Couples Therapy in Miami — Emotion Focused Couples Therapy for Miami Couples
Key points:
Secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth for couples anywhere in Miami-Dade
Emotionally Focused Therapy, a research-backed approach focused on your specific cycle, not generic tips
LGBT-affirming: a lesbian therapist with specific EFT training for LGBT couples
Most couples who come to see me have already tried therapy before, sometimes more than once. They've read the books, learned the communication techniques, and understand intellectually what a healthy relationship requires. They still find themselves stuck.
I'm Emily Jurich, a Registered Marriage and Family Therapy Intern in the state of Florida, offering online couples therapy across Florida, including Miami-Dade. I specialize in helping couples get unstuck using Emotionally Focused Therapy, an approach built on the idea that conflict is rarely about the surface issue. It's about disconnection, and the specific pattern each couple falls into once they stop feeling safe with each other.
Why This Shows Up So Often in Miami
Most of us weren't raised knowing how to build and maintain connection. It's rarely taught directly, and in a city that moves as fast as Miami does, with constant pressure to keep up, healthy relationship modeling often isn't what surrounds people growing up. Miami is also home to one of the largest LGBT populations of any metro area in the country, with an estimated 214,000 LGBT adults in the metro region. Visibility here is real, but visibility doesn't automatically translate into feeling safe inside a relationship.
Cost of living adds its own pressure. South Florida has one of the widest gaps in the country between what households earn and what it actually costs to live here, and financial strain is one of the most consistently documented predictors of relationship conflict. Couples often walk in describing a fight about money or scheduling, and part of the work is separating that surface argument from the pressure underneath it.
Emotionally Focused Approach for Emotionally Focused Relationships
I use Emotionally Focused Therapy, developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and based on attachment research. The outcome data is why I built my practice around it: 70 to 73% of couples move out of significant relational distress through EFT, and roughly 90% report meaningful improvement, with those gains holding up after therapy ends (Johnson et al., 1999, PubMed).
In session, this means we spend less time on the specific content of an argument and more time on the pattern underneath it, the sequence where one partner reaches and the other withdraws, or both go quiet at the moment connection is actually needed. Once a couple can identify that cycle instead of just living inside it, it becomes something they can interrupt on their own between sessions.
Session Structure:
Session 1is a joint session with both partners. I want to understand what brought you in, and what happens between you when you disconnect.
I often ask a version of this question: if I were a fly on the wall during one of your arguments, what would I actually see? What do you think each of you is feeling underneath it? That question is where we start mapping what I call the cycle, the repeating pattern of pursuit and withdrawal, or shutdown and escalation, that plays out every time connection breaks down.
Sessions 2 & 3 are individual, one with each partner. I want to understand what you each bring into the relationship on your own, including the patterns that lead you to pursue, withdraw, or react the way you do.
From session 4 forward, we work with the cycle directly. The goal is for both of you to recognize it clearly enough to interrupt it and find your way back to each other outside of session.As emotional safety builds, the work moves deeper, into the needs partners often learn to keep to themselves out of fear of being too much or not enough. That's usually where lasting change happens.
Issues I help with:
Major life transitions like becoming parents
Grief after losing a loved one, and
Couples where one or both partners have PTSD — This work tends to move more slowly and deliberately, since building safety has to come first.
High conflict arguments
Disconection related to family of origin
My goal isn't to determine whether a couple is compatible. If your goal is more connection with your partner, my job is to help you get there. I work with couples who love each other and want to make things work, not couples navigating an abusive or coercive power dynamic. I work with clients across a range of cultural backgrounds, and I stay attentive to how my own perspective as a white therapist of European descent differs from my clients' experiences. I also specialize in LGBT couples therapy, as a member of the community myself with specific EFT training for LGBT partners.
Telehealth in Miami
Sessions are conducted by secure, HIPAA-compliant video. Both partners need to be in Florida at the time of session, though not necessarily in the same room. What to expect in a first session is covered here.
FAQ
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No. Sessions are online only, available to couples located anywhere in Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
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If there's active abuse in the relationship, meaning one partner uses fear, control, or intimidation to have power over the other, couples therapy including EFT is not the appropriate starting point, and I'm not able to provide it in that context. Sitting an abusive dynamic down in joint sessions can actually make things less safe for the partner experiencing the abuse, since it assumes both people are equally able to be honest and vulnerable in the room.
If this describes your relationship, individual support, and in some cases a domestic violence advocate, is the safer place to start. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) can help you think through next steps confidentially.
If you're unsure whether what you're experiencing counts as abuse versus a painful but mutual pattern of conflict, that's a reasonable thing to bring up in a consultation call. Part of an initial conversation is figuring out together whether couples therapy is the right fit, or whether one or both of you would be better served by another kind of support first.
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EFT focuses on identifying and interrupting your specific cycle of disconnection rather than teaching general communication tools, which is often why couples who've tried therapy before still feel stuck.
