Couples Therapy In NYC
Dr. Sam Klugman, PsyD
Bethany Sinclair, LMHC
We have over 15 years helping couples move out of stuck patterns and back to connection using research backed therapies like Gottman, IBCT and ACT.
Do you feel like you’re having the same fight on repeat?
Do you feel as though your relationship is on autopilot or that distance between you and your partner is impossible to close?
Couples often reach a point where their usual communication strategies are not enough to handle major stressors or transitions in their relationship, leading to heightened conflict or disengagement and a pervasive negative climate. You might feel like you’re walking on eggshells, or that every conversation leads to criticism, shutdown, or defensiveness. Over time, intimacy fades and resentment builds in its place.
Couples don’t come in because they’ve failed or don’t care. They’re here because the ways they’ve tried to connect aren’t working.
Couples Come To Us For:
Loss of emotional and sexual intimacy
Repeating and stuck patterns of conflict and arguing
Emotional distance
Invalidating or critical communication
Relationship crises including trust ruptures and infidelity
Differences in values on issues like culture, finances, sexuality, religion
Concerns navigating changes in relationship configurations, openness and consensual non-monogamy
Challenges coping with major life stressors such as illness, loss, career change, and family transitions
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone and
your relationship is not beyond repair.
How Couples Therapy With Us Works
Our approach to couples therapy is not about deciding who’s “right” or “wrong.”
It is about understanding the patterns between you and learning how to shift them so the relationship can feel more stable, connected, and supportive again.
We slow things down and focus on what’s actually happening in your communication, especially in the moments where things tend to break down, so you can more deeply understand and connect with each other
Some couples come to us having previous experiences in couples therapy that made them feel more worse or more stuck without providing enough support to shift out of their old patterns. Our approach to couples therapy is active and facilitative, interrupting harmful patterns and modeling skills for healthier communication and connection.
Modalities We Use
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Based on decades of research on healthy and lasting relationships, this approach identifies and changes destructive communication patterns while building trust, intimacy, and repair skills.
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Helps partners stay present and grounded with each other during conflict, cultivate appreciation and acceptance of individual differences, while clarifying and acting according to relationship values.
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Helps couples foster emotional acceptance while developing new ways of responding to older, entrenched patterns of conflict.
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Addresses unique strengths and challenges experienced by queer couples including family and cultural issues, sexual and relationship dynamics, coming out and transitioning.
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Builds skills for interrupting escalation and expressing needs more clearly with minimization of harm to the relationship.
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For individuals who have histories of trauma, treatment addresses the ways trauma reactions are triggered in the relationship and find ways to establish individual safety, trust, and intimacy in parallel with relationship growth.
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Emotion regulation strategies to help both partners stay present instead of getting pulled into emotional escalation.
Rebuild Connection
The goal is not a perfect relationship.
It is a more connected and workable one.
After Therapy With Us,
Couples Report:
Deeper intimacy and knowledge of themselves and their partners
Less reactive conflict and new ways of communicating
Renewed emotional connections
More calm
Better teamwork and mutual admiration
Clarity on their relationship values
Optimism about their future together
Our Couples Therapists
Dr. Sam Klugman, PsyD
“Helping couples find ways to deeply accept each other and connect in new ways are some of the most rewarding moments I have had as a therapist.”
More About Me
Bethany Sinclair, LMHC
“ I use ACT, behavioral, and mindfulness based approaches to help couples deepen their bonds and move in new directions”
3 Steps To Get Started
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Reach out through the contact form. We will respond directly and let you know if we are the right fit.
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We’ll talk briefly to understand what’s happening in your relationship and see if our services can help.
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We’ll map out your main patterns and history as a couple and discuss a plan for our work together, including specific tools and strategies.