Evidence-Based Marital and Couples Therapy
Pacific Couples emphasizes the Gottman Method, supplemented by three other empirically supported treatments.
Decades of research on thousands of couples have shown four couples therapy treatments to be effective for a wide variety of problems: the Gottman Method, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy. Although the Gottman Method has the most extensive research base and is considered to be the gold standard, each of these therapies has unique elements that some couples may prefer or that may be a better fit for certain relationship problems.
You can read more about these approaches here.
Founder
John Williams, PhD | Clinical Psychologist (CA PSY 24656)
I am a licensed clinical psychologist with 20 years of experience helping couples and individuals. I have extensive training in The Gottman Method, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy. You can read more about these approaches here.
Standard Fees
Sessions are 45 or 90 minutes, billed at a rate of $300 per hour. For our out-of-network clients, we can provide a superbill for submission to insurers.
Sliding Scale
We allocate a percentage of our caseload to reduced-rate sessions with couples who do not have insurance and are unable to pay our standard rate.
Social Justice
We also allocate a percentage of our caseload to no-cost sessions with couples from underserved groups. These are offered in six-session blocks.
Self-Help Guides
Whether or not you are ready to start therapy, you can still take some meaningful action right away. These core texts are excellent self-help guides, and are based on the same evidence-based therapies we use in our sessions.
You can read more about these approaches here.
ACT for Couples
ACT with Love
The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model emphasizes how we can stop the constant struggle to have the idealized relationship that we think we’re supposed to be having, and instead learn how to have a loving and joyful experience in the relationship we actually have.
IBCT
Reconcilable Differences
The Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy model addresses one of the most common mistakes people make when trying to solve their relationship problems: blaming the other person for all of the problems in the relationship and focusing all our energy on getting the other person to change.
Gottman Method
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
The Gottman Method is based on rigorous study of the differences between happy and unhappy couples, and helps us increase the behaviors that lead to marital happiness and decrease the behaviors that lead to unhappiness and divorce.