Durham/Chapel Hill Office Clinicians
Dr. Colleen Hamilton enjoys premarital therapy, and for married couples an early intervention, “preventive medicine” approach when experiencing difficulties. She encourages couples to come in early in their relationship to help develop excellent couple’s communication and interaction skills. This also helps couples identify possible topics that may become problematic, and allows these concerns to be addressed sooner rather than later. When problems do occur, she encourages couples to come in as soon as they realize the problem is not alleviating quickly; research has shown that people who get help for problems early on are more successful and therapy takes less time. If individual issues such as depression, stress/anxiety, anger management, high emotionality, or trauma are impacting the relationship, Dr. Hamilton can take a combined individual and couple’s sessions approach to address these concerns. As a child psychologist as well, if child/teen issues are impacting the couple’s relationship, she can help guide and coach the parents to effectively address the child-related issues and alleviate the stress on the couple.
Couples counseling/marriage therapy has been a primary specialty area for Dr. Lepage, and remains one of her favorite things to do. She has received specialized training from renowned psychologists to include: being part of an exclusive, personalized 9-hour 10-person training with Dr. Albert Ellis, a 2-day training with sex therapist Dr. Barry McCarthy, and a 2-day training with Drs. John & Julie Gottman.
Raleigh/Cary Office Clinicians
As a therapist, Heidi helps couples to identify their challenges and goals for therapy as the first step in the process. She views couples therapy as a collaborative journey and fosters that through mutual respect, while guiding conversations so that each individual is heard. Using person-centered and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) modalities, each person begins to better understand themselves, their role within the relationship, and how their spouse/significant other operates, while they work together developing healthy relationship skills. Heidi enjoys working with couples who present to therapy to address communication skills and coping strategies, and assists them to identify risks as well as protective factors within the relationship.
Throughout her career, Melissa has worked with couples in crisis and transitions, and has experience managing relationship challenges that can arise between spouses, significant others, or partners. Melissa understands that at times relationships can be uncertain, even very upsetting, and couples may benefit from professional intervention. By focusing on the partners’ strengths, Melissa encourages clients to seek common ground and explore solutions for each couple and individual to be living in a healthy manner. To accomplish this goal, she utilizes psychoeducation about relationship stress and positive communication skill-building. By teaching mindfulness and positive coping skills along with other strategic interventions, Melissa assists couples in healing and even strengthening their relationship. Relationships can be defined in many different ways and Melissa explores with an open mind how the couple has chosen to define their commitment to the partnership. Couples are encouraged to identify their own needs and take responsibility for communicating that to their partner, and being receptive to hearing what their partner is seeking. Being open and willing to try new forms of communication is a way to restore the positive aspects of your relationship.
Ms. Cheryl Cohen is an interactive couples therapist who strives to bring forth strengths in the relationship and help minimize/improve the deficits. She is empathic, genuine and intuitive in nature. Cheryl will start by getting an in-depth assessment from the couple and each person individually, to have the most comprehensive information to work with when addressing the couple’s concerns. Healthy couples are a product of healthy individuals.
Dr. Alexandra Maestre aims to create a warm, non-judgmental, and empathic environment for couples. At the onset of treatment, she focuses on exploring with the couple the struggles that led them to seek therapy, while also highlighting the couple’s past successes and strengths that have helped them overcome obstacles. Dr. Maestre encourages each person to share their perception of the relationship and what they wish to achieve through therapy. In addition, she places great emphasis on communication and developing empathy for one another to reduce struggles, reconcile differences, and strengthen the relationship.