Relational Therapy

Relational therapy supports individuals and couples who want to improve connection, navigate interpersonal challenges, and cultivate healthier patterns of relating. This work benefits anyone who notices repeated conflict, disconnection, or difficulty expressing needs and wants to build stronger, more authentic relationships with themselves and others.

At Upward Roots, relational therapy is at the heart of my work and goes far beyond surface-level communication skills. Together, we will focus on your nervous system, attachment patterns, and relational histories to understand why patterns repeat and how they can be permanently shifted. You deserve a fulfilling life with strong connections that support who you truly are.

We honor your full experience, including your emotional, bodily, and relational responses, while helping you develop practical tools to:

Develop secure attachment through learning how to securely function within healthier relationship dynamics
Strengthen connection and trust in your relationships
Repair ruptures and navigate conflict safely
Understand patterns that may have roots in family history or early attachment experiences
Process triggers and learn how to safeguard your relationships from projecting past pain on each other
Build a sense of safety, autonomy, and authentic connection

This approach allows relationships to grow with intention, like an oak tree developing strong roots while reaching toward the light.

What to Expect in Sessions

Sessions are collaborative and tailored to your relational needs. We may:

Explore patterns in how you relate to others and yourself
Track emotional and physiological cues to improve communication and regulation
Practice presence, repair, and attunement within relationships
Reflect on relational dynamics, triggers, and ways to cultivate empathy and understanding
Use creative, experiential, and somatic tools to support growth and connection

Each session begins and ends with grounding or integration techniques to help you carry insights and calm into your daily interactions.

Approaches That Meet You Where You Are

Relational therapy draws from a variety of approaches based on your needs:

DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience) therapy bridges attachment theory and somatic psychotherapy, helping individuals repair attachment wounds while supporting post-traumatic growth. With simple, attuned skills, we’ll meet your core relational needs as they arise, offering corrective experiences to practice and build secure, nurturing, and resilient relationships.

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This combination of approaches allows individuals and couples to cultivate relationships that are safe, attuned, and resilient, while fostering personal growth and self-awareness.

Relational therapy at Upward Roots helps individuals and couples to uncover the roots of repeated patterns, strengthen connection, and build healthier ways of relating. Whether you are navigating conflict, disconnection, or challenges expressing your needs, this work offers a safe, supportive space to grow awareness, repair relational ruptures, and cultivate lasting trust and intimacy. Take the first step toward deeper understanding and stronger relationships by reaching out to schedule a session today.

Schedule a Consultation

Frequently Asked Questions

Starting therapy often begins with a massive sigh, an exhaustion of looking for help, for relief, for change. I welcome your curiosities and hope that you will begin to find answers to your unsettled questions on the pages of my website.

Here are answers to the most common questions I am asked about working with Upward Roots. For any additional questions, please reach out so I can support your next step of growth.

Upward Roots offers trauma-informed therapy, EMDR, attachment-based individual and couples therapy, and EMDR intensives.
- Individual Trauma Therapy (C-PTSD & PTSD)
  Sessions are oriented toward helping the nervous system process and release stored trauma that continues to show up as anxiety, chronic stress, emotional reactivity, or shutdown. EMDR is integrated with parts work and somatic psychotherapy to address developmental, relational, and situational trauma, as well as body-based trauma responses.
- Individual Attachment Therapy
  Early and ongoing relationships shape how we protect ourselves, connect with others, and navigate closeness. This work begins by identifying your unique attachment style and reflecting on relational patterns such as people-pleasing or hyperindependence. Mind-body approaches, including imagery, inner child healing, parts work, boundary setting, and nervous system regulation, support greater security and flexibility in adult relationships.
- Couples Therapy
  Relational distress often emerges from repeated patterns rather than isolated conflicts. Using evidence-based, attachment-focused frameworks such as PACT, the Gottman Method, Attachment Core Pattern Therapy and EMDR for couples, therapy focuses on slowing these cycles, strengthening communication, understanding each partner’s internal worlds, and repairing relational injuries while remaining mindful of the impact of past trauma.
- EMDR Intensives
  For some individuals, extended in-person sessions allow for deeper focus and momentum than traditional weekly therapy. EMDR Intensives range from half-day to multi-day sessions in Carlsbad, California, and are designed for accelerated, immersive trauma processing, integration, and nervous system regulation.
- Support for Therapists and Clinicians
  Holding space for others can make it easy to neglect your own internal landscape. Individual and group settings offer room to explore personal patterns, countertransference, and burnout within a supportive, trauma-informed, relational context.
1. By scheduling a free 20-minute phone consultation. I want to make sure both of us feel confident in our ability to meet your therapy goals together before we start unpacking your history in sessions. We can decide together if weekly sessions, twice a week sessions, or an intensive is the right therapy container for you at this time.
2. We will choose the day and time that works best for your emotional availability for this deeper therapeutic work. Consistency is a key ingredient in felt-safety and trust. We will build safety within predictability, knowing that each week we will meet and attune to your inner world together, on the same day, at the same time, whenever possible.
3. In our first sessions, we’ll explore together the influences on who you are today–the significant people and places that leave you feeling your most confident, secure, and calm self. We will begin with resourcing through imagery, resource tapping, and somatic movement to encourage felt-safety in your attachment and nervous systems.
4. Together, we will set your goals and direction for your healing. We will discuss which formal diagnosis makes the most sense if you are seeking reimbursement on a PPO insurance plan.
5. Healing takes time and trust. We’ll unpack the stories and, with time, find the freedom to move your body and find the flexibility to think more kindly of yourself–past, present and future.
- Individual therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320
- Couples therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320 | 110 minutes – $440
- Extended or deep work sessions: 3 hours – $720 | 4 hours – $960
- EMDR intensives: Half day – $900 | Full day – $1,700
Extended sessions and intensives are prorated. Sliding fee options may be available. Upward Roots is out-of-network for insurance, but Superbills are provided for PPO reimbursement for standard sessions.
At this time, Upward Roots is out-of-network with all insurance providers. If you plan to seek reimbursement, you can contact your insurance company to ask about your out-of-network benefits. Sharing the billing codes used in sessions will help them provide clear and accurate information about your coverage:
- 90791 - All first sessions
- 90834 - 50-minute individual sessions
- 90837 - Individual sessions, 53-60 minute sessions
- 90847 - 50-minute couples session

Relational Therapy

What to Expect in Sessions

Approaches That Meet You Where You Are

Frequently Asked Questions

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