Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, can you describe the most rewarding couple's therapy interaction you experienced in your career? Why was it so rewarding?

Couples get stuck in ruts. Out of desperation, individual partners keep trying the same things, saying the same words, doing the same actions, hoping on a prayer that something will change. Teaching couples how to communicate through hot topic issues <i>without defensiveness</i> is truly rewarding as a therapist, because its like watching the proverbial scales fall from their eyes as they really HEAR each other for the first time, likely in years. One couple I saw had been in a stalemate for so long, they didn't know when it had started. With gentle coaching, I helped them through the historically hot topic of financial freedoms and restrictions, baggage they each came to their marriage with about spending and saving, and what those concepts meant to each of them and why. I literally saw their foreheads clear, tears form as understanding took root, and they ended up just clutching at each other, apologizing and ultimately healing from years of misconceptions and misplaced judgments. Its interactions like this--and the grateful thanks from the couples and individuals I see--that keep me going as a therapist.