Couples therapy in Atlanta, using the Gottman Method
Most couples do not arrive with one big problem. They arrive having had the same argument for four years in slightly different clothes.
Dr. Aaron J. Kimble · PhD · MA · MBA · LPC · NCC · Georgia #LPC014380
In person in Midtown Atlanta, or by secure video in GA, FL, VT, SC and NY.
Eight years in practiceMore than 5,000 direct client hours with individuals, couples and families.
It is usually not a communication problem
Couples almost always name communication as the issue, and it is almost always something underneath it. Two people can have excellent communication skills and still be locked in the same argument for years, because the argument is not about its stated subject. It is about whether you can rely on each other.
So the work is less about talking better and more about repair. The research on this is unusually clear: what separates couples who last from couples who do not is not how often they fight or even how badly. It is what happens in the twenty minutes afterward. Repair is a learnable skill, and most couples have never been taught it.
I use the Gottman Method, which is the most thoroughly researched approach to couples work, alongside family systems thinking for the wider picture of who else is in the room even when they are not. That means we will look at the actual pattern rather than litigating the last incident, and I am not going to referee about who is right.
One thing worth saying early: I do not take sides, and I also do not pretend both people are always contributing equally to every problem. Neutrality does not mean vagueness. If I think something specific is doing the damage, I will name it.
You might be here because
- You have the same fight repeatedly and it never actually resolves.
- You have become extremely competent co-managers and much worse partners.
- The last unhurried conversation you had was about the calendar.
- One of you keeps pushing for closeness and the other keeps needing space.
- Trust broke and you do not know what rebuilding would even look like.
- You are polite with each other in a way that feels worse than arguing.
- Sex has quietly stopped and neither of you will raise it.
- You are staying together for the children and are not sure that is working.
- One of you wants to be here and the other agreed to come.
- You are trying to work out whether to repair this or end it well.
What we work on together
The repair skill
What happens after the fight matters more than the fight. Gottman-based work on repair attempts, and on recognizing them when your partner makes one badly.
Recurring conflict
The argument you have had a hundred times. We map the cycle rather than adjudicate the latest instance, because the instance is never the point.
Rebuilding after betrayal
Affairs, financial deception, and long-running dishonesty. Structured work on disclosure, accountability and whether trust can be rebuilt, without pretending the answer is guaranteed.
Intimacy and desire
Mismatched wanting, sex that stopped without discussion, and the conversation couples avoid for years. This overlaps with sex therapy and can be worked either way.
Parenting as partners
Where the disagreement is about the children but the strain is between the two of you. Family systems work on alignment without one parent conceding.
Deciding whether to stay
A legitimate reason to come in. Discernment work is about reaching a clear decision rather than assuming reconciliation is the only acceptable outcome.
What predicts whether a couple makes it is not how well they fight. It is what happens in the twenty minutes afterward, and that part can be taught.Dr. Aaron J. Kimble
How it works
A $25 consultation
Fifteen minutes. Either of you can book it. It is a reasonable way to find out whether this is worth doing before committing to a course of sessions.
We map the pattern
Early sessions are about understanding the cycle the two of you are in. Most couples find naming it a relief, because it stops being a referendum on either person's character.
In person or by video
The Midtown Atlanta office on Peachtree, or secure video, which for couples is often much easier to actually schedule.
What you can expect from me
- No refereeing. I am not going to decide who was right about the incident in the car.
- Not false neutrality either. If something specific is doing the damage, I will name it plainly.
- Structure. Sessions have a direction, so they do not become a supervised version of the argument.
- Honesty about outcomes. Some couples work should end in a considered separation, and I will not steer you away from that if it is where you are heading.
Fees & Insurance
$185 / individual · $220 / couples
Initial consultation $25. In network with Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, CareSource, Cigna, Optum, and UnitedHealthcare. Sliding scale available.