If you are a couple in Pleasanton, CA who has tried everything and still keeps ending up in the same place, you are not broken. You are stuck. And stuck is something we can actually work with. I work with partners who love each other, who have built something real together, and who are terrified of watching it fall apart despite their best efforts to hold it together. The arguments that go nowhere. The silence that has started to feel louder than the fights. The creeping fear that this is just who you are now. That is not the end of your story.
Couples therapy in Pleasanton, CA is available with me both in person and through secure online sessions for couples anywhere in California. Whether you are in the East Bay, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, or anywhere else in the state, distance is not a barrier to getting real support. However you need to access the work, it stays the same: honest, direct, structured, and built around what is actually happening in your relationship. Not a generic script. Not vague encouragement to "communicate better." Real tools, real progress, tailored specifically to the two of you and what you are carrying into the room.
Couples therapy in Pleasanton, CA is available with me both in person and through secure online sessions for couples anywhere in California. Whether you are in the East Bay, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, or anywhere else in the state, distance is not a barrier to getting real support. However you need to access the work, it stays the same: honest, direct, structured, and built around what is actually happening in your relationship. Not a generic script. Not vague encouragement to "communicate better." Real tools, real progress, tailored specifically to the two of you and what you are carrying into the room.
You Have Probably Already Tried to Fix This
You have read the books. Maybe you have done therapy before. You went in hopeful and came out feeling like you talked a lot without anything actually shifting. I hear this constantly, and I get it.
Most couples do not need more talking. They need someone who will call out the patterns, slow things down, and help them understand what is actually driving the cycle they are stuck in. That is what I do. My approach is warm, but I am also direct. I am not going to let you dance around what is really going on. Because you did not come here to stay stuck. You came here to actually change something.
The couples I work with often share a few things in common:
If that sounds like you, you are in the right place, whether you are around the corner in Pleasanton or logging on from anywhere across California.
Most couples do not need more talking. They need someone who will call out the patterns, slow things down, and help them understand what is actually driving the cycle they are stuck in. That is what I do. My approach is warm, but I am also direct. I am not going to let you dance around what is really going on. Because you did not come here to stay stuck. You came here to actually change something.
The couples I work with often share a few things in common:
- High-functioning in their careers and visible life, but privately exhausted
- Caught in repeating arguments they cannot seem to exit
- Recognizing patterns from their own childhoods showing up in their relationship
- Feeling like they have the insight, but not the tools to actually do something different with it
If that sounds like you, you are in the right place, whether you are around the corner in Pleasanton or logging on from anywhere across California.
You're stuck in the same fight. Or you've stopped fighting altogether and now you're just quiet, sitting in the same room feeling miles apart. You want to get back to each other but you don't know how to get there from here. I help couples break the patterns keeping them stuck and find their way back to the people they fell in love with.
Couples therapy
You've been thinking about therapy for a while now. But between work, the kids, and everything else pulling at you, weekly sessions feel impossible to commit to. Still, you know something has to change. Couples intensives give you focused, uninterrupted time to actually move through something, not just talk around it.
Couples intensives
ADHD doesn't look the same in everyone. For some it's missed deadlines and mental clutter. For others it's emotional reactivity, or a constant sense of falling short that's hard to explain to the people around you. I help individuals and couples make sense of how ADHD is showing up and build tools that actually work in real life, not just on paper.
ADHD therapy
You love each other. That's not the question. The question is why you can't stop hurting each other, why the same conversation keeps ending the same way. Gottman method gives us a research-backed map for what's driving the conflict and exactly what needs to be different. Not theory. Tools you can actually use.
Gottman method
The fight about the dishes isn't about the dishes. It never is. Underneath the argument there's usually a fear of not mattering, or a feeling of being completely alone even when your partner is right there. EFT for couples helps us get underneath the surface conflict to what's actually happening. That's where things start to shift.
EFT for couples
SERVICES OFFERED
My office is located in Pleasanton, at the heart of the Tri-Valley. I see couples in person from throughout the East Bay, including:
For couples located elsewhere in California, online sessions bring the same quality of care directly to you. I work virtually with couples throughout the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. If you are in California and ready to do the work, geography is not a reason to wait.
You get to choose the format that works for your life. What stays consistent either way is the depth, the structure, and the results.
- Dublin
- Livermore
- San Ramon
- Danville
- And surrounding communities throughout the East Bay
For couples located elsewhere in California, online sessions bring the same quality of care directly to you. I work virtually with couples throughout the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. If you are in California and ready to do the work, geography is not a reason to wait.
You get to choose the format that works for your life. What stays consistent either way is the depth, the structure, and the results.
In Person in the East Bay, Online Across California
What to Expect When You Reach Out
It starts with a free 20-minute consultation. No commitment, no pressure. Just a real conversation about what is bringing you in and whether my approach feels like the right fit. I think it matters that you actually like and trust the person you are doing this work with, and this call is how we figure that out. This consultation is available to all couples, whether you plan to meet in person or work with me online from anywhere in California.
If we decide to move forward, here is what the process looks like:
All of this is available in person or through secure online sessions, so the process works regardless of where you are located in California.
If we decide to move forward, here is what the process looks like:
- Electronic onboarding with detailed assessments completed before your first full session. There is a meaningful amount of paperwork, and I am upfront about that. The clarity it gives me directly supports better outcomes for the couples I work with. Every question is there for a reason.
- First joint session focused on your story from the beginning. How you met, what drew you together, the early memories that remind you why you chose each other. This gives me a foundation for everything that follows.
- Individual sessions with each partner separately. These one-on-one conversations help me understand your personal histories, including family-of-origin patterns and past relationships that may be shaping how you show up today.
- Assessment review session where we come back together, align on what is actually happening in the relationship, and map out the most useful path forward for both of you.
All of this is available in person or through secure online sessions, so the process works regardless of where you are located in California.
Weekly therapy is not the only option. For couples who need meaningful progress now rather than incremental movement over many months, I offer couples intensives. These extended, concentrated sessions are designed to create real momentum in a compressed timeframe, and they are available both in person in Pleasanton and online for couples throughout California.
Intensives work especially well for:
After an intensive, we schedule a follow-up session to review what shifted, reinforce the tools that landed, and sit with the progress you made together. That integration work is built into the process because it matters.
From there, you choose the level of ongoing support that fits your life:
There is no single correct answer. The goal is flexible, meaningful care that keeps working for you over time, wherever you are.
Intensives work especially well for:
- Couples at a crossroads or decision point
- Partners navigating a specific rupture or breach of trust
- Those who absorb and process better in longer, immersive formats
- Anyone whose schedule simply does not allow for consistent weekly appointments
- Couples located outside the East Bay who want focused, intensive support through online sessions
After an intensive, we schedule a follow-up session to review what shifted, reinforce the tools that landed, and sit with the progress you made together. That integration work is built into the process because it matters.
From there, you choose the level of ongoing support that fits your life:
- Future intensives scheduled as needed, in person or online
- 90-minute sessions monthly or as needed to maintain momentum
- Weekly sessions when that level of support is the right fit and availability allows
There is no single correct answer. The goal is flexible, meaningful care that keeps working for you over time, wherever you are.
Couples Intensives for When You Cannot Wait
I draw from several evidence-based frameworks and blend them based on what each couple most needs:
For some couples, the work is about learning to interrupt reactive cycles before they escalate. For others, it is about rebuilding emotional safety slowly after years of hurt and disconnection. For many, it is both. Whatever the combination looks like for you, the work is always personalized, because the patterns you are stuck in belong to your relationship specifically, and so does the path out of them.
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) to identify and shift the underlying emotional cycles driving conflict
- Gottman Method for practical, research-backed relationship skills
- Relational Life Therapy (RLT) to address the deeper relational patterns each partner brings
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to build new thinking and behavioral tools
- Attachment-based approaches to understand how each partner learned to connect and what gets in the way
For some couples, the work is about learning to interrupt reactive cycles before they escalate. For others, it is about rebuilding emotional safety slowly after years of hurt and disconnection. For many, it is both. Whatever the combination looks like for you, the work is always personalized, because the patterns you are stuck in belong to your relationship specifically, and so does the path out of them.
The Approach Behind the Work
It is about actually enjoying it again. Feeling like a team. Laughing together. Rebuilding the intimacy and connection that brought you together in the first place and that you have both been quietly grieving.
That is possible. And it starts with one conversation.
Reach out today to schedule your free 20-minute consultation and learn more about availability, session formats, and what getting started looks like for your relationship. In-person sessions are available in Pleasanton, and online sessions are open to couples throughout California.
Therapy With Alanna is located at 74 Neal St #202, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Serving couples in person throughout Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, San Ramon, Danville, and the greater East Bay, and virtually across California.
That is possible. And it starts with one conversation.
Reach out today to schedule your free 20-minute consultation and learn more about availability, session formats, and what getting started looks like for your relationship. In-person sessions are available in Pleasanton, and online sessions are open to couples throughout California.
Therapy With Alanna is located at 74 Neal St #202, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Serving couples in person throughout Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, San Ramon, Danville, and the greater East Bay, and virtually across California.
