Amy Jaynes, LPC, CPCS

Co-Owner and Clinical Co-Director

When you are facing a potentially life-altering medical diagnosis like cancer, do you want to see your primary care doctor? Or would you rather find an oncologist who specializes in treating cancer? I don't know about you, but I would want to find an oncologist who specializes in treating the specific cancer I'm facing! I would want a team of professionals who sees these cases all the time and knows exactly what they are doing.

Finding help when your relationship is in crisis or your marriage is falling apart is the same way! You are going to have much better outcomes working with a therapist who specializes in helping couples, rather than a generalist who tries to help everyone. While both therapists want to help, one has much more experience, training, and knowledge to help you repair your bond and save your relationship.

This is the focus and intention with which I've approached my career: follow your passions and become an excellent clinician in those arenas. To that end, I have helped hundreds of couples rebuild trust after affairs, move through betrayals and crisis situations, learn to communicate in meaningful ways, and learn to actually hear and understand each other. For many of those couples, hope of being happy and fulfilled has completely dwindled and my job is to hold and protect the final ember they share.

Wherever you are in relation to your partner, I'm here to join you, help you slow down difficult moments, and sort through the history, hurts, and strategies present to understand where things are going wrong.

In my experience, most people want their partners to feel deeply loved and accepted. Most people also want to feel deeply loved and accepted. Let's work together to figure out what's getting in the way of that in your relationship!

A Bit About Me

My clinical career began with a strong interest in the psychological impact of illness and disability and a master’s degree in medical rehabilitation counseling. Helping people adjust to the unique experiences of medical journeys was powerful and fulfilling– but I soon realized that my clients’ medical needs impacted everyone in their family. Partners, parents, siblings, children: they are all touched by their loved one’s illness or disability. The whole system was in pain and some of their relationships were becoming stressed and fracturing.

The idea of my clients struggling medically and their relationships simultaneously breaking apart was too heartbreaking to accept as inevitable. So, I set out on a journey to find out how to help all of them. Therapy model after therapy model didn’t have good outcome data; until I found Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT) and Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT). They had phenomenal outcomes– outcomes that lasted. EFT research shows that 86-90% of couples experienced improvements in connection and communication in their relationship and those changes stick. I was hooked– and have spent more than 300 hours in training and consultation to master the model.

Today, my clinical practice exclusively focuses on helping couples deepen bonds and heal wounds. I’m passionate about this work and love joining my clients on their journey.

Although relational conflict can be overwhelmingly intense or disorienting, I have found that it holds a unique ability to create healing and generate profound shifts in our lives. In EFT, I work to join couples in the process of identifying long-standing patterns of conflict and shifting to new ways of being with each other. Other times, I help couples contemplating divorce navigate the gut-wrenching decision of how to move forward: dive in and seek professional help or find a way to separate in a way that honors their history. My most important job is respecting everyone that comes into my office and their individual experience of the relationship.

If you are feeling disconnected from your partner and want to work on your relationship, call today to schedule: 770.451.0404.