Relationship Counseling
Is Your Relationship Stuck in the Same Painful Cycle?
Maybe you have the same argument again and again — different topic, same wound. One of you pursues, pushing for closeness; the other withdraws, needing space to feel safe. Both of you end up more alone than before.
Or maybe you’ve stopped fighting altogether, and the silence between you has grown into something harder to bridge than the conflict ever was.
These patterns aren’t signs that you’ve chosen the wrong partner or that your relationship is beyond repair. They’re signs that something important is trying to be heard — and hasn’t been yet.
Couples therapy can change that.
- Georgia-wide Virtual & Sandy Springs In-Person
Sandy Springs Psychotherapy Associates
Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples in the Atlanta Area
Evidence-Based Treatment
I am a Certified EFT Couples Therapist practicing in Sandy Springs, Georgia, serving couples throughout Atlanta, Buckhead, Dunwoody, Roswell, and Marietta.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is one of the most extensively researched approaches to couples therapy in the world. Developed by Dr. Sue Johnson, EFT works by helping couples identify the negative interaction cycles that keep them stuck, understand the underlying emotions and attachment needs driving those cycles, and build new patterns of reaching for — and responding to — each other.
The goal is not to teach you communication techniques that feel scripted. The goal is to shift the emotional climate between you — so that safety, trust, and genuine closeness become possible again.
Research consistently shows that 70–75% of couples move from relationship distress to recovery through EFT, and that the gains are lasting.
Relational Care
What Brings Couples to Therapy
- Recurring conflict and communication breakdown
- Emotional distance or disconnection
- Recovery after infidelity or a significant breach of trust
- Differences in intimacy — emotional or physical
- Parenting stress straining the relationship
- Life transitions: career changes, loss, retirement, empty nest
- Premarital counseling and relationship strengthening
"You don’t have to be in crisis to benefit from couples therapy. Many couples come in not because something catastrophic has happened, but because they want more — more closeness, more understanding, more of what brought them together in the first place."
The Therapeutic Journey
How I Work
I was fortunate to study directly under the founders of Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Gottman Method — completing my EFT Externship coursework with Dr. Sue Johnson and my Level 1 Gottman training with Drs. John and Julie Gottman. Alongside EFT, I draw on Schema Therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS), which allows me to meet you and your partner where you are — whether that’s in acute distress or in a longer, more exploratory process of growth.
IFS is a natural complement to EFT in couples work. Where EFT helps partners identify and shift their negative interaction cycle, IFS goes deeper — helping each person understand the internal “parts” that get activated in conflict. The part that shuts down. The part that attacks. The part that is terrified of being abandoned or engulfed. When both partners can approach their own parts — and each other’s — with curiosity rather than judgment, something genuinely new becomes possible in the relationship.
My own lived experience — decades of marriage, raising three sons, and the full, complicated richness of long-term partnership — shapes the steadiness and realism I bring to this work. I don’t believe in idealized relationships. I believe in ones where both people feel genuinely seen.
In-Person & Virtual Availability
Sandy Springs office or HIPAA-compliant throughout GA
Sessions are available in-person at Sandy Springs Psychotherapy Associates, 6000 Lake Forrest Drive, Suite 400, Sandy Springs, GA 30328, and virtually via a HIPAA-compliant platform for couples throughout Georgia.
Ready to Take the First Step?
Brief consultation available via phone, text, or email
Direct Call or SMS
678-575-4315
Inquiry Email
susan.blank1@gmail.com
