
“Our experience has been great! We love working with Maureen and feel she listens to our needs and gives good feedback and solution.”
“It’s been great! I really enjoy my time there, and I’m seeing improvements in my life and myself. Scheduling appointments is super easy, as well as this experience as a whole.”
“It has been good so far. Irinel is very kind, supportive, and easy to talk to.”
“My son really enjoyed his session with Hope and we all had a great experience.”
“She was great, looking forward to the next session.”
“I feel like the parent intake went very well and I look forward to my daughter meeting Renee. Thank you.”
“It was a positive beginning, thanks. I have scheduled an appointment with her as I’m optimistic I can grow with her help.”
To begin, click below to start in marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Testimonials – How is your experience now, after a few months of sessions?
“We are very happy. She is really wonderful with my daughter. As well, she always has something prepared for the session. She also takes into account if we have any requests or feedback. For example, I did mention to her that my child will be starting at a new school at the end of August, so I wanted her to work a little bit on making new friends and role-playing, and she was very accommodating for that. She’s also been working to teach my child and us the different coping skills for regulating emotions, so we can work on that at home. She is also very good about responding to text messages and phone calls. We are so happy!”
“I very much appreciate your support and advice. Thank you! And thank you for helping so many people by running your business. My daughter and I had a wonderful experience with WWC. Our counselors were wonderfully kind and supportive. They provided many helpful resources relative to what we were going through. It was a pleasure to work with them and definitely improved our quality of life. Thank you for providing a safe space to explore, feel and learn!”
“I had bad experiences with couples therapists and we almost wanted give up and felt defeated until we found Wisdom Within Counseling.”
“For the first time, Katie made both me and partner feel so validated and heard, and she has been so great at setting goals and giving us tools to meet them. She’s helped my relationship so much and she’s been made me feel so seen and empowered that I would I like to continue to see her individually.”
“The play therapy and puppet methods really seem to resonate with my daughter. She’s done a lot better since meeting with you. Her anxiety has reduced. I would like her to keep meeting weekly at the same time.”
“We have argued much less since starting with Katie. I see my wife in a more empathetic way now. We are learning how to break the cycle of pain and communicate better.”
“Before starting marriage therapy, we fought and spiraled by yelling at each other. We have had bad arguments in the past. Yelling is not something I want her to experience again. The different exercises we did in therapy reminded us how much we love each other and brought that to the forefront of our minds.”
“After almost a year of therapy, it has felt so easy talking with Katie about a lot of my life. For most of my life, I have always kept most of my thoughts and mental debates to myself. This was the first time I could get those out, knowing there was no judgment. It helps me knowing Katie is experienced. I like that she didn’t have an agenda, and listened openly and reminded me of my growths along the way. Also,I learned to be more open and honest than I have with anyone in my life. I appreciated the conversations, the outside perspective, and the support from her as a female therapist with me staying on track.”
Each holistic therapy session is a creative, positive experience that fosters self-love, leadership, and acceptance.
We help you and your family through let go of anger, improve self-care, and build loving, healthy relationships.
Testimonials:
“After some life changing events, my daughter and I reached out to Wisdom Within and have had a wonderful experience with Renee. I highly recommend this practice to anyone who wants to feel comfortable and heard while learning to cope with life’s challenges.”
“Wisdom Within, and specifically Haley, have been amazing at getting us through some tough times and figuring out ways to make our family life work for the best. I would absolutely recommend Wisdom Within and Haley to anyone and everyone.”
“My daughter and I had a wonderful experience with Wisdom Within Counseling.”
“Our counselors were wonderfully kind and supportive. They provided many helpful resources relative to what we were going through. It was a pleasure to work with them and definitely improved our quality of life. Thank you for providing a safe space to explore, feel & learn!”
“Katie is so kind and very easy to talk to. I tend to be very awkward and uncomfortable when talking to someone new, but I felt immediately comfortable with Katie. She provides amazing therapy in an environment that feels safe and comfortable!”
“Katie’s practice is professional yet extremely welcoming. I love how organized Wisdom Within is with their intake, scheduling and appointments. My child had their first session tonight and quickly connected to Amy. Finding a great therapist is hard so I am happy to have found success with Wisdom Within.”
“We learned so many tools from Katie to improve our marriage. I recommend her counseling for sure.”
“Wow she is awesome!!
“Katie is super kind and very knowledgeable. She has a peaceful and happy personality that she is able to share. It seems that she genuinely cares about the clients as individuals, and I would definitely recommend her to people in the area.”
“I can’t say enough nice things about Katie; she is incredibly disarming, empathetic, and insightful. She radiates positivity and creates an environment focused on understanding and personal growth. She is an outstanding and hardworking individual who is amazing at what she does.”
More reviews on Google!
To begin, click the button below to schedule your session for a meaningful emotional and sexual bond in your marriage and positive coping tools.
Why work with our Gottman trained team of marriage and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut?
Working with a Gottman-trained marriage therapist such as at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching offers several unique benefits that distinguish it from therapy provided by non-Gottman trained professionals.
The Gottman Method is based on over four decades of research with thousands of couples. Our marriage and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut have speciality training as Gottman relationship and couples therapists. Gottman offers a scientific foundation that focuses on specific, proven techniques to improve relationship dynamics.
Here are some key advantages of starting marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching:
One of the most significant benefits of working with a Gottman-trained therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching is the reliance on research-backed methods. The Gottman Institute has studied the patterns, behaviors, and emotional dynamics that make relationships thrive or fail. This approach means that the interventions used in your therapy are not based on subjective opinion or anecdotal success. Rather, Gottman research provides proof that these skills are highly effective with couples from various backgrounds.
In contrast, a non-Gottman trained therapist elsewhere may not be using techniques specific for couples and more individual therapy models. This could lead to more generalized therapy that might not focus directly on relationship-specific issues, potentially slowing down progress.
Marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching focuses on specific relationship dynamics
Gottman therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching addresses specific elements of a relationship. For instance, conflict resolution, emotional intimacy, and effective communication. Tools like the “Four Horsemen” (criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling) help couples identify destructive patterns that erode their connection.
Your Gottman-trained therapist in Niantic, Connecticut will provide strategies to replace these negative behaviors with constructive alternatives.
For instance, the therapist might guide you in replacing criticism with “gentle start-ups.” Listen to this episode Katie Ziskind’s podcast, “All Things Love and Intimacy,” on how to use the “gentle start up” skill. Or, marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching can help you find ways to de-escalate conflict through physiological soothing. As well, we teach you about “turning toward” each other rather than away during disagreements.
Rebuild emotional connection and trust in marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching
A key focus of the Gottman Method is helping couples rebuild trust and emotional intimacy through emotional attunement and validation.
This is crucial when couples have experienced betrayal, are in high-conflict situations, or have lost their emotional bond. The emphasis on rituals of connection and building shared meaning helps couples feel closer and more connected.
Non-Gottman trained therapists may also focus on emotional connection. At Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, our Gottman marriage therapists use structured exercises like “Love Maps” and “The Sound Relationship House.” These help you both deepen your understanding of each other’s needs, values, and emotional worlds.
Our Gottman-trained marriage therapists provide you with practical tools that you can implement right away.
These include communication skills for diffusing arguments, strategies for enhancing emotional intimacy, and exercises designed to repair emotional ruptures quickly. These tools are user-friendly and aim to give you immediate relief and long-term change in how you and your partner relate.
Non-Gottman therapists may offer more open-ended exploration without the same level of actionable tools. Unfortunately , this can leave you feeling like the change is slower or harder to grasp.
You get structure in your sessions and clear goals in marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching
The Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching Gottman-trained couples therapists use a structured approach to therapy. To note, this helps set clear goals for each session and your overall treatment. Couples therapy sessions might begin with assessments and goal-setting. Then, they move into specific interventions that target the root causes of your relationship difficulties. You and your partner get a clear idea of what you’re working on and how your couples therapist measures your progress.
Without this structured format, non-Gottman therapists may take a less focused approach. Unfortunately, this can sometimes feel aimless or less productive for couples looking to tackle their issues head-on.
Focus on Conflict Management, Not Just Resolution
In Gottman therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching, the aim isn’t to eliminate conflict entirely. Rather, it is to help you manage conflict in a way that strengthens your relationship and allows growth. Couples therapy isn’t about fixing or solving problems. It is about how couples talk – without interrupting, yelling, name calling, and instead with respect and care. But, our Gottman therapists emphasize how to discuss perpetual issues constructively. This can help when you feel stuck in recurring arguments to handle these conflicts in a way that doesn’t damage your relationship.
Non-Gottman trained therapists might focus more on problem-solving. This can be ineffective for perpetual issues that are a part of every relationship.
Marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching provides tools for deep emotional repair
For couples who have experienced betrayal, such as infidelity or breaches of trust, Gottman therapy offers targeted repair techniques.
Exercises like “Aftermath of a Fight” help couples process past hurts and begin to heal from emotional wounds. Our East Lyme, Connecticut therapists have training with the tools necessary for guiding you both through this difficult process. We teach you tools for forgiveness and deeper emotional understanding.
Without this specific training, other therapists may not have the same depth of tools to offer for repairing emotional wounds, leading to incomplete healing or recurring conflicts.
The Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching Team Has Training for High-Conflict Couples
The Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching Gottman-trained therapists are particularly skilled at working with high-conflict couples.
Childhood trauma and fears of abandonment, inadequacy, loss, failure, and rejection all come up in current marital fights. You start thinking you are incompatible or feel hopeless in an argument. Our marriage therapy and family therapists in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching understand the dynamics that lead to explosive arguments. And, our couples counselors know how to intervene before conflicts escalate.
By teaching strategies like “repair attempts” and “self-soothing,” they help couples reduce the intensity and frequency of conflicts. This can be a life-changing benefit for couples who feel stuck in a cycle of constant arguing.
While non-Gottman therapists may help reduce conflict, they might not have access to the same specialized tools to navigate high-conflict dynamics effectively.
Marriage therapy and family therapy in East Lyme, Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching focuses on positive interactions
Gottman therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching near Old Lyme, Connecticut emphasizes increasing the ratio of positive to negative interactions in your relationship.
Studies show that stable couples have a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions, even during conflict. Your Gottman-trained therapist will help you focus on cultivating more positivity. For instance, small, daily gestures of kindness, affection, and understanding are key.
Non-Gottman trained therapists may not emphasize these micro-interactions. Unfortunately, this lack of training can make it harder for couples to repair emotional ruptures between sessions.
A Collaborative, Strengths-Based Approach at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching in Southeastern Connecticut
Gottman therapy is designed to work with your strengths as a couple.
Instead of focusing solely on what’s wrong, it highlights what’s already working in your relationship and builds upon it. This can make couples therapy feel more encouraging and hopeful.
You’ll walk away with not only an understanding of your challenges but also a clear sense of your strengths as a couple.
Non-Gottman therapists may spend more time exploring problems without providing this balanced focus on strengths, which can sometimes leave couples feeling more discouraged and stuck fighting.
In summary, working with a Gottman-trained marriage therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching provides you with a highly specialized, research-based approach that focuses on practical tools, emotional connection, and conflict management.
The structured and goal-oriented nature of Gottman therapy in Niantic, Connecticut sets it apart from other types of couples therapy. It offers you and your partner a clear path toward building a stronger, more connected relationship.
Where do we offer Gottman marriage therapy and family therapy?
Private pay relationship coaching is available all over.
Therapy, which requires a diagnosis is available in New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida.
We offer marriage and family therapy in East Lyme, Old Saybrook, Essex, Lyme, Old Lyme, East Lyme, Waterford, New London, Groton, Mystic, Stonington, Noank, Niantic, Clinton, Westbrook, Madison, Guilford, Branford, Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Westport, Weston, Wilton, Ridgefield, Fairfield, Redding, Easton, Avon, Simsbury, Glastonbury, Farmington, Madison, Guilford, Newtown, Woodbridge, Southport, Old Greenwich, Riverside, Rowayton, Brookfield, Stamford, North Haven, Cheshire, Wilton, Litchfield, Roxbury, Washington, New Hartford, Canton, West Simsbury, Middlebury, Woodbury, New Canaan, Wethersfield, Trumbull, New Fairfield, Killingworth, Orange, West Hartford, East Granby, Monroe, Old Saybrook, Essex, Lyme, East Lyme, Salisbury, Kent.
Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching supports couples in Florida.
Palm Beach, Naples, Fisher Island, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Jupiter Island, Boca Grande, Indian Creek, Bay Harbor Islands, Parkland, Weston, Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Windermere, Aventura, Pinecrest, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Wellington, Marco Island, Longboat Key, Sarasota, Vero Beach, Manalapan. As well, as in Highland Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Gulf Stream, Orlando, Winter Park, Bonita Springs, Destin, West Palm Beach, Saint Petersburg, Sewall’s Point, Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm City, Key Largo, Islamorada, Tampa, Clearwater Beach, Miami Shores, Delray Beach, Lighthouse Point, Siesta Key, Naples Park, Golden Beach, Palmetto Bay, Coconut Grove, South Miami, Maitland.
In New Jersey, marriage and family therapy is available at Wisdom Within Counseling and Coaching.
Short Hills, Alpine, Saddle River, Rumson, Princeton, Upper Saddle River, Colts Neck, Franklin Lakes, Mendham, Chatham, Ho-Ho-Kus, Tenafly, Bernardsville, Ridgewood, Far Hills, Montclair, Livingston, Summit, Woodcliff Lake, Cresskill, Warren, Holmdel, Englewood Cliffs, Harding Township, Mountain Lakes. As well, as in Wyckoff, Millburn, Essex Fells, Mahwah, Tewksbury, Sparta, Westfield, Glen Ridge, Moorestown, Long Beach Township, Watchung, West Windsor, Madison, Morristown, Allendale, Demarest, Norwood, Pennington, Closter, Boonton Township, Brielle, Hopewell, Holgate, Mendham Township, East Hanover.