Kerry Lusignan, MFA, MA, LMHC
She/her
CEO and Founder

“Sometimes, the longer a person is in our lives, the less we know them.

I think it’s because time, age, memory, and heartache create new impressions—and over time, those experiences can tip us into hopelessness and despair when negative memories begin to dominate. We forget the good. We stop believing it ever existed.

John Gottman’s research supports this: neglected hurts—the arguments left unrepaired, the betrayals not accounted for—accumulate into a glass-half-empty perspective. We become blind to possibilities, to shared history, to what once felt possible. We become allergic to hope.

But there is grace here too: memory is not fixed. It is fluid, capable of shapeshifting under the right conditions—often through the stories we tell about blame, acceptance, and understanding.

That’s the work. And it’s the work I’ve built my life around.”

My specialty is providing those conditions. I work with couples in various states of crisis, disrepair and negative sentiment—often on the cusp of catastrophe. I’m the last-ditch effort after everything else has failed: you’ve tried other therapists, other programs, other approaches, and nothing has worked. If that’s where you are, you’re in the right place.

Let me be honest: in addition to seeing a handful of couples—typically five at any given time—I remain fully committed to the center, our couples, our clinicians, and our community.

What that looks like in practice: when I’m not seeing couples, I’m tending to a center devoted exclusively to couples therapy here in the Pioneer Valley and beyond—finding ways to remain accessible to all couples, not just a select few; creating programs and resources; ensuring that the center—like any relationship—thrives. This means I have limited availability and a higher hourly fee.

But here’s what that makes possible: a continuum of care that supports couples across the full spectrum of relationship—from premarital counseling to weekly sessions, discernment counseling, intensives, and more. Couples therapy for everyone, not just those who can afford a premium private practice.

At heart, more than anything, I’m an artist. Which means I value originality and don’t provide cookie-cutter approaches to the couples who work with me. Having opened the first specialty couples therapy center in the Northeast in 2010, trained and become certified with John Gottman directly, and pursued advanced training with other leaders in the field (see credentials below), I integrate the best of the best—adding a dash of me, which is to say: a deep faith in people, a reverence for language, and the kind of plain-spoken kindness that cuts through.

Simply put: if you work with me, I’m devoted to you. I will learn you—the way you fight, the way you shut down, the way you love when you feel safe—and I will see your relationship through to the other side. Which, in my experience, looks a lot like coming home — whether that’s to each other, or to yourself.

Beyond the Clinic

I am also a writer. I am currently working on a literary memoir that explores the anatomy of endings, the geometry of heartbreak, and the unnamed country of after. The words you see here in this bio, and my personal essays, are entirely my own.

My blog, however, is a different kind of project—a laboratory for ideas. Some pieces there are fully mine; others take my core frameworks and clinical research and are shaped into resources with the help of my team and AI editorial tools. I believe in total transparency: authorship is noted on every single piece so you always know when you are hearing my raw voice versus a collaborative resource.

Ask me about writing — not just the doing of it, but the devotion it demands. The way it teaches you that if you can’t say it, you can’t know it. That finding the right word is never just about language — it’s about finally being able to see.

Ask me about music. Nick Cave. Patti Smith. Leonard Cohen. Not as background noise but as emotional education — a masterclass in feeling the things we were never taught to feel. I believe emotional dexterity is one of the most underrated human skills. The tough stuff. Grief. Longing. The feelings that double us over.

Ever since I was young, I’ve been: Acutely aware of heartbreak and beauty. Of the mindset that if we can’t grasp our mortality and how fleeting life is — and get our heads around the deep call to love and do no harm in the face of impermanence — then we’re in real trouble.

Favorite quote: “The obliterated place is equal parts destruction and creation. The obliterated place is pitch black and bright light. It is water and parched earth. It is mud, and it is manna. The real work of deep grief is making a home there.” -Cheryl Strayed

Favorite kind of couples: I like complexity. The neuroatypical couple, the lifetime of infidelity, the volatility that makes other therapists cringe. I like couples who are open to being pushed and push back — who value learning, accept influence, and lead with their values. I love couples who can move between humor and heartache — because what else is there?

Credentials

The credentials below represent decades of intentional study — not box-checking, but a genuine belief that mastery is a moving target worth chasing.

MA in Applied Psychology – Antioch University New England
MFA in Creative Nonfiction — Goucher College
Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist – The Gottman Institute
Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator (CDWF)
Certified Psychological Autopsy Investigator – American Association of Suicidology
Certified Stepfamily Systems Therapist – Nat’l. Stepfamily Resource Center
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) — Full Training Pathway Complete, trained by George Faller
Pragmatic Experiential Couples Therapy (PET-C) – Full training complete, trained by Brent Atkinson
Neurodiverse Couples Therapy Level 1 – The Neurodiverse Couples Institute
PACT Level I in Training – Stan Tatkin
Understanding and Applying Ambiguous Loss – Pauline Boss
Additional training – David Schnarch, Patricia Papernow, and Esther Perel.