15 Years, 4500 Couples

I like to think of the Northampton Center for Couples Therapy in the same way I view any relationship. For it to thrive, it must be based on mutuality, goodwill, shared values, and solid communication skills. At the heart of NCCT are our couples therapists and phenomenal support staff, each carefully chosen based on their skills, expertise, life experience, and a shared passion for changing the world one couple at a time.

In 2010, when I founded NCCT, I built it from the ground up, starting with a one-room office and a dream. That dream was to establish a center devoted exclusively to helping couples from “cradle to grave.” To offer evidence-informed relationship counseling for everyone: brand-spanking new couples, first-time parents, step-parents, neurodiverse couples, empty nesters, couples in the throes of gridlock, infidelity, addiction, trauma, rage, aging, loneliness, divorce, and more.

As a forty-year-old first-time mom navigating my own marital strife, I understood that love and commitment are not always enough; relationships require work. Hurt can accumulate slowly, like the rising tide at dusk. Before you know it, you’re in over your head, the sky has gone dark, and you can’t find your way back to your partner.

I remember thinking how strange it was that we don’t see a physician when we need a cardiologist, yet we trust a generalist with the heart of our home and family: our relationship.

Back then, I was on my own; couples were contacting me from every corner of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Boston, Maine, the West Coast, and even internationally. When I couldn’t fit them in, there was nowhere to refer them; I was one of only three Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapists in the Northeast, out of 135 worldwide, and couples therapy had not yet reached its heyday.

NCCT has come a long way since 2010. We’ve navigated a pandemic and pivoted our practice to a hybrid model offering both remote and in-person services for couples. We’ve grown from two therapists (counting me) without any support staff to a dynamic team of over seventeen. We’ve found a home in our own beautiful brick-and-mortar space in downtown Northampton. We’ve broken the habit of being beholden to managed care while simultaneously creating a practice that offers sliding-fee and reduced-cost sessions to couples who need them.

All the while, we’ve stayed true to our values—the bones I built the center on: Weekly sessions lasting 75 minutes, a comprehensive Gottman Relationship Assessment for every new couple, relationship checkups, private couples retreats to progress further faster, and cutting-edge therapy informed by state-of-the-art modalities: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Pragmatic Experiential Therapy for Couples (PET-C), The Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), and of course, Gottman, the father of it all.

As we approach our fifteenth anniversary this August 2025, I’m excited to share more changes and thrilling news, including the addition of a new couples therapy fellow and a couples therapy resident. This means that soon, openings will be available for as low as $50 for a 75-minute session, with continued openings sliding down to as low as $80. Additionally, we are pursuing grants, as our ultimate goal is to provide services free of charge to couples in need. Plus, I will be offering my online signature course, Crisis to Connected, the most comprehensive program for overcoming relationship crises, transcending stuck patterns, and rebuilding trust.

We have exciting developments in the works for our therapists, too (supporting them is supporting you), including ongoing sex therapy training and consultation, continued immersion in state-of-the-art, evidence-based modalities, and additional opportunities to create new products, such as groups for men, couples going through divorce, and family therapy for adults.

At 56, I believe in the power of couples therapy more than ever. I have witnessed firsthand the profound ripple effect of evidence-informed relationship counseling, which positively impacts society, future generations, and systemic structures every day. It is from that belief that I sit here typing on my laptop, gazing out my window on this June afternoon, feeling grateful for all the couples, colleagues, and community who entrust us with their care. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The past fifteen years have been amazing; here’s to fifteen more.

According to John Gottman’s research, the average couple waits six years from the onset of a problem to pursue couples therapy. If you and your partner are stuck in gridlock and blame and struggling to see the forest for the trees, don’t wait; we’re here to help. To learn more about our services, including reduced-fee sessions, schedule a free consultation.