Couples Therapy in Maryland
Helping you connect, grow, and embrace your relationship
Do you feel like you and your partner are drifting further and further apart?
Maybe the relationship once felt passionate, connected, and steady—but now it feels like you are caught in the same painful patterns over and over again. Conversations turn into conflict. Small issues become big ones. Or maybe you barely talk at all unless it is about schedules, kids, chores, or what needs to get done next.
You may miss the way things used to feel. The ease. The closeness. The sense that your partner really saw you and understood you. Now, even when you are in the same room, you may feel lonely.
At Turning Stone Counseling, couples therapy offers a space to slow down, understand what is happening between you, and begin rebuilding connection in a way that feels honest, grounded, and possible.
When Your Relationship Feels Stuck
These moments can feel heavy. They can also feel confusing because many couples are still trying. They are still making attempts to repair, explain, reconnect, or be heard. But over time, couples can develop patterns that make it hard to listen, validate, or respond differently.
Couples therapy can help you step out of those patterns and begin understanding what is really happening beneath the conflict.
Couples Therapy Is Not About Taking Sides
One of the biggest fears people have about couples counseling is that the therapist will pick a side.
At Turning Stone Counseling, couples therapy is not about blaming one person or deciding who is “right.” It is about understanding the relationship system you have created together and helping both partners take responsibility for the work of change.
Relationships are shaped by two people. Healing also takes two people.There may be moments where each of you feels challenged. There may be sessions that feel vulnerable or uncomfortable. That does not mean therapy is not working. Often, it means you are finally slowing down enough to notice the parts of the relationship that need attention.
Our role is to help you have conversations differently, understand each other more clearly, and move toward repair with more honesty and compassion.
Most couples do not wait until things are easy to begin therapy. They come when they feel tired, disconnected, or unsure how to move forward.
You may be feeling:
- Like every conversation turns into an argument
- Emotionally distant from your partner
- Lonely, unseen, or misunderstood
- Frustrated by the same conflict happening again and again
- Unsure how to rebuild trust after hurt or betrayal
- Disconnected physically, emotionally, or sexually
- Overwhelmed by parenting, life transitions, or family stress
- Afraid that the relationship may not recover
What Couples Therapy Can Help With?
You do not have to wait until the relationship feels like it is falling apart to begin couples therapy. Some couples come because they are in crisis. Others come because they want to strengthen their connection, communicate better, and build a more intentional relationship before resentment grows.
Our Approach to Couples Therapy
At Turning Stone Counseling, our therapists draw from several respected couples therapy approaches, including the Gottman Method, Imago Relationship Therapy, Relational Life Therapy, and PACT.
These approaches help couples better understand their patterns, strengthen emotional connection, and develop more effective ways to communicate.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
The Gottman Method focuses on helping couples build friendship, manage conflict, increase emotional connection, and create shared meaning. It can be especially helpful for couples who feel stuck in repeated arguments, emotional distance, or communication patterns that leave both partners feeling unheard.
Imago Relationship Therapy
Imago therapy helps couples understand how earlier experiences, attachment patterns, and unmet needs can show up in the relationship. This approach can support partners in listening more deeply, responding with empathy, and understanding the pain beneath each other’s reactions.
Relational Life Therapy
Relational Life Therapy focuses on honesty, accountability, boundaries, and relational repair. It can be especially helpful when couples are caught in power struggles, defensiveness, resentment, or patterns where one or both partners feel unseen, dismissed, or hurt.
PACT
PACT, or the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy, looks at attachment, nervous system responses, and how partners experience safety and threat in the relationship. This approach can help couples understand why conflict escalates so quickly and how to create more security, protection, and connection with each other.
While each approach offers something different, the heart of the work is the same: helping you understand the pattern you are caught in and learn how to reach for each other in a new way.
Meet Our Couples Therapists
Carlada Razmus LCPC MAC
Carlada is trained in Gottman, RLT, PACT
Emily Mahoney LCPC MT-BC
Emily is trained in Imago and Gottman
Relationships Change Because People Change
Humans evolve.
So do relationships.
The relationship you had when you first met may not be the relationship you need now. Life changes. Responsibilities grow. Stress increases. Parenting, careers, family dynamics, grief, trauma, and transitions can all impact how connected you feel to your partner.
Sometimes couples struggle not because they do not love each other, but because the relationship has not had space to adjust to who each person is becoming.
Couples therapy can help you ask important questions:
What do we need now?
What are we not saying?
Where do we feel hurt, alone, or misunderstood?
How do we move forward with more care, honesty, and connection?
This work is not about going back to exactly who you were before. It is about creating something more honest, more mature, and more sustainable for where you are now.
Begin Couples Therapy
Frequently Asked Questions about Couples Therapy
What is couples therapy?
Couples therapy is a form of counseling that helps partners better understand their relationship patterns, improve communication, repair emotional disconnection, and work through conflict with the support of a trained therapist.
At Turning Stone Counseling, couples therapy is not about blaming one partner or deciding who is right. It is about helping both people understand what is happening between them and learn healthier ways to connect, communicate, and repair.
How do I know if we need couples therapy?
You may benefit from couples therapy if you and your partner keep having the same arguments, feel emotionally distant, struggle to communicate, avoid difficult conversations, or feel more like roommates than partners. Couples therapy can also help when there has been a betrayal, loss of intimacy, parenting stress, major life transitions, or growing resentment. You do not have to wait until the relationship feels like it is falling apart to ask for support.
Is couples therapy only for married couples?
No. Couples therapy is for married couples, unmarried partners, engaged couples, dating partners, and long-term committed relationships.
Some people search for marriage counseling, relationship counseling, or couples counseling, but the goal is similar: to create a space where both partners can better understand the relationship and work toward meaningful change together.
What issues can couples therapy help with?
Couples therapy can help with communication problems, frequent conflict, emotional disconnection, intimacy concerns, infidelity, parenting stress, blended family challenges, financial disagreements, differences in values, grief, loss, life transitions, and premarital concerns. It can also support couples who are not in crisis but want to be more proactive and intentional in their relationship.
Do you offer marriage counseling in Maryland?
Yes. Turning Stone Counseling offers couples therapy and marriage counseling in Maryland for partners who want support with communication, conflict, emotional distance, intimacy, trust, and relationship repair.
Our practice is located in Pasadena, Maryland, and we support couples from surrounding areas as well as clients throughout Maryland through online therapy when appropriate.
Will the couples therapist take sides?
No. A couples therapist’s role is not to pick a side, blame one partner, or decide who is “the problem.” In couples therapy, the relationship itself becomes the focus. Your therapist will help both partners understand the patterns that are keeping you stuck and support each person in taking responsibility for their part of the work.
It's important to remember that whenever there is more than one person in a room, perceptions and emotions can run high. We know that partners in couples therapy may perceive 'taking sides' and we make every effort to clarify how interventions are perceived in our work.
What therapy approaches do you use for couples counseling?
Our therapists draw from several respected couples therapy approaches, including the Gottman Method, Imago Relationship Therapy, Relational Life Therapy, and PACT. These approaches help couples understand communication patterns, emotional needs, attachment dynamics, conflict cycles, intimacy concerns, and opportunities for repair.
Can couples therapy help after infidelity?
Couples therapy can help partners begin the difficult work of understanding, processing, and repairing after infidelity or betrayal. This work often includes rebuilding trust, creating safety, understanding the impact of the betrayal, improving communication, and deciding what the relationship needs moving forward. Healing after infidelity takes time, honesty, and commitment from both partners.
What if my partner does not want to come to couples therapy?
It is common for one partner to feel more ready for couples therapy than the other. If your partner is unsure, it may help to frame therapy as a place to better understand the relationship, not as a place where one person will be blamed. Sometimes, individual therapy can also help you explore your relationship patterns, needs, boundaries, and next steps if your partner is not ready to participate.
Is couples therapy helpful before things get really bad?
Yes. Couples therapy can be helpful before a relationship reaches a crisis point. Many couples use therapy proactively to improve communication, deepen emotional connection, prepare for marriage, navigate parenting, or strengthen their relationship during a major life transition. You do not need to be on the edge of separation to benefit from support.
Couples Therapy Blogs
Is It Too Late to Fix Our Relationship?
Is It Too Late to Fix Our Relationship? Many couples who begin searching for couples therapy are asking themselves one painful question: “Is it already too late for us?” By
Why Couples Stop Communicating (And How Couples Therapy Can Help)
Do you want to know why couples stop communicating? It is not always obvious, learn more about why and how couples therapy can help.
Our Office
Location
3100F Mountain Rd. Pasadena, MD 21122
Phone Number
410-841-9647
intake@turningstonecounseling.com