COUPLES THERAPY
Couples therapy in Los Angeles for partners who feel stuck in the same painful patterns.
Ilana Grines, LMFT, provides couples therapy in Los Angeles and virtually throughout California for partners navigating recurring conflict, emotional disconnection, intimacy concerns, resentment, and major life transitions.
YOU MAY BE HERE BECAUSE
You love each other, but the way you are relating no longer feels sustainable.
WHAT WE MAY WORK ON
Therapy can help you understand the pattern beneath the problem.
Couples often arrive focused on the latest argument. Our work looks at the cycle underneath it so both partners can respond with more clarity, honesty, and connection.
Communication and Conflict
Identify the cycle that keeps taking over and build ways to speak, listen, and repair without escalating or disappearing.
Emotional Disconnection
Understand how distance develops and create more room for vulnerability, responsiveness, and feeling emotionally known.
Sex and Intimacy
Explore desire, rejection, pressure, shame, avoidance, and the emotional meaning that intimacy may hold for each partner.
Life Transitions
Navigate parenthood, marriage, career changes, relocation, retirement, grief, health concerns, or other shifts that reshape the relationship.
Premarital Counseling
Talk openly about communication, values, sex, money, family, expectations, and the kind of partnership you want to create.
Repair and Reconnection
Rebuild trust after hurt, repeated ruptures, emotional withdrawal, or a period of disconnection without rushing past what still needs attention.
MY APPROACH
I do not take sides. I help you see the cycle that is taking over both of you.
Couples therapy with me is active, collaborative, and direct. We will slow down what happens between you, make room for each partner's experience, and identify the moments where fear, defensiveness, shame, or old pain begin steering the conversation.
The goal is not to eliminate disagreement. It is to help you disagree without losing safety, respect, or your sense of being on the same team.
AFFIRMING COUPLES THERAPY
Inclusive care for LGBTQ+ couples and relationships across the spectrum.
My practice is LGBTQ+ affirming and inclusive of diverse identities, sexualities, genders, bodies, and relationship structures. You will not be expected to educate me about the legitimacy of your relationship before we can begin addressing what actually brought you to therapy.
WHAT TO EXPECT
A clear, collaborative process from the beginning.
Free Consultation
We begin with a complimentary 15 to 30-minute consultation to discuss what is bringing you in and whether working together feels like a good fit.
Assessment and Goals
Early sessions focus on understanding the relationship, the recurring cycle, each partner's concerns, and what meaningful change would look like.
Ongoing Work
Sessions are typically 50 minutes. Longer sessions may be available when clinically useful and discussed in advance.
COUPLES EXPERT IN THE MEDIA
Trusted commentary on conflict, connection, and relationship change.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What couples often want to know before starting.
Do we need to be in crisis to start couples therapy?
No. Couples therapy can be useful when conflict is intense, but it can also help with disconnection, recurring misunderstandings, changing intimacy, premarital conversations, and major transitions.
What if one of us is more motivated than the other?
This is common. We can talk openly about each partner's hopes, concerns, and hesitation rather than requiring both of you to arrive with the same level of certainty.
Will you tell us who is right?
My role is not to declare a winner. I help identify the relational pattern, hold each partner accountable for their part, and create conditions for clearer communication and more effective repair.
Do you offer virtual couples therapy throughout California?
Yes. Virtual couples therapy is available to clients located in California. In-person sessions are also available in Los Angeles.
How long are couples therapy sessions?
Standard couples sessions are 50 minutes and cost $300. Longer sessions may be available when clinically appropriate and arranged in advance.
Do you offer premarital counseling?
Yes. Premarital work can include communication, conflict, sex, money, family, values, expectations, and planning for the relationship you want to build.
READY TO BEGIN?
You do not need to wait until the relationship feels impossible.
Schedule a complimentary 15 to 30-minute consultation to talk about what is happening and whether couples therapy feels like the right next step.