Love is Understanding: Group Therapy for Couples

Class Description

In partnership with The Liberation Institute, Natural Resources is thrilled to offer this FREE/donation based couples therapy group to our community!

This group therapy container is designed to help couples manage the persistent conflicts and develop deeper trust, intimacy, and satisfaction. In this 2-hour group, there will be equal parts Psychoeducation and Practice. The facilitators will provide effective techniques to improve empathy and communication, especially supporting parents to work together with more joy and care through the growth and evolution of the family. 

Couples will increase their capacity to understand their partners and how to work more effectively with them with better communication, empathy and understanding of nervous system regulation techniques.

This group is designed for couples of all relationship configurations across all genders and orientations. Special attention can be applied to couples navigating pregnancy, birth and early childhood parenting. The focus of the group is on improving relationships between 2 people who are consenting to do therapeutic work together.

Each session is FREE or donation based and is drop in. We do encourage you to invest in the group for at least several weeks to truly see a deepening in your relationship. 

Details

In this psychotherapeutic group container, couples will be invited into a supportive, experiential space to slow down, reconnect, and develop a deeper understanding of themselves and one another. Rather than simply learning about relationship skills, couples will have the opportunity to practice new ways of relating together with guidance, curiosity, and compassion.

The class is designed to help couples understand what happens when stress, conflict, or old patterns take over. Through psychoeducation, somatic practices, guided inquiry, and communication exercises, couples will explore how the nervous system influences the way we connect, communicate, protect ourselves, and respond to one another.

Together, the group will move through a thoughtfully paced progression that includes:

Welcoming & Orientation
We will begin by creating a grounded, welcoming environment and orienting to the intentions and agreements for the group, allowing couples to arrive and connect with the shared space.

Somatic Grounding & Nervous System Awareness
Couples will learn simple somatic practices to support presence and regulation, while exploring how the nervous system shapes our responses within intimate relationships.

Relationship Nervous System & Co-Regulation
Through psychoeducation and experiential practice, we will explore how partners can become activated, disconnected, or caught in familiar patterns and how greater awareness and regulation can create more choice and connection.

Relationship Dynamics & Pattern Inquiry
Couples will explore recurring cycles and dynamics, particularly those moments when they find themselves having the same argument or feeling misunderstood. The focus is on recognizing the pattern as something happening between partners, rather than locating blame in one person.

IMAGO-Inspired Dialogue Practice
Couples will be guided through an experiential dialogue process that slows communication down and creates more space for listening, empathy, and understanding.

Gottman-Inspired Communication Skills
We will introduce practical communication tools to help couples express needs, navigate differences, listen more effectively, and respond with greater intention. Couples will have the opportunity to practice these skills together.

Integration & Final Reflection
We will close with time to reflect on insights, identify practices couples want to carry into their relationship, and address final questions.

Ultimately, this class is an invitation to pause the cycle you feel stuck in and practice something different together. Whether you want to strengthen an already loving and connected relationship, navigate recurring conflict, or deepen your understanding of one another, this group offers a structured space to learn, practice, and reconnect.

You do not need to have your relationship figured out to participate, only a willingness to become curious about yourself, your partner, and the patterns you create together.

Suzanne Astar is Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee (Supervised by Toni Schrader LPCC, #7498) who is passionate about the intersections between embodiment, creativity, and relational intelligence. She has been a massage therapist and Pilates teacher for 20 years, specializing in alignment and mind-body connection. The attention she brings to couples work is both grounded in somatic understanding and deep curiosity into the mysteries and overarching truths in romantic relationships. She is a mother of two small children and is happy to call Marin her home.

Nathan Baltuskonis is a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee at the Liberation Institute. His work attends not only to what clients are experiencing but to the deeper currents beneath - the unconscious life that, through the work, becomes visible and available to be understood. He integrates Jungian psychology with somatic awareness, attachment theory, and trauma-informed practice, meeting each person at their own pace. He is particularly drawn to those navigating grief and loss, identity and meaning, intimacy and sexuality, sexual abuse and trauma, divorce, and significant career transitions. He has a particular affinity for professionals - attorneys, physicians, accountants, artists, and others whose work demands much of them - as well as the partners and spouses who share that life. Before entering clinical psychology, Nathan trained as a tax attorney, earning a J.D. and an LL.M. and rising to Deloitte's National Office in Washington, D.C. He is currently completing his Master's in Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and pursuing analytic training at the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich. He is supervised by a licensed clinician, LPCC #7498.