Does it seem like you and your partner are communicating on a different channel?

Are you worried that your family is
falling apart?

If your relationship with your partner or family seems to be challenging, you are not alone. Perhaps a marriage and family therapist can help…

Today’s increasing social changes can make relationships and family life difficult even when you love one another.

Furthermore, various challenging issues can arise at different stages of marriage and family life. For example, the following stages can bring particular problems:

• the early years of your relationship
• pregnancy
• transition into parenthood
• the school age years
• the teenage years
• the midlife years
• separation or divorce
• remarriage
• empty nest and retirement issues
• concerns about aging
• death and dying

To make matters worse, day-to-day stress can take its toll on your relationship with your partner or your family as a whole.

All of these can lead to any of the following problems:

• you are overwhelmed trying to juggle the demands of work, relationship and family
• you may feel your partner or children do not understand or appreciate you
• you and your partner seem to bring out the worst in one another
• you feel like you are walking on egg shells with your children or partner
• you feel disconnected and distant from your partner or children
• you and your partner argue constantly over money, sex or parenting
• you or your partner has been unfaithful and rebuilding trust seems hopeless
• you feel frustrated and resentful in parenting your children because you are tired and exhausted; the children do not seem to cooperate

If any of the above problems hit home for you and your family, do not give up…

As a Marriage and Family Therapist with cross cultural life and professional experiences, I can assist you in using your own wisdom to create the relationship and family that you really want to have. Regardless of the problems you are experiencing, I can help.

I am a marriage and family counselor who works with various types of couples and families: step/blended families, single parent families, three-generation families, cross-cultural families, families with mixed ethnic/cultural backgrounds such as English, French, Greek, Italian, Native (aboriginal), Trinidad, Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese (Mainland and Hong Kong), etc.

I believe each couple or family has inherited unique strengths and challenges from its own origin and culture. Both understanding your relationship dynamics and getting in touch with your family and its cultural roots are crucial to the resolution of the problems in your marriage or family as they arise.

If your family has immigrated from another country, as has children born and raised in Hong Kong, you all must face especially challenging issues around communicating with one another. The parent-child relationship can feel strained when attempting to share, teach and integrate individual experiences that derive from different perspectives.

I have provided couple and family therapy for a multitude of relationships and families from a variety of cultures and backgrounds (including different sexual orientations).

I view the problems you are having with your partner or other family members with a multicultural lens. This means that I take your whole “family culture” into perspective when working with you, your partner or your entire family. In counseling, we will explore your family’s values and beliefs, rules and role expectations, and anything else that makes up your individual identity or your life as a member of a family.

Each family member’s viewpoint on your “family culture” is considered in our work together. We work together to develop a “new family culture” that is healthy, nurturing and supportive of one another. How you communicate, negotiate, integrate, and essentially weave one another’s needs into the fabric of your “unique family culture” takes a combined effort.

It is possible to have a thriving and harmonious relationship with your partner and entire family.

You can:

• have a healthy, respectful and fulfilling family relationship where you all communicate easily, and feel heard and understood by one another
• feel close to your partner and have both emotional and sexual intimacy
• work as a team with your partner in making financial decisions
• work together with your partner to parent your children effectively
• recover from infidelity if it has occurred, and regain and rebuild intimacy and trust in your relationship
• move through the various stages of family life with ease

If you think you might be able to benefit from marriage/couple or family therapy with me, please contact me for a free 10 minute phone consultation and find out how I can help.