Find a Therapist

I believe that the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives. As a marriage and family therapist, I work with individuals and couples to create thriving and vibrant relationships with themselves and the important people in their lives. I bring years of experience working with couples and families and have a deep understanding of the complexity of adult relationships. My work is grounded in attachment theory which establishes that we are relational beings wired for connection and belonging. I am passionate about guiding individuals and couples toward relationship health, healing, and decision making, and when inevitable toward intentional uncoupling.

I bring ten years experience as a family law attorney and mediator to my therapeutic work. I help clients gain clarity about their relationship. I work with individuals and couples to revitalize a relationship that has become stale or disconnected by rebuilding emotional and physical intimacy. I am highly skilled in working with couples who are in the midst of a crisis and are on the brink of divorce. I offer healing, insight, reflection, rebuilding, and relationship skills.

You are welcome to schedule a 30-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit at mettarel.com.

I specialize in working with couples with young children.

Many couples seek therapy after acute stress (medical/birth trauma), or after years of chronic stress (birth of a sibling). But I believe couples counseling is for everyone and every parent. That's because couples counseling with EFT is about connection, intimacy, and discovering yourself in your relationship. The work you will do in couples counseling will be transformative. Secure attachment doesn't just happen. It happens because we work on it.

“Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” —Fred Rogers

I help individuals, couples, and families to rediscover hope, find healing, and achieve a renewed joy in living! I do this by integrating best therapeutic practices with clients’ personal strengths, including their faith, to address the multitude of issues, past and present, that are causing pain, strained relationships, and despair. I am especially interested in helping couples who are struggling with loving one another. As an EFT trained-therapist, I help these couples break out of the negative patterns that lead to resentment and division, and create new, positive ways of interacting that strengthen unity, love, and intimacy.

I believe in the power of couples therapy, and using the EFT model in particular. I understand how painful it can be to experience ongoing conflict or distance in our most important relationships. Sometimes we need a new way of looking at things—within us and between ourselves and our partner—to understand what's going on. With this new understanding, we can start to make the changes that will lead to a closer, more connected relationship.

Oftentimes, couples wait a long time before seeking help. It can be scary not knowing what to expect, and wondering if it will really help. By this time, they have experienced a lot of pain, and have established negative ways of interacting as a way to cope with the stress.

I've recently relocated to San Juan Island. I'm available for therapy sessions via videoconferencing. I'm also available in person if you're interested in traveling to Friday Harbor for an extended session, such as half a day, a full day or even two days.

Don't wait! Help is available—just take the first step. Call or email me today and we can talk about how I can help.

Roy is an individual, couple, and family therapist who provides a supportive, thoughtful, and encouraging place for you. He is experienced in the medical, educational, and mental health fields and holds two master's degrees. Roy is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a supervisor and trainer of other therapists in the state of Washington.

Roy works with divorced and blended families, and with clients who may be depressed, worried, or sad, having family problems, dealing with sexuality issues, or faced with creating a new family and couple. He respectfully treats single parents, families, and ethnic and sexual minorities. Free 20-minute phone consultation.

I believe that the process of healing begins through authentic and vulnerable connection with another. My counseling orientation is informed by attachment theory and the relational psychodynamic therapeutic model, which looks at patterns of relating from early life up to the present. Additionally, working with Emotionally Focused Therapy provides an opportunity for couples to experience attachment and deeper emotional intimacy in their relationship.

I hold Substance Use Disorder Professional Trainee certification from the state of Washington.

As a fully Certified EFT couples therapist and a Level 2 EFT individual therapist, my goal in therapy is to help couples, men and women cultivate a greater awareness, acceptance and regulation of emotion, thought and behavior. I assist clients in becoming fully aware of core emotions and the disconnecting behaviors that result when they are unrecognized and unshared. We will work together to help you develop the ability to communicate in ways that will foster increased connection and intimacy with all of your relationships. In this process, you can gain a more meaningful understanding of how you interact with your partner or spouse, and other close people in your life. In gentle and powerful ways my clients come to understand how it is that they have become distant from once cherished loved ones—and how to grow a safer, more accepting and secure connection to yourself and to those with whom you are in relationship.

I work together with my wife, Karin Matthews, as a co-therapy team to help couples bring more connection and life to their relationships.

Karin and I are two very different people: female/male, extrovert/introvert, expressive/reserved, with different careers and cultural backgrounds. Working together as a team allows us to offer you the benefit of our combined backgrounds, personalities, and perspectives. We find that our own diversity meshes well with the diversity within the couples that we see and helps us make sense of what both partners of a couple are experiencing.

If you’re having a hard time with conflict, or are feeling more distant and disconnected than you’d like, we can work with you to help you understand how you’ve come to be stuck where you are and to find new ways to navigate your differences with compassion and respect for yourselves and each other.

I help couples get underneath cycles of criticism, stonewalling, and distress so that they can find intimacy and connection and a way forward. I also specialize in working with blended families and parenting conflicts. My work is attachment trauma–informed, and it is greatly influenced by the couple-oriented work of Sue Johnson and Emotionally Focused Therapy. I am currently certifying as a sex therapist and invite couples and individuals working through sexual dysfunction to seek me out.

I believe in creating a non-judgmental, safe place for couples to resolve distress and discover intimacy. I welcome clients of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

Counseling can help you get unstuck, set goals, reduce anxiety and depression, take action to feel better, and help you have more control of your life. With a compassionate and supportive approach, I help people find real solutions to important issues in life, work, and relationships. I help people identify negative emotions and limiting beliefs and replace them with healthy coping skills and positive strategies to change their lives.

Through integrating current research in neurobiology and attachment, I help couples acknowledge, respect, and understand each other better. I help couples break negative patterns that undermine their relationships and find real tools for improving their communication and connection. Education and understanding of each partner's emotional regulation is an important part of the process. Conflict is a normal part of couple communication. Every couple has both a positive and negative communication cycle. Conflict intimacy is learned and an important part of growing together. When couples understand how their emotions, needs, and behaviors affect each other in the communication cycle, they learn how to maintain secure attachment and foster positive relationships.

Every person, couple, and family struggles from time to time. Sometimes it is hard to get through these rough patches alone. Having a compassionate and supportive individual attending to your concerns provides a safe environment to create positive change. As a marriage and family therapist who uses emotionally focused therapy, I am curious about interactions that are keeping you stuck in the uncomfortable and enthusiastic about conversations that begin to create understanding and new patterns of connection.

I focus on many aspects of being human including relationship issues, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, life events, transitions and specialize in sexual health and intimacy.

I also utilize narrative therapy, trauma-focused therapy, tantric and mindfulness practices, and motivational interviewing. I am a Certified Integrated Intimacy Professional (CIIP).

You and your partner are struggling right now, and maybe have been for a long time. Life's transitions such as retirement, marriage, or birth of a new child can make staying connected with your partner quite difficult at times. Or other challenges in your relationship can leave you with difficulty trusting and feeling alone or like roommates. You both are tired of being stressed, tired of all the yelling, tired of being tired. Going to therapy can be scary, but you won't be alone. With me, you and your partner will cry, laugh, and work hard together!

My practice is in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle at Meaningful Journey Counseling, and I focus on couples counseling and relationship issues for individuals. I hold a Master’s degree and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. My training in EFT and interpersonal process therapies influences my approach to working with both couples and individuals in a present-focused and validating manner.

Please contact me for a complimentary 15–20 minute phone consultation to see if we'd be a good fit.

You know the best thing you can give to your children is a healthy marriage, and yet getting along with your partner is one of the hardest things to do? I help couples feel close and connected in their relationship, so it's a win-win situation for everyone.

Just because you've been fighting like clockwork or living like roommates does not mean it has to stay that way. If you only have one shot at life, make it count.

Let's do this together. Give me a call today.

Please note that my practice is full, and I am no longer accepting new couples.

Since 1984, I have been a licensed psychologist practicing in the Pike Place Market area. I see individuals and couples for depression, anxiety, life transitions, and interpersonal problems.

My career changed about four years ago when I first heard Sue Johnson speak. She described the yearning that all people have to feel safely attached, to feel secure in the arms of the person they love. She described EFT and showed videos of the work. Her lecture changed my career. I have taken both levels of training and hope to become certified as an EFT therapist.

I have been challenged, excited and inspired by the EFT philosophy, practice and approach. It’s neither simplistic nor easy. But it is tender, nonjudgmental, and optimistic. When EFT works, important moments happen…and those moments can lead to lasting change.

All couples have cycles that bring them together or further apart. I will help you and your partner learn about your unique cycle, find ways to de-escalate conflict, and help you express deeper feelings and needs often covered up by conflict. The goal is for you both to be able to acknowledge and discuss these with greater awareness and compassion, creating an opportunity for a deeper bond. I look forward to learning more about you.

I provide couples and individual Emotion Focused Therapy helping clients who are often dealing with anxiety, depression and struggling with relationships. I provide a free initial consultation and would be happy to see if I might be the right fit to work with you.

My therapy practice is both in-person (Seattle) and online (serving all of Washington state).

I also provide life coaching services to anyone online and in-person in Seattle. The focus of my work ranges from business development services to executive, relationship and individual coaching. People often come to me looking for help with career transitions or improvements, improving relationships, dealing with workplace conflicts, job struggles, desiring to improve family interactions, developing their character, setting and achieving goals and executive or organizational development to name just a few areas.

Each of us is profoundly influenced by our love relationships and how our families impacted us. These relationships shape how we respond to the complexities and challenges of life. Negotiating difficulties can sometimes leave us feeling lonely, frustrated, overwhelmed, and in conflict with loved ones. I work with individuals, couples, and families to create and strengthen secure bonds in your significant relationships. Strong and secure relationships increase confidence, emotional security, and emotional well-being in the face of life's stressors.

My practice focus includes relational difficulties, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, PTSD, chronic illness, and more. In addition, I enjoy working with individuals, couples, and families who are impacted by ASD. Having completed advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy, I utilize EFT and an attachment framework to support my clients. I am currently pursuing ICEEFT certification as an EFT therapist.

I am passionate about using Emotionally Focused Therapy in my work with individuals, couples, and families because of how I have found it to help clients get in touch with and powerfully express the deeper feelings and needs behind what has kept them stuck with themselves and others.