Online Couples Therapy for Tampa, FL residents

In person, couples sessions are held at our Lakeland office, about 35 miles east of downtown Tampa on I-4. For Tampa couples, secure video works from anywhere in Florida, and you can mix the two.

Yes. You each log in to the same secure session from wherever you are, as long as you are both physically in Florida and somewhere private.

Insurance questions go to our care team, who confirm your coverage with you before your first visit.

Both partners attend. Your therapist asks each of you what brought you in and what you want to change, explains confidentiality, and helps you set a shared goal. No one is cast as the problem.

Yes, by video or in Lakeland. Sessions cover money, family expectations, conflict styles, and intimacy, so those talks happen before the wedding instead of in the middle of an argument.

You can start with individual sessions and invite your partner later. Some partners agree once they hear the focus is the pattern between you, not blame. The choice stays theirs.

Not while there is ongoing violence, threats, or coercive control, because joint sessions can increase the danger. Start with individual support and a safety plan. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233. In an emergency, call 911.

Yes. Each of you opens the same secure video link from your own spot, as long as you are both physically in Florida and somewhere private. A closed office door downtown and a quiet room at home in New Tampa work well together. Use separate headphones so the audio does not loop, and keep the same weekly time if you can, because a standing slot is easier to protect on two calendars than a new time every week.

Leave the argument and get to safety first. Call 911 if anyone is hurt or in danger; Tampa General Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital and AdventHealth Tampa all have emergency departments. If you or your partner is in a mental health crisis, call or text 988. Couples sessions are not an emergency service, and when there is violence, threats or control, individual support and a safety plan come before joint sessions; the domestic violence hotline listed on this page is open around the clock.

Often it can help with how the two of you handle it: who carries what, how you talk on hard days, and where resentment builds. It is not a replacement for individual care. The partner who is struggling can also see one of our therapists individually by video, and psychiatry is available inside the same practice if medication may help. For the other partner, NAMI Hillsborough is a local place to look for family education and peer support.

Arguments that keep running the same script, emotional distance, broken trust after an affair, the question of whether to stay together, premarital preparation, and strain from parenting or a blended family. Life transitions count too: a move to Tampa, a new baby, a job that changed one partner's hours, or caring for an aging parent. Diana also works with one partner when the other will not attend. If either of you needs individual help with anxiety or depression, that can run alongside.

With couples she works in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, an attachment-based method that targets the cycle underneath recurring arguments instead of refereeing each one. She has completed the EFT Externship and the EFCT Core Skills training and is working toward certification under supervision. Published clinical trials of Emotionally Focused Therapy report improvement for most couples studied, but those results describe groups, not a prediction for any one couple. Ask her in the first session how she would apply it to your situation.

It can give you a structured place to try. Trust repair usually means the partner who had the affair answers questions honestly and takes responsibility, the hurt partner has room to say what the betrayal did, and both of you look at what was happening in the relationship beforehand without turning it into an excuse. It tends to take longer than other couples work, it needs both of you to want to try, and no therapist can promise the relationship will last. Video from home in Tampa keeps those conversations in a private space you choose.

Most couples start weekly so the work keeps its momentum, and the coordinator confirms the session length when you book. There is no fixed number of sessions. Premarital work is often shorter, and recovering from an affair often takes longer. Diana gives you her honest read after the first few sessions and checks progress with you along the way. For Tampa couples meeting by video, a standing weekly time on both calendars matters more than any target number.

Yes. Diana Frances Smith holds a Master of Science in marriage and family therapy and is registered with the State of Florida as a marriage and family therapist intern, which means she has finished her graduate training and is completing supervised clinical hours toward full licensure. All of her work happens under licensed clinical supervision. You can confirm a Florida registration on the Department of Health's license verification search, just as you could for any therapist you are weighing in Tampa.

Yes. Ascend Mind and Body is an affirming practice, and LGBTQIA+ couples are welcome by secure video from anywhere in Florida or in person at the Lakeland office. Nobody has to explain or defend their relationship before the work starts. If family-of-origin stress, or how the two of you are treated in public, is part of what you are carrying, bring it in; it belongs in the room as much as any argument does.

Diana is booked by phone or callback rather than through an online calendar. Send the request form on this page, or call the number shown on her card, and a coordinator calls back, usually within one business day. Only one of you needs to reach out. Say whether you want to meet by video, from one place or two, or in Lakeland, and which weekday hours work for both of you.