Couples therapy for thoughtful partners who try hard to get relationships right — but keep ending up in the same painful patterns
Meet Dr. Brittany Sievers, Licensed Psychologist
Most people who come to see me care deeply about their relationship and are genuinely trying. From the outside, their lives often look put-together and capable. But inside the relationship, conflict escalates faster than expected, repair takes longer than it should, and the same misunderstandings keep taking over.
You may be working hard to fix the relationship while quietly wondering if you are the real problem — and other times you start to wonder if you are carrying more emotional responsibility than you should. Something isn’t working, and despite your best efforts, you can’t figure it out.
Because others see you as capable and put-together, it can feel especially hard to talk about what’s not working in your relationship — or to let anyone see how much it’s actually hurting.
In our work together, I don’t just listen to what goes wrong between you — I pay close attention to how the pattern unfolds in real time, in our session. I track where conversations derail, where one of you feels alone or overwhelmed, and where the same reactions keep taking over despite good intentions.
I step in actively to slow the moment down, ask direct questions, and help you understand what’s happening underneath the conflict so you can respond to each other differently, not just argue more carefully.
We look at the emotional and relationship patterns shaping your reactions — including early relationship experiences and learned coping strategies — and work to interrupt the cycles that keep pulling you both off course, while strengthening the parts of your connection that are still very much alive. Many of the couples I work with didn't have great relationship examples growing up. If closeness felt unpredictable, conflict felt intense or ignored, or chaotic substance use or instability were part of the environment, it makes sense that relationship patterns today can feel confusing or overwhelming at times. These patterns are understandable, and they are changeable. Your relationship isn't doomed. When couples learn how to recognize the cycle they're caught in, and respond differently to the emotions underneath it, connection and trust can grow again in very real ways. Repair is possible.This is where emotion focused, active, couples therapy can help .
Where I do my best work
01 Relationships Shaped by Early Family dynamics
Helping couples and individuals understand how early experiences with closeness, conflict, or emotional distance show up in adult relationships.
02 constant conflict and emotional disconnection
Working with couples who care deeply but feel stuck in cycles that escalate, shut down, or never fully resolve.
04 Egalitarian Relationships
I offer relationship therapy that acknowledges how racism, sexism, and heteronormativity shape the way people connect, argue, and care for one another. Many couples I work with are actively unlearning rigid expectations around emotional labor, power, and gender roles — and want support building relationships that feel more balanced, mutual, and alive.
03 changing coping patterns that once helped, but no longer do
Including chaotic substance use, emotional avoidance, perfectionism, anger, or taking on too much responsibility in the relationship and in life as ways of coping with stress or past experiences — patterns that once helped you get by but can now interfere with intimacy and trust.