Finding the right couples therapist isn’t just about finding someone who knows the Gottman Method. It’s about finding the right Gottman-informed therapist for your specific relationship.
Maybe you’ve already searched “Gottman Method couples therapy Atlanta” and landed here. Or maybe a friend mentioned the approach and you’re trying to figure out whether it’s right for you, and more importantly, who should guide you through it. Either way, you’re in the right place.
At Fava Counseling Associates, the Gottman Method is the backbone of how we work with couples. But our team isn’t a one-size-fits-all operation. Each therapist brings different clinical training, lived experience, and areas of focus. That means we can be intentional about who we pair you with, and that intentionality matters.
This article walks you through what the Gottman Method actually involves, what our intake and matching process looks like, and how we connect couples with the therapist who’s best suited to help them move forward.
What Is the Gottman Method, and Why Do We Use It?
The Gottman Method is an evidence-based approach to couples therapy developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman. It’s built on more than 40 years of research involving over 3,000 couples studying what makes relationships succeed or fail. What separates this approach from a lot of what’s out there is that it isn’t theory-driven. It’s observation-driven. The Gottmans watched real couples in real conflict and tracked their outcomes over time.
One of the most cited findings from that research: by observing specific behavioral patterns during couples’ interactions, researchers were able to predict with over 90% accuracy which couples would go on to divorce. The factor wasn’t how much couples argued. It was how they argued, and how they connected in between. Couples who responded warmly to each other’s bids for connection did so 86% of the time, compared to just 33% among couples who eventually divorced.
Those findings shaped an entirely different way of working with couples in therapy. If you’d like to go deeper on the research history, our full breakdown of the Gottman Method covers the origins, the science, and what it looks like in a real session.
The Sound Relationship House
The Gottman approach is organized around the Sound Relationship House, a framework introduced by Dr. Gottman in his New York Times bestseller The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Think of it as a map of what a healthy, lasting partnership is actually made of:
- Build Love Maps — knowing your partner’s inner world
- Share Fondness and Admiration — actively appreciating one another
- Turn Toward Instead of Away — responding to bids for connection
- The Positive Perspective — giving your partner the benefit of the doubt
- Manage Conflict — working through disagreements without criticism, contempt, defensiveness, or stonewalling (what researchers call the Four Horsemen)
- Make Life Dreams Come True — supporting each other’s deeper goals and values
- Create Shared Meaning — building rituals, roles, and a shared sense of purpose
- Trust and Commitment — choosing each other, every day
Research published in the Iranian Journal of Psychiatry found that Gottman couple therapy produced statistically significant improvements in both marital adjustment and intimacy, with those gains holding at a two-month follow-up. That staying power is what matters to us. Not just feeling better in session, but actually changing patterns at home.
What we love most about this model is that it’s skill-based. Couples don’t just talk about their problems; they leave sessions with concrete tools. The Gottman Method places a high emphasis on between-session practice, and your therapist will regularly give you “homework” to try at home. The more couples engage with that work outside the therapy room, the stronger the results we tend to see. If communication is where you’re most stuck right now, our piece on how to improve communication in your relationship is a good read alongside this one.
We use the Gottman Method because it holds up across a wide range of couples and concerns: premarital prep, communication breakdowns, infidelity recovery, and partners who simply want to strengthen a healthy relationship before the small cracks become bigger ones.
What Happens in a Gottman-Informed Intake at Fava Counseling?
Understanding our intake process matters here, because the therapist matching happens within it, not before it.
Your First Session: Together
You and your partner come in together for the first session. Your therapist gets a chance to see you interact, understand what’s brought you in, and begin building rapport with both of you. Nobody is put on the spot. It’s less like a courtroom and more like an orientation — we’re mapping out the work ahead, not rendering a verdict.
Individual Sessions: Each of You, Separately
After that first joint session, your therapist meets individually with each partner. These one-on-one conversations give each person room to share their own history, their perspective on the relationship, and what they genuinely hope to get out of this. Things often come up in these sessions that partners aren’t ready to say in front of each other yet, and that’s completely normal. It helps us build a fuller, more accurate picture.
The Gottman Assessment
Your therapist will have you complete an online assessment through the Gottman Institute. This isn’t a pass/fail test. It’s a research-backed tool that maps your relationship’s strengths and growth areas across multiple dimensions, so your therapist can build a treatment plan around your specific dynamic rather than a generic one.
Your Feedback and Treatment Planning Session
Once the individual sessions and assessment are complete, you and your partner come back together. Your therapist walks through the results, you discuss what the data shows, and together you build a roadmap for the work ahead. From there, your ongoing sessions follow that plan and adjust as you make progress.
How We Match You with the Right Therapist
When you contact us, our intake coordinator takes time to understand your situation before anyone is assigned. A few of the things we consider:
What you’re dealing with. High-conflict communication, infidelity recovery, premarital prep, trauma, and cultural identity dynamics each call for different areas of clinical depth. We pay attention to that.
Your life context. Are you first responders? An intercultural couple? Parents navigating ADHD alongside relationship strain? A couple together for 20 years, or one that’s newly dating? These details shape who we recommend.
Availability and format. We offer both in-person and virtual sessions for anyone in Georgia, and our therapists have different schedules and openings.
Your budget. Our team includes both senior therapists and supervised associate-level clinicians, which gives us real flexibility on cost without compromising care. If you’re curious about working with an associate therapist, our guide to what that experience actually looks like is worth a read. For many couples, it’s genuinely the right fit.
Meet the Therapists: Finding Your Best-Fit Match
Liz Fava, LPC — Founder & Clinical Director
Best fit for: High-achieving couples, complex relationship dynamics, infidelity recovery, Christian-perspective counseling
Liz founded Fava Counseling Associates in 2015. She holds Level 3 Gottman training, the highest level of training the Gottman Institute offers. She’s also a Certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator and trained in Brainspotting, which she brings in when trauma is woven into the relationship dynamic.
She has a particular gift for working with couples who describe themselves as “doing everything right” but still feeling stuck. Her style is direct and research-grounded. She’ll name a pattern that isn’t serving you, but she does it in a way that feels supportive rather than clinical. For couples navigating infidelity, she uses the Gottman “Atone, Attune, Attach” framework to help partners rebuild trust in a structured way.
Liz has traveled extensively and is at home working with couples from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds. For clients who want to bring their faith into the therapeutic process, she offers counseling from a Christian perspective.
Session rate: $220 for couples / 50-minute session
Dr. Avery Campbell, PhD, LMFT
Best fit for: First responder couples, trauma-informed couples work, partners who feel emotionally disconnected
Avery grew up as the daughter of a first responder and has spent much of her doctoral training and clinical work focused on first responder couples and families. She understands, both personally and professionally, how high-stress jobs reshape relationships in ways that are easy to miss from the outside: the emotional flatness that follows a shift, the hypervigilance that doesn’t switch off at the end of the day, the loneliness of a partner who feels like they can’t quite reach the person they love.
She draws from Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and the Gottman Method, blending approaches based on what each couple needs. When unresolved trauma is part of the picture, trauma-informed therapy can run alongside couples work effectively, and Avery is well-positioned to help you navigate that combination. Clients consistently describe her as warm and funny in a way that makes difficult conversations feel more manageable.
Session rate: $190 for couples / 50-minute session
Zhihan Su, MFT
Best fit for: Intercultural couples, immigrant families, couples navigating identity and cross-cultural communication
Zhihan specializes in intercultural couples: partnerships where partners come from different cultural backgrounds, speak different first languages, or are working through the intersection of immigrant identity and relational expectations. This kind of work asks more than most couples therapy does, because what looks like a communication problem often runs much deeper. Different frameworks for family loyalty, conflict, emotional expression, and what love is supposed to look like can quietly pull two people apart even when both are genuinely trying.
Before your first session, our guide on thriving in intercultural relationships is worth reading if this sounds like your situation. Clients describe Zhihan as grounded, thoughtful, and a little dry in the best possible way. She knows when to push, when to listen, and when a well-placed observation makes something finally click. She pulls from her training in Family Systems, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and the Gottman Method. She offers both in-person and virtual sessions.
Zhihan is working toward full licensure under the direct clinical supervision of Liz Fava (LPC, CPCS).
Session rate: $170 for couples / 50-minute session
Kristen Sessoms, APC
Best fit for: Couples seeking a warm, faith-sensitive space; premarital counseling; families balancing parenting and relationship challenges at the same time; Neurodivergent couples
Kristen works with individuals, couples, and families across a range of life stages. Her approach puts safety first. She creates a space where clients feel genuinely welcomed before anything hard is asked of them. Clients describe her as intuitive and deeply compassionate, someone who makes you feel heard in a way that goes below the surface. With a specific focus on neurodivergence and ADHD, Kristen uniquely gets the challenges couples face when one or both partners has ADHD.
She’s also a strong fit for couples pursuing premarital counseling, as she runs premarital workshops and individual sessions for engaged couples alongside her regular caseload. Kristen is working toward full licensure under clinical supervision Session rate: $170 for couples / 50-minute session
Serena Johnson, APC
Best fit for: Couples where one or both partners are managing anxiety, depression, or trauma alongside relationship challenges; premarital and dating couples; clients who’ve had negative therapy experiences in the past
Serena’s work is marked by a gentleness that clients say helps them open up faster than they expected. Her clinical background runs deep in individual therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma, and interpersonal patterns, which makes her a natural fit for couples where personal mental health and relationship health are closely tangled. If anxiety is a recurring theme in your relationship, our anxiety therapy services page gives a fuller picture of how we address that work alongside couples sessions.
If either of you has been hesitant about therapy before, whether because of a past experience or a fear of judgment, Serena tends to ease those concerns early. She also runs psychoeducational workshops and groups on Boundaries and Attachment Styles, which pairs well with the skill-building focus of the Gottman Method. She is working toward full licensure under clinical supervision.
Session rate: $170 for couples / 50-minute session
Not Sure Who’s the Right Fit?
You don’t need to have this figured out before you reach out. That’s what the consultation is for.
When you contact us, you’ll have a brief conversation with our intake coordinator — not a formal session, just a chance for us to understand what you’re coming in with. From there, we’ll recommend the therapist we think is your strongest match and walk you through why. If things start and it doesn’t feel right, that conversation is always welcome. Getting to the right fit sometimes takes a step, and that’s okay.
You can also browse our full team to get a feel for everyone before you reach out.
Is the Gottman Method Right for Every Couple?
It’s a strong fit for a wide range of situations, from couples in serious distress to those who are doing well and want to stay that way. Research from the Gottman Institute suggests that therapists with advanced training are particularly equipped for more complex situations including trauma, affairs, and severe conflict. The approach also serves couples who are simply looking to sharpen their communication or reconnect before things erode further.
Both partners need to be willing to engage with the work, including what happens between sessions. For couples who want to experience the Gottman framework before committing to weekly therapy, our Gottman Workshop for Couples is a good starting point. It’s a one-day intensive built around the Seven Principles, led by Liz and our team.
One important note: couples therapy is generally not the right starting point when active domestic violence, emotional abuse, or substance abuse is present. In those situations, individual therapy is typically the safer and more effective first step. Our individual counseling services and couples counseling page both speak to what we offer in those contexts, and we’re always glad to talk through what makes sense for your specific situation.
We often hear from couples who feel like they’ve waited too long or let things go too far. In our experience, that’s rarely the full story. Repair is possible after infidelity, after years of gridlock, after long stretches of disconnection. The Gottman framework includes structured approaches for each of those situations, and our team has worked through all of them with real couples.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If the Gottman approach sounds right for what you’re facing, reaching out is the most useful thing you can do — not to commit to anything, just to have a conversation.
Contact us here to request a free consultation. The form is short and we’ll be back in touch within one business day. No pressure, no commitment required for that first call.
Your relationship deserves a thoughtful match. We’re here to help you find it.
Fava Counseling Associates is located at 4840 Roswell Rd., Suite C202, Atlanta, GA 30342, serving Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Chastain Park, and the greater Atlanta metro. Online counseling is available to anyone in Georgia.
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4840 Roswell Rd., Suite C202, Atlanta, GA 30342