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Healing Couples and Families: Tenacity Counseling Center

  • Writer: Yanira Uresti
    Yanira Uresti
  • Mar 22
  • 3 min read

Healthy relationships are foundational to emotional well-being—but even the most connected couples and families encounter seasons of difficulty. At Tenacity Counseling Center, we offer therapy for couples and families grounded in evidence-based approaches and real-life compassion. Whether you’re facing communication breakdowns, role confusion, or emotional distance, we provide a supportive and strategic path toward healing.


🔍 Why Do Couples and Families Struggle?

Relationship challenges don’t emerge out of nowhere—they often stem from underlying stress, emotional injuries, or unmet needs. These patterns build over time and may include:

  • Attachment Injuries: Unresolved pain from past conflict or betrayal can create emotional distance or hypervigilance in relationships.

  • Stress & Transitions: Life changes—illness, parenthood, job loss, caregiving—can shift priorities and strain connection.

  • Poor Communication Models: Many people were never taught how to express needs or navigate conflict constructively.

  • Generational Patterns: Unexamined family dynamics (e.g., roles, expectations, emotional avoidance) often resurface in partnerships.

  • Cultural Pressures & Identity: Navigating societal norms, racial identity, gender roles, or LGBTQIA+ visibility can add stress to relational dynamics.


Research shows that couples often wait 6 years after problems begin before seeking therapy-by then, patterns are entrenched (Gottman & Silver, 2015). Early intervention makes a difference.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 What Works in Couples & Family Therapy?

At Tenacity Counseling Center, we integrate research-backed methods to support real, lasting change:

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) helps partners access vulnerable emotions and build secure, responsive bonds.

  • The Gottman Method provides tools to de-escalate conflict, enhance friendship, and build shared meaning.

  • Narrative Therapy empowers families to re-author the stories they carry and shift from blame to agency.


"Secure emotional connection-not perfect communication-is the strongest predictor of long-term relationship success."-Johnson, S.M. (2004)


💬 Common Issues We Address

  • Frequent arguments, emotional distance, or silent withdrawal

  • Feeling unseen, unheard, or unappreciated

  • Infidelity recovery or rebuilding trust

  • Parenting disagreements or role confusion

  • Grief, illness, or crisis impacting the family system


💡 Tips for Couples & Families

  1. Name the Pattern, Not the Person

    Example: “We fall into a loop where I shut down, and you get louder” is more productive than “You always yell.”

  2. Prioritize Curiosity Over Control

    Ask: “Help me understand what’s underneath that feeling?” instead of reacting defensively.

  3. Reconnect Through Small Moments

    Long-term closeness is built in the micro-moments—checking in, saying thank you, noticing effort.

  4. Allow for Imperfection

    Repair—not perfection—is the goal. Every rupture is a chance to practice connection.

  5. Therapy Is a Strength, Not a Last Resort

    Getting support before a crisis makes growth and change easier.


🌱 Why Tenacity?

At Tenacity Counseling Center, therapy is never one-size-fits-all. Sessions are tailored with respect for culture, identity, family history, and lived experience—including that of the provider, who brings both clinical training and the firsthand insight of being married for over 20 years.


This lived experience adds depth to couples work—understanding not only the theory behind relationship dynamics but also the real-world patience, growth, and grace long-term commitment requires. Clients benefit from a therapist who knows what it takes to weather life’s seasons side by side.


Services include:

  • Couples therapy for all partnership structures

  • Family therapy across generations

  • Support for illness-related relational strain

  • Telehealth and in-person options throughout Texas


📚 Professional References

  1. Johnson, S. M. (2004). The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Routledge.

  2. Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (2015). The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Harmony Books.

  3. White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. Norton & Company.

 
 
 

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