Couples & Marriage Counseling Services | Davenport, IA

Yes. I offer couples and marriage counseling in-person in Davenport, Iowa, and serve clients living throughout the Quad Cities area and those who can travel to the area.

Additionally, I am able to meet virtually for those in Iowa, Illinois, or Wisconsin.

Couples counseling may be a good fit if you and your partner feel stuck in the same arguments, emotionally distant, disconnected, resentful, or unsure how to repair after conflict. You do not have to be in crisis to benefit from counseling. Many couples come to counseling because they want to communicate better, understand each other more deeply, rebuild trust, or feel like they are on the same team again.

Couples counseling can also be helpful when life transitions, parenting stress, grief, betrayal, family pressures, intimacy concerns, or unresolved hurts begin to impact the relationship. The goal is not to decide who is right or wrong, but to better understand the pattern between you and create a more secure, respectful, and connected way forward.

Couples counseling and marriage counseling are often used interchangeably. Both support partners in improving communication, understanding conflict patterns, increasing emotional connection, and repairing relational injuries.

You do not have to be married to benefit from couples counseling. I work with dating, engaged, married, long-term partnered, and parenting couples who want to better understand their relationship and create healthier patterns of connection.

Additionally, I work with couples navigating separation and/or divorce, and those navigating coparenting.

Premarital counseling helps couples prepare for marriage or long-term commitment by strengthening the foundation of the relationship before problems become entrenched. It creates space to talk intentionally about communication, conflict, finances, family roles, intimacy, parenting expectations, values, spirituality, boundaries, and long-term goals.

Premarital counseling is not only for couples with concerns. It can be a proactive way to build shared language, identify strengths, and learn tools for navigating future stress together.

Couples and marriage counseling sessions are for partners who are committed to working on their relationship. These sessions can support couples who want to improve communication, rebuild connection, work through recurring patterns, repair hurt, strengthen trust, or stay intentional in their relationship.

Unlike discernment counseling, this option is for couples who are not primarily deciding whether to stay together, but are choosing to engage in the work of understanding, repair, and growth.

Think of maintenance sessions as ongoing care for the relationship. Maintenance sessions are for couples who have already done meaningful work together and want to stay intentional about their connection. These sessions are often less frequent than regular therapy. They can help couples protect progress, reconnect during stressful seasons, and continue building a relationship that feels safe, responsive, and connected.

For partners needing focused support, intensive couples counseling provides the equivalent of months of traditional counseling in a single, two-day experience. Rather than navigating the weekly clock, couples are given the dedicated, continuous time needed to unpack complex dynamics.  This immersive format builds the momentum required to achieve deep breakthroughs and walk away with actionable tools for lasting connection.

Who is it for?

Intensive counseling is especially helpful for couples who are in facing: 

• Infidelity

• Betrayal

• Affairs

• Relationship in Crisis

• Dishonesty

• Destructive Patterns

• Lack of Transparency

• Urgent Matters that Need to Be Resolved Quickly

• And More...

Discernment counseling is a short-term, structured process for couples where one or both partners are uncertain about the future of the relationship. It is different from traditional couples counseling because the immediate goal is not to repair the relationship right away. The goal is clarity and confidence about the next step.

In discernment counseling, couples typically explore three paths: staying in the relationship as it is for now, moving toward separation or divorce, or committing to a specific period of couples counseling with both partners fully participating.

Yes. Betrayal can deeply impact trust, emotional safety, attachment, and the way partners understand the relationship. Couples counseling can help partners slow down the pain cycle, understand what happened, address the impact of the betrayal, and determine what repair may look like.

Counseling after betrayal is not about rushing forgiveness or forcing the relationship to continue. It is about creating space for honesty, accountability, grief, boundaries, and clarity so both partners can better understand what is needed next.

My work with couples is informed by evidence-based and relational approaches, including the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, attachment-focused understanding, and trauma-informed care. This means we may look at communication patterns, emotional safety, protective responses, conflict cycles, repair attempts, and the deeper needs underneath recurring arguments.

The goal is to help couples understand not only what they fight about, but what happens inside each person and between both partners when disconnection takes over.

Workshops and trainings can be supportive and educational, but they are not a substitute for counseling. Workshops and trainings are designed to provide tools, insight, reflection, and shared language, while counseling offers more individualized assessment and support.

For couples or individuals experiencing significant distress, trauma, betrayal, safety concerns, or complex relational patterns, counseling may be a more appropriate or necessary level of care.

I do not accept insurance for couples counseling, marriage counseling, couples intensives, discernment counseling, premarital counseling, or workshops and trainings. These services are self-pay.

Many insurance plans do not cover couples counseling when the focus is the relationship rather than an individual mental health diagnosis. Keeping couples work private pay also allows us to focus more directly on your relationship goals, patterns, communication, repair, and connection without needing to frame the work around medical necessity or an individual diagnosis.

Before scheduling, you are welcome to review current fees and ask any questions about payment, session length, or which service may be the best fit for your relationship.

Session frequency depends on the type of support you are seeking, your goals, and the level of distress or disconnection in the relationship.

Some couples begin with weekly or every-other-week sessions to build momentum, especially when they are working through recurring conflict, communication concerns, betrayal, or emotional disconnection.

Other couples may schedule less frequently for maintenance, premarital counseling, or proactive relationship support.

Couples intensives offer a different format, allowing for longer, more focused sessions instead of traditional weekly appointments.

We can discuss what pace makes the most sense based on your relationship, availability, and goals.