COUPLES COUNSELING - JUNGIAN APPROACH
Discover Connection, Wholeness & Transformation with an Experienced Couples Therapist
Transform your relationship through depth-oriented counseling that illuminates the path to authentic connection. As a dedicated marriage counselor, my Jungian couples counseling doesn't just resolve conflicts—it empowers you to achieve genuine understanding, purpose, and authentic expression within your relationship. Through a personalized journey of discovery, you'll gain powerful insights into your unique dynamics, overcome limiting patterns, and emerge with renewed intimacy and shared consciousness.
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." — Carl Jung
Is This Approach Right For You?
Marriage and couples counseling with Dr. Bren's Jungian approach goes beyond traditional conflict resolution and communication skills. It integrates depth psychology with spiritual understanding, providing a comprehensive approach to relationship development that addresses both individuals and the relationship as a third entity— not just behaviors or symptoms.
Perfect For You If:
You're seeking deeper meaning within your relationship challenges
You want to understand the unconscious patterns affecting your connection
You're navigating important relationship transitions or decisions
You experience recurring conflicts that limit your intimacy and growth
You're ready to transform projections into self-awareness and healing
You want to understand the archetypal dimensions behind your relationship dynamics
You're seeking a holistic approach that honors both individual and collective consciousness
You feel called to develop greater relational consciousness and emotional attunement
You're interested in exploring personality patterns and their influence on your partnership
You want to align your relationship with your deeper values and spiritual path
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."
— Carl Jung
The Transformative Impact of Jungian Therapy
How Your Relationship Can Change
When you engage in my Jungian couples counseling process, profound shifts occur across all dimensions of your relationship:
Sacred Connection – Move from power struggles to recognizing your relationship as a vessel for mutual growth and individuation
Shadow Integration – Gain deep insights into the disowned aspects of self that are projected onto your partner
Emotional Wholeness – Develop the capacity to hold emotional complexity with greater awareness and compassion
Aligned Partnership – Make choices that genuinely reflect shared values while honoring individual authenticity
Archetypal Understanding – Recognize the universal patterns and myths active in your relationship dynamics
Spiritual Dimension – Deepen your relationship's connection to meaning, purpose, and transcendent values
Psychological Growth – Experience development across cognitive, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions
Authentic Expression – Relate from your core self rather than from conditioned patterns or defensive reactions
Relational Balance – Create harmony between autonomy and connection for greater fulfillment and wellbeing
Conscious Relating – Transform unconscious patterns into conscious choices that support mutual flourishing
Couples often describe their counseling journey as "finally understanding why we came together." The work doesn't just change how you communicate—it transforms who you are together and how you engage with every aspect of your shared life. Rather than simply managing conflicts, you'll develop the capacity to use them as catalysts for growth and deeper connection. This represents some of the best marriage advice you can receive— learning to transform challenges into opportunities for mutual growth.
What is Jungian Couples Counseling?
A Depth-Oriented Approach to Relationship Transformation
Jungian couples counseling with Dr. Bren is a structured journey created to help couples attain relational depth and psychological wholeness. This comprehensive approach to marriage and couples counseling combines analytical psychology with systems understanding to address both individual psyches and the relationship field that emerges between them.
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
— Carl Jung
Unlike traditional couples therapy that may focus primarily on communication techniques and conflict resolution, my approach as a couples therapist explores the deeper dimensions of your relationship experience to create sustainable transformation. By understanding each partner's unique psychological structure, the archetypal patterns that have constellated between you, and the unconscious projections at play, you'll gain the clarity and direction needed to create a more authentic and fulfilling connection.
This process goes beyond simply overcoming obstacles—it's about reconnecting with your authentic selves and discovering how to express those selves more fully within the relationship. Through tailored guidance and powerful psychological tools, you'll develop the awareness and skills needed to create lasting positive change in your partnership.
"Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."
- Carl Jung flourishing
Your Couples Counseling Journey
Working with my Jungian approach to online couples counseling, you'll move through a carefully designed process that builds relational awareness, depth, and the capacity for meaningful connection.
Initial Consultation
Your counseling journey begins with a comprehensive assessment that allows me to deeply understand your relationship history, current challenges, and aspirations. Using Jungian principles, IFS (Internal Family Systems), and relational systems theory, this intake process creates a complete picture of your relationship across multiple dimensions:
Individual Psyche Analysis – Identifying each partner's core psychological structures and patterns
Parts Work Mapping – Recognizing the internal parts (protector, manager, exiled, and Self) that influence your relationship
Relationship Dynamics – Assessing the unconscious patterns and projections that shape your interactions
Archetypal Constellation – Recognizing the universal patterns and myths active in your relationship
Shadow Elements – Identifying disowned aspects of self that create tension in the partnership
This foundation ensures that your counseling work addresses your unique needs and is aligned with your highest relational potential.
Psychological Assessments
The next phase involves gaining deeper insights into your individual and shared psychological landscape through various assessment tools. These assessments reveal your natural tendencies, patterns, and growth areas, providing a map for your relational development:
Enneagram – Identifying each partner's core motivations, fears, and behavioral patterns to understand relationship dynamics on a deeper level
Jungian Typology – Understanding your psychological type preferences and how they interact within your relationship
Anima/Animus Dynamics – Exploring contrasexual archetypes and their influence on your attraction and conflicts
Shadow Assessment – Identifying projection patterns and disowned aspects of self that create tension in your partnership
Archetypal Constellation – Discovering which universal patterns are most active in your relationship
These tools provide multiple perspectives on your inner and shared landscapes, creating a comprehensive understanding of who you are individually and how you operate together. The Enneagram in particular offers profound insights into the core motivations driving each partner's behaviors, revealing how your types interact to create both harmony and challenge.
In-Depth Counseling Process
Building on the insights from your assessments, I employ a depth-oriented approach to relationship coaching online that integrates Jungian analytical psychology, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and contemporary relational theories. This methodology goes beyond traditional couples counseling to create lasting transformation through psychological insight and embodied practice.
The counseling process is centered around making powerful discoveries—seeing the unconscious patterns and internal parts previously invisible to you—and integrating these insights through deliberate practice. Each session creates a space where you can:
Observe your current relational dynamics with compassion and clarity, identifying both limitations and strengths
Develop self-awareness practices tailored to your specific growth edges that continue long after formal counseling ends
Engage in parts work dialogue that helps you understand and heal the wounded parts influencing your relationship
Access Self-energy to relate to your partner from a place of curiosity, compassion, and connection
Engage in symbolic exploration that addresses not just your thinking but your unconscious patterns and reactions
Create new relational narratives that support your development and open possibilities previously unavailable to you
Build competence systematically in areas essential to your relationship growth and fulfillment
Integrate multiple perspectives (individual, relational, archetypal, parts-based, spiritual) for holistic development
Between sessions, you'll engage in carefully designed practices that build your capacity for presence, awareness, and new ways of relating. These aren't simple "homework assignments" but rather opportunities to embody new ways of being together in your everyday life. The practice element is crucial—real transformation happens not just through insight but through lived experience repeated over time.
This developmental process empowers you to move beyond intellectual understanding to embodied wisdom, creating sustainable change that becomes increasingly self-generating as you progress. You'll develop the capacity to understand your own relationship dynamics, making the benefits of your work extend far beyond your formal counseling relationship.
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."
— Carl Jung
Core Tools & Approaches
These approaches offer a multi-dimensional view of your relationship. Dreamwork reveals the unconscious wisdom seeking expression. Active imagination provides tools for creative engagement with unconscious elements. Shadow work addresses projections and disowned aspects. Archetypal analysis illuminates the universal patterns shaping your experience. Together, they create a comprehensive map of your journey from unconscious reactivity to conscious relationship.
My integrative approach to marriage and couples counseling utilizes a variety of powerful tools to illuminate different aspects of your relationship:
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The IFS approach helps each partner identify and work with their internal "parts" or sub-personalities that influence relationship dynamics. By recognizing protective parts, manager parts, and exiled parts carrying childhood wounds, couples learn to relate to each other with greater compassion and understanding. IFS work helps you access your core Self—characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, compassion, and clarity—creating a foundation for authentic connection.
"Every person is like a mansion full of different parts." — Richard Schwartz, Founder of IFS
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Dreams provide direct access to the unconscious dimensions of your relationship. By working with both individual and shared dreams, I explore the symbolic messages that reveal underlying patterns, needs, and wisdom within your partnership. This approach helps you recognize how the unconscious is communicating important information about your relationship's development and challenges.
"Dreams are the guiding words of the soul." — Carl Jung
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This powerful Jungian technique helps you engage consciously with unconscious elements of your relationship. Through guided imagery and creative expression, you'll develop dialogue with symbolic aspects of your partnership, gaining insights and creating new possibilities for connection and growth.
"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity." — Carl Jung
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Shadow work involves identifying and integrating disowned aspects of self that are typically projected onto your partner. By recognizing these projections, you can reclaim these aspects, reducing blame and creating more authenticity and wholeness within the relationship. This process transforms many common relationship conflicts into opportunities for mutual growth.
"How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole." — Carl Jung
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Archetypal analysis explores how universal patterns and myths are active in your relationship. By identifying which archetypal energies are constellated between you—whether divine couples, parent/child dynamics, hero/damsel, or other patterns—you gain perspective on the transpersonal dimensions influencing your expectations, behaviors, and conflicts.
"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order." — Carl Jung
The Benefits of Jungian Couples Counseling
Transform Your Relationship with Each Other and Yourselves
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." — Carl Jung
My Jungian approach to online couples counseling offers unique benefits that address both practical relationship outcomes and deeper transformation:
Mutual Individuation – Support each other's authentic development while growing together
Integration of Relationship Dimensions – Develop harmony across practical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual aspects
Purposeful Partnership – Move from unconscious patterns to being guided by shared meaning and intention
Enhanced Relational Awareness – Make choices aligned with your authentic values and deeper connection
Emotional Attunement – Develop greater awareness and responsiveness to each other's inner experience
Shadow Integration – Transform projections into self-awareness and mutual understanding
Navigating Transitions – Move through relationship changes with greater grace, clarity, and connection
Breaking Through Relational Patterns – Identify and transform dynamics that have restricted your intimacy
Couple Empowerment – Develop the confidence to create the relationship you truly desire
Whole-Relationship Transformation – Experience growth that honors all aspects of who you are together
This comprehensive approach to couples counseling doesn't just help you resolve conflicts—it fundamentally transforms how you experience yourselves and engage with each other. By addressing both practical strategies and deeper awareness, my Jungian approach creates sustainable change that continues to unfold long after your formal sessions conclude.
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— Carl Jung
Shadow Work in Romantic Relationships
Client Success Stories
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Dr. Bren is wonderful. She is knowledgeable, compassionate, and personalized in her craft. The careful work she has done with my partner and myself has been mindful of who we are as individuals in the present moment and in our goals, as well as who we are as a unit. She has provided us with research based work, outside experts to support her recommendations and push the group think, and talked us through some really intelligent thinking around modern relationships, representation of self, and mental health needs and challenges. We reached out to Dr. Bren for her background in Buddhism, which she is able to anchor our conversations in gracefully. However, Dr. Bren's skills and knowledge are highly applicable and appropriate if you are not a practicing Buddhist. Dr. Bren is someone I feel safe with, someone I trust, and someone who genuinely cares. I have recommended Dr. Bren to many of my friends and colleagues, as I can say she has supported me time and time again.
-Jaclyn V., School Teacher/Administrator
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Dr. Bren was able to reveal the issue that was causing my husband and I problems and once revealed the solution was easy. I think she has an uncanny intuition and sensitive soul that enables authentic healing. We only went to her once together and once individually and our marriage has never been stronger. I am hoping to get in for a tune up on some other issues in my life. She really is fantastic!
- Cheryl H., Producer
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I've been working with Bren for six years, and I honestly don't think I'll ever look for another therapist or coach. My relationships with both my parents and my husband have improved significantly, and I truly believe I wouldn't know how to have healthy relationships without Bren's guidance. Through our work together, I've also discovered my life's purpose and am now living a more fulfilled, connected life than I ever imagined possible six years ago. I refer everyone I know to her, because I've seen the profound impact she has on others as well. Bren has an incredible ability to create lasting change, and I'm constantly amazed by the transformations I see in everyone I recommend her to.
- Daisy O., Life Coach
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Embracing Your Shadow: A Free Guide
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Unlock a new level of self-awareness and personal growth with this comprehensive guide to understanding and accepting all parts of yourself.
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Explore how the Shadow affects your thoughts, feelings, and actions
Learn Ken Wilber's 3-2-1 Shadow Work Process to embrace and integrate your Shadow
Experience profound benefits including enhanced self-understanding, emotional harmony, and deeper relationships
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Dive into this comprehensive guide to uncover the mysteries of your Shadow. From understanding its influence to practicing transformative exercises, this resource will empower you to embrace your true essence and cultivate a more fulfilling life.
Begin Your Journey Today with the Best Marriage Adivice
"The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you." — Carl Jung
Are you ready to discover the deeper meaning within your relationship challenges and develop the awareness and skills to create authentic connection? My Jungian couples counseling offers a supportive, insightful space for your transformative journey together.
Take the first step toward relational depth:
Begin your personalized assessment process
Start your journey to conscious, authentic partnership
Contact Dr. Bren today:
Phone: (919) 407-0999
Email: bren@drbren.com
Online: Fill out the secure contact form below
"The most important question anyone can ask is: What myth am I living?"
— Carl Jung
FAQs
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The initial consultation involves a comprehensive assessment of your relationship history, patterns, and aspirations. This approach examines multiple dimensions of your experience together, allowing you to identify recurring dynamics and areas for growth.
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Psychological assessments provide valuable insights into your individual patterns, projections, and archetypal influences, allowing me to tailor your counseling program to effectively support your relationship development. These tools create a roadmap for your growth, highlighting both strengths to leverage and areas for expansion.
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Dreamwork in couples counseling involves exploring the unconscious wisdom revealed in both individual and shared dreams. This process provides access to deeper dimensions of your relationship, offering insights and creative solutions that might not be available to conscious awareness alone.
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My Jungian couples counseling combines depth psychology with relational systems understanding, emphasizing the meaning and purpose within your challenges rather than just resolving conflicts. While traditional therapy often focuses on communication skills and problem-solving, my approach as a marriage counselor explores the unconscious dimensions and archetypal patterns that shape your relationship, creating more profound and lasting transformation.
"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people." — Carl Jung
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My depth-oriented approach to relationship coaching online can significantly help couples seeking to understand recurring conflicts, deepen intimacy, navigate major life transitions, integrate individual growth within the relationship, and discover greater meaning and purpose in their partnership. It's especially valuable for couples who sense there's something more beneath their surface issues and who are willing to engage in the personal growth that creates lasting relationship transformation.
The Blog
These blog posts offer thoughtful guidance and practical tools to help couples strengthen communication, deepen connection, and navigate challenges together. Whether you're facing conflict or simply want to grow closer, you'll find insights to support a healthier, more fulfilling relationship.
