Couples therapy · 80 min · Boulder, Colorado and online
Two bodies, one room.
For partners learning to feel each other again — not just hear each other.
I also work with same-sex couples and partners who identify as queer.
When you have the same argument for years
You can both recite the pattern by now. You know your attachment styles. You’ve read the books. You’ve had insight after insight in couples therapy. And the moment you’re in the kitchen and it happens again, none of that insight is in the room.
The reason it keeps happening is that the loop isn’t living in your conversation. It’s living in your bodies. One of you needs to talk it out, the other needs space. Your nervous systems are running an old conversation underneath the words.
Somatic couples therapy works underneath. We slow down enough that both of you can feel what your body is doing while it’s happening — and that’s where the pattern actually has a chance of changing. Not because you understand it better. Because you’re both finally in the room, in your bodies, at the same time.
Learning to hear what your partner’s body is saying, and letting yours be heard — that is different from learning to argue more productively.
What a session looks like
Sessions are 80 minutes — longer than individual work, because two nervous systems need more room to land and to be tracked. Both partners present, no exceptions.
I invite both partners to pay attention to what is happening in their body in the moment. We do small body-based exercises together: synchronized breath, mirroring postures, tracking eye gaze, noticing what happens when one person speaks and the other listens.
What I’m tracking: how your nervous systems are responding to each other in real time. Where the pattern lives in your bodies. What small adjustments make new co-regulation possible.
My training in this work braids three approaches:
- PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy, Stan Tatkin) — attachment and neurobiology for couples
- EFT Core Skills (Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples, Sue Johnson) — emotional bonds and attachment ruptures
- Somatic and dance/movement therapy — the body’s role in everything above
I work with one couple at a time per session. I don’t see individual partners separately while also seeing you as a couple — too much risk of triangulation. If individual work is needed alongside, I refer.
Whether this is the right fit
This work fits well if
- You’ve done couples therapy before and the pattern persists
- Both partners are willing to come — this is not “drag-along” therapy
- You’re committed enough to the relationship to do the slower work
- You’re curious about your bodies’ role in the dynamic
This work might be less ideal if
- One partner isn’t willing to come — I work with two-partner participation
- Active domestic violence is present in the relationship.
- The decision is whether to stay together — I do couples-work, not divorce counseling per se, though sometimes that question emerges and we name it
- You’re seeking quick communication-tactics training — different specialist needed
If active domestic violence is present
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788 — 24/7, confidential, available in 200+ languages. In Colorado, SafeHouse Denver also runs a 24/7 line at 303-318-9989 (statewide coverage, shelter and counseling). For acute personal-safety crisis: 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7 — includes Colorado as of July 2025) or 911.
Common questions
Not for couples sessions. I can see you individually if individual work is what you need, but I don’t do “couples therapy for one.” If your partner is reluctant, that’s a conversation we can have in a consultation — sometimes the reluctance itself is the thing worth working with.
Most insurance doesn’t cover couples therapy — it’s not typically categorized as a medical-necessity service. I provide superbills you can submit to your insurance for out-of-network reimbursement. See Schedule for current fees.
Couples vary widely. Some come for six sessions around a specific issue and graduate. Others come for a year or more for deeper relational reshape. We track it together, and I’ll tell you when I notice the work has moved as far as it can with me.
Honestly? Sometimes it isn’t. But the most common reason couples therapy plateaus is that the talking part has been done thoroughly and the body part hasn’t been touched. If that resonates, this approach has a real shot.
All of those are common in the work — they’re nervous-system responses, not failures. I track them as information, not as problems. We slow down, name what’s happening in the body, and let the room be a place where those responses can be present without ending the session. When one partner’s body goes somewhere that needs more structured attention than that, I borrow from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, which is built for exactly those moments.
The structure
Anna Samsonova, MA, LPC — Naropa Somatic Counseling Psychology · LPC (Colorado) · PACT Level 1 · EFT Core Skills · 19 years working as a psychotherapist · Boulder, Colorado
Want to see if this fits where you both are?
Book a free 30-min consultation →30 min, free. Both partners welcome to attend together — or one partner can speak with Anna individually first, if that’s easier where you both are.