Ascend Mind and Body provides couples therapy in Lakeland, FL using evidence-based methods including the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and narrative therapy. Sessions are offered in-person at our South Florida Avenue office and via telehealth across Florida. Rates start at $75 for supervised-intern sessions. Call (863) 510-2624 or book online.
Not every relationship issue needs the same approach. A couple working through infidelity is in a different place than a couple who has grown disconnected, which is different again from a couple preparing to marry or blend a family. Our Lakeland therapy team matches the framework - Gottman for communication and conflict patterns, EFT for emotional disconnection and attachment-driven cycles, narrative therapy for clients who respond better to a story-based lens - to what the relationship actually needs.
Our Lakeland couples therapy providers
[NEEDED: Kasey - which Lakeland-licensed couples therapist should be featured as the primary couples-therapy provider on this page? Options based on the current disk roster include Antonio Garland, RMFTI (Registered Marriage and Family Therapy Intern - couples and family systems focus) and Ondina Waldron, LMHC (trauma, family dynamics, and faith-integrated counseling). Kaylee Mills Brenneman is de-emphasized per CEO spec. Name the specific clinician(s) you want featured and we'll fill the provider block. Do not publish this page until this gate is resolved.]
Antonio Garland, RMFTI is a Registered Marriage and Family Therapy Intern at our Lakeland office. His clinical focus is relationship dynamics, family systems, and couples counseling within a relational framework. Supervised-intern rate at $75 per session - one of the most affordable couples-therapy options in Polk County. [NEEDED: Kasey - confirm Antonio as the primary couples-therapy feature on this page. If yes, we lead with his provider block; if no, hold publication.]
Ondina G. Waldron, LMHC is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma, family dynamics, and faith-integrated counseling. For couples who want faith as part of the therapeutic process, Ondina's integration is client-led - she incorporates it only where it is wanted. [NEEDED: Kasey - confirm Ondina is accepting new couples clients.]
Book couples therapy in Lakeland
Conditions and situations we treat
Couples come to Ascend for a specific and recurring set of reasons:
- Communication breakdown - the same argument on repeat, criticism and defensiveness as default modes, stonewalling, and conversations that derail into something neither person intended.
- Conflict that has become destructive - yelling, escalation, name-calling, or the kind of silence that is its own form of hostility. Gottman's research-based framework is specifically designed for de-escalation and repair.
- Infidelity and betrayal recovery - affair recovery is structured, evidence-based work. Not a weekend, not a quick fix; a defined arc of rebuilding trust, processing the rupture, and rebuilding the relationship if both partners choose to.
- Emotional disconnection - couples who are functioning but feel distant, who have become roommates or co-parents and stopped being partners. EFT's attachment model is designed for this presentation.
- Pre-marital counseling - proactive work for couples preparing to marry. Often the most useful time to do this work, and the least common time couples actually do it.
- Life transitions affecting the relationship - blending families, relocation, career change, having children, empty nest, retirement. The relationship has to adapt; couples therapy is where that adaptation becomes deliberate.
- Grief affecting the couple - loss of a child, of a parent, of a pregnancy. Grief lands differently on each person in a couple; therapy prevents the grief itself from becoming a wedge.
- Sexual intimacy concerns - desire discrepancy, loss of connection, or the emotional fallout of a physical-intimacy issue. Often addressed within the broader couples-therapy frame. [NEEDED: Kasey - confirm which Lakeland clinician handles sex-therapy scope explicitly; if none, we remove this bullet.]
What to expect at your first session
Before the visit. Both partners fill out intake forms online. The questionnaire asks each of you separately about what brought you in, how long the concerns have been present, and what you're each hoping to get from therapy. Your clinician reads these before the first session.
The first session. About 50 to 60 minutes, both partners present. Your clinician will ask how you met, what the relationship was like at its best, what's changed, and how the current patterns show up in real life. Most first sessions include an assessment of safety - couples therapy is not appropriate when there is active domestic violence; in those situations we refer to specialized resources.
Early sessions. In Gottman-informed work, the next few sessions may include individual interviews with each partner so the clinician can understand each person's family of origin, attachment history, and current experience of the relationship. EFT skips the separate sessions and works with the couple as a unit from the start.
Ongoing. Weekly sessions are typical during active work. The arc is longer than individual therapy for most couples - often 10 to 20 sessions for focused concerns, longer for affair recovery or complex dynamics.