Northampton Center for Couples Therapy

02/05/2026

You don't have to have perfectly articulated feelings to share them. Even saying "I'm not okay, but I'm still figuring out why" is more honest than pretending everything's fine. Start with smaller things rather than waiting until you're deeply hurt. Your needs and feelings are valid parts of the relationship, not burdens. A healthy relationship should have room for both people's authentic experiences, including the uncomfortable ones.

What's your relationship with this pattern? Is there something specific that makes it hard to speak up?

02/03/2026

In my practice, I view a couple’s love as a “dance” of connection and disconnection. When the rose-colored lens of a new relationship begins to fade, it’s common to fall into a painful cycle: one partner “pursues” or protests out of a deep need for closeness, while the other withdraws or pulls away to find safety. Using an Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) framework, I help you look beneath the surface of these repetitive arguments to uncover the primary emotions driving them. We won’t just talk about your problems; we will work in real time to shift the dance from a place that feels like a dead end into one of vulnerability and sincerity.

https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/graciela-gutierrez/

02/02/2026

New month, new goals!

Take the first step toward clarity and connection.

NCCT offers online and in-person therapy for Massachusetts couples, online therapy for international couples, and in-person retreats for couples traveling from out of state.

https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/connect/

01/30/2026

✒️❤️An Evening to Write What You Can’t Say Aloud

It might seem odd that I—a couples therapist and self-proclaimed anti-romantic—would offer a one-night online workshop on Love Lettering, especially since I’ve never been much of a fan of Valentine’s Day. And yet, lately, as I’ve been thinking about what it means to write a love letter, I’ve come to believe that, at its best, love lettering requires courage—and that such courage often includes brokenheartedness, fierceness, vulnerability, and even a kind of surrender to feeling itself.

This workshop offers a two-hour window to reflect and write into questions such as:

What is a love letter, and who is it really for?

Are the most enduring love letters born of lasting love—or of longing?

What of other loves—love born of regret, unrequited love, tumultuous love, ambiguous love, the love of nature, children, humanity? Are they love-letter worthy?

Can the simple act of writing a love letter shift something within us? Is there a reverberation that occurs when we devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the written word?

Finally, what does it mean to send a love letter out into the world—to set it adrift like a message in a bottle, never knowing if anyone will read it?

The truth is, I don’t know the answers to these questions.

But I do believe—deeply—in love lettering, and in the quiet value of spending time together writing quietly, fervently, devotedly. As Valentine’s Day approaches, I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening.

Interested?

This workshop is offered on a sliding scale, with the hope that financial circumstances do not stand between you and writing a love letter. I trust your judgment in choosing an amount that feels right.

In this one-evening online workshop, we will explore the art of the billet-doux—simply, a love letter. We’ll consider what it means to compose words for an object of affection, study the love letters of others, and write our own.

01/29/2026

Join us tomorrow!

In service of strengthening couples therapy in our local clinical community, Kerry Lusignan, founder and director of NCCT, is offering a monthly consultation group dedicated to deepening clinicians’ work with couples, meeting January through May.

This group is designed as a structured space for clinicians to bring forward complex cases, clinical dilemmas, and questions that benefit from collective reflection. The focus will be on high-conflict couples, couples in crisis, complex relational presentations, and gridlock.

https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/advanced-couples-case-consultation/

01/28/2026

Perel, a renowned psychotherapist, doesn’t really think society can — or should — fall in love with a machine.

Perel, a renowned psychotherapist, doesn’t really think society can — or should — fall in love with a machine.

01/27/2026

Go Deep to Get Farther Faster

NCCT is for couples that want to leave no stone unturned. Our shortest sessions are 75 minutes as we go deep to truly understand the core issue. And then teach tangible tools for you and your partner to grow and repair together.

https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/what-we-provide

01/26/2026

Reclaim the Couch is a candid, community-oriented conversation series hosted by The Northampton Center for Couples Therapy. Our aim is to spark meaningful, in-person discussions about how we, as local therapists, can uphold the integrity of our profession, bolster our local networks, and stand out in an increasingly diluted digital sea of meaningless data.

https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/reclaim-the-couch/

01/23/2026

Today I’m sharing a guest post from Inez Cordoba, our in-house s*x therapy consultant. Inez is a licensed social worker (LICSW) and AASECT-certified s*x therapist whose work focuses on couples, and she’s also the host of a new podcast, Welcome to Being Alive.

In this piece, Inez introduces the heart of the podcast and the questions she hears most often in her clinical work—around desire differences, division of labor, emotional disconnection, and the quiet resentments that accumulate over time

01/22/2026

And the result inevitably becomes that everyone that isn’t us is enemy of the state #1. Unenlightened. Emotionally unavailable. Spiritually misaligned. Healing and Being Healed™ gives us a nicely packaged wall to safely put up between ourselves and the avatars we deem everyone else to be. And “therapy speak” has become the script we use to avoid the terrifying unpredictability of actual human messiness. If someone doesn’t immediately respect your nervous system or your inner child, they’re cast out like some unreformed medieval peasant who hasn’t read The Body Keeps the Score.

yes, it's the damn phones

01/22/2026

✨ New events coming soon! Whether you're a therapist looking to sharpen your skills or a couple ready to deepen your connection, we've got something special for you:

📚 Reclaim the Couch
🧠 Advanced Couples Case Consultation
💌 Love Lettering: An Evening Exploring the Art of Billet-Doux

Ready to grow, learn, or reconnect?

Visit our website to learn and register - https://www.northamptoncouplestherapy.com/

01/21/2026

To all our Western Mass Clinical Peeps! A quick reminder that our first Reclaim the Couch conversation is on Tuesday, 1/27, from 5:30–7:00 PM. Because we’ll be serving appetizers and beverages and space is limited, please RSVP at your earliest convenience (whether or not you plan to attend).

What is Reclaim the Couch? RTC is a candid, community-oriented (in-person) conversation series hosted by The Northampton Center for Couples Therapy. Our aim is to spark meaningful, in-person discussions about how we, as local therapists, can uphold the integrity of our profession, bolster our local networks, and stand out in an increasingly diluted digital sea of meaningless data.

We’ll spend the first 45 minutes reconnecting and networking with fellow clinicians (it’s been ages!). The final 45 minutes will focus on the current landscape for therapists and mental health practitioners—industry trends, the impact of venture-capital-backed platforms, the role of AI, and the broader societal stressors affecting both clients and clinicians. Most importantly, we’ll explore how we can support one another moving forward.

Reclaim the Couch is a candid, community-oriented conversation series. Our aim is to spark meaningful, in-person discussions about how we, as local therapists, can uphold the integrity of our profession, bolster our local networks.