Couples Therapy

No two people speak the same language, even when they share the words. Each of us carries a private dictionary written in childhood, edited by every love and injury since, where space or fine or later means something the other has never heard. Imago therapy starts here: with the discovery that we're drawn, again and again, to partners who echo our earliest wounds, because some part of us is still trying to finish an old story with someone new.

The work is learning to read each other's dictionary to translate instead of assume. We look at the attachment injuries you each carried in, and the scripts the world handed you about what a man does, what a woman owes, what a couple is supposed to be, and you decide together which of it you keep. Two people don't have to disappear into one unit to belong to each other. You build a culture of your own, on purpose, with room in it for each of you to become who you're capable of being.

Your Questions, Answered

Yes. Reluctance is normal, and it's often the more hesitant partner who ends up finding the work most useful. You can begin with one honest conversation about what's not working — no one is asked to commit to more than the next session.
No. I'm on the side of the relationship, which means making sure you both feel heard — especially in the places where you've stopped hearing each other. You'll each get room to say the thing you haven't found a way to say yet.
Usually not, though I'll always be honest with you about what I see. Couples come in at every stage — early cracks, long-standing distance, even one foot out the door. What matters more than how bad it's gotten is whether there's still some willingness, in both of you, to try.
Often the missing piece is a framework that gets underneath the surface fights to what they're actually about. I work with Imago and attachment science to do that, and to leave you with tools you can use when I'm not in the room. I assign homework and expect that it be completed by both partners each week.
Yes, and it's some of the most valuable work a couple can do — building the skills and shared understanding before the hard seasons arrive, instead of during them. We can focus on whatever feels most alive for you: money, family, intimacy, expectations, the future you're each picturing.
I see couples in person in Echo Park and online across California. New couples begin with a free 20-minute consultation with both of you or each of you separately. It’s a low-pressure way to ask questions and see if I'm the right fit for you both. I take Aetna, and if you have a different provider, we can talk about private pay options. https://ledamaliga.com/book