Radical Relationship Transformation
MARRIAGE AND COUPLES COUNSELING IN JOPLIN, MO
for couples tired of talking in circles.
You keep having the same fight, even when you promise yourselves this time will go differently. One of you pushes to be heard. The other shuts down or pulls away. By the end, you're both hurt, and neither of you feels understood.
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$250
per appointment
90 min
enough time for both of you
In person
near Joplin and Webb City
Self-pay
both partners attend
MAYBE THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR
You can love each other
and still feel lonely together.
Are we really this far apart? Can we get back to each other?
Maybe it’s quieter than that. Nobody yells. You just handle the kids, the house, and the schedule like coworkers, and you can’t remember the last time one of you reached for the other without a reason.

You may be trying
to figure out…
Why do we keep having the same argument?
→
You start with one issue, but soon you're both defending yourselves and feeling misunderstood. The topic changes. The fight doesn't.
Can we rebuild trust after betrayal?
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You may want to move forward while still feeling hurt, guarded, or unsure what to believe. One of you is waiting to be forgiven. The other is waiting to feel safe again.
What happened to our closeness?
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Conversations about sex, affection, or intimacy can bring up pressure, rejection, and distance, until it feels easier not to bring them up at all.
Are we ready for marriage?
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Premarital counseling can help you talk through the patterns, expectations, and hard questions that shape a life together, before they become the things you fight about.

HI, I’M SHIRA. LMFT, COUPLES ONLY.
You deserve to be understood
by someone who’s seen this before.
I’m Shira Hearn, LMFT. I work only with couples, and I have spent thousands of hours in the room with couples just like you, caught in the same fight, the same silence, the same distance.
I work from Emotionally Focused Therapy, the model with the strongest research behind it for exactly this kind of stuck. I see couples from Joplin, Webb City, Carthage, Carl Junction, and the surrounding area.

Neither.
The problem is the cycle you're both caught in, not either of you. One of you reaches, and it comes out as criticism. The other protects, and it comes out as distance. Each of you is reacting to the other, and each of you ends up alone.
I'm on the side of the two of you getting out of that together.
Whose side
am I on?
HOW I WORK
What happens
in the room
I am not a quiet therapist.
If you’ve done therapy before, this will probably feel different. I’m direct and I’m active. I’ll interrupt the cycle when it starts up in the room, I’ll tell you what I’m seeing, and I’ll turn you toward each other and ask you to say the harder thing underneath the thing you just said. You’ll do a lot of talking to each other, and I’ll be right there in it with you the whole time.
There are no scripts and no worksheets. What you practice in the room is what you’ll use at home, because it’s your own words, said to your own partner.

How
it goes
01
REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT.
Use the button to reach out. There's a short intake form you fill out online before the first session. It's quick.
02
SHOW UP TOGETHER.
Your sessions are 90 minutes, in person, with both partners present. Ninety minutes because there are two of you in the room, and fifty minutes is not enough time for both of you to be heard.
03
WORK WITH THE CYCLE.
From the first session we'll map what keeps happening between you, and you'll practice new ways of responding to each other, in the room, with each other.
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BEFORE YOU SCHEDULE
Questions couples ask
before starting
What is Emotionally Focused Therapy?
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Can counseling help after an affair?
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Do both partners need to attend?
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What if one of us is not convinced therapy will help?
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Can our Christian faith be included?
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Do you take insurance?
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How many sessions will it take?
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