As a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist/Relationship Coach…
I help adult individuals and romantic couples start prioritizing quality time, healthy communication, and emotional safety in their relationship in mutual and more satisfying ways.
I love helping my clients realize how common it is for feelings of loneliness and disconnect to surface in our relationships and that there is available support, tools, and strategies for how to REPAIR and HEAL. This work has allowed me a front-row seat to my clients’ restored belief that happier & healthier relationships are still possible to achieve, even despite the toughest obstacles in the way.
I especially know how big of a deal my clients’ results are because I’m now a Happier Wife myself! My husband and I have been together for many years and despite the numerous challenges life has thrown our way, we’ve continued to work together to push through and overcome them every time. The clock, the calendar, our communication skills, and our love have been KEY players in my husband’s and my ability to keep our fun & supportive connection intact.
My marriage is living proof that when there is a will there can always be a way and I’m here to pass along every game-changing tip and trick I’ve picked up along our crazy path! (*Check out more of our story below & follow me on social media- @thehappierwifeguide)
Becoming a “Happier Wife”
My husband & I met when we were young—and from the beginning, our love connection was strong, but so were the demands of life that would so often push us in different directions.
During our dating years, it took us quite a long time to understand why tension would so often flare up between us and why, despite how much we cared about and valued each other, being together felt like such an emotional rollercoaster.
It wasn’t until reality hit that it was BECAUSE of how much we cared about & valued each other that the minimal time we were getting to spend together & how we were pretty much caught up in putting everything else but each other first would never be enough to keep us going.
I knew if I started speaking up honestly about this that it would require some major decisions to be made and difficult lifestyle shifts for both of us— our work schedules, our time-management, our priorities would all need to be reevaluated if we were ever going to start making more space for what I (and our relationship) needed.
I questioned myself: Was I just being difficult? Too needy or high maintenance? Was I supposed to just keep making the best of the little (but still good) we had together? Was I selfish?
But even if I could’ve answered “yes” to any of those questions, I knew it wouldn’t have been sustainable to keep denying my truth
And so,
I started sharing it…
I told my husband (boyfriend at the time) how disconnected, overwhelmed, and lonely I felt. That, even though I was proud of how hard we were both working to balance college, our jobs, and our other social relationships, I needed more for just us.
It wasn’t easy.
There were many times it felt like if I kept pushing us, if we just bent a little further, that we would definitely break
But we didn’t.
In fact, it was our willingness to wrestle with these uncomfortable conversations & make difficult lifestyle changes that not only made us secure enough to GET married, but it’s now been what continues to KEEP our marriage strong too.
Prioritizing and planning quality time together led to rushing less and enjoying each other more
Rushing less and feeling more joy together significantly reduced built-up tension between us
Less tension led to us having much calmer & healthier communication
And healthier communication, whether about our needs, wants, or hurts is what has enhanced our emotional & physical intimacy; keeping us feeling supported, connected, and so much happier together.
This is why I’m no longer the woman who doubts or hides her feelings out of guilt, shame, or fear of being “too much“
I honor what I feel.
I trust (and my husband trusts) that what I need is valid.
And together, we stay committed to wrestling our way into compromises that honor us both in the best ways possible— fully knowing the struggle will be worth it.
My story isn’t perfect, but it’s evidence that honesty—vulnerable, courageous honesty—is what protects love (even when it seems to crumble everything at first) and that a healthy marriage will not only survive it, but will rebuild and thrive because of it.
The Happier Wife,
that’s me
<3
