Mark Stewart, Ed.S, LMFT-A
Columbia, SC
Therapy for couples, individuals and relationships
Relationship Therapy
Couples therapy is the heart of my practice, and is work I find quite meaningful. Relationships are where we are most fully ourselves, and most importantly, where we can feel at our most vulnerable. When alignment between people who love each other begins to falter, the pain is unlike anything else. It lives in the body, disrupts sleep, infects ordinary moments through uncertain questioning, and makes the future feel suddenly a looming question.
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People arrive here through different ways. Some come in the acute aftermath of a rupture; an infidelity discovered, a firm threat of separation, a moment when something was finally said out loud that rings with trepidation now. Others arrive after a longer, quieter erosion — the gnawing distance, the conversations that grew less frequent and then - expanding the uncertainty - feeling even less committed, the growing sense of living alongside rather than with someone. Both are valid entry points. We can begin from either.
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What I bring to this work is an emotionally-focused approach that gets underneath the conflict to what is actually driving it; the attachment fears, the unmet needs, the patterns that made sense once and no longer do. Couples often arrive believing their problem is communication. Usually it goes much deeper than that. And that's where the real work, and the real relief, begins.
Couples Counseling / Couples Therapy
Our partner can be the person we need most and, in the same moment, feel like our greatest obstacle or even our most dangerous opponent. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the approach at the heart of my practice, works by identifying the underlying cycle driving conflict and disconnection, and replacing it with a more secure felt reality. Most couples are not fighting about what they think they are fighting about, or even about the unresolved trauma, including (in a way, when it's about differing views on finances) what lies below these cyclical breakdowns. Getting underneath the presenting conflict to the base attachment needs beneath it is where lasting change begins.
Marriage Counseling / Marriage Therapy
Marriage carries its own particular weight - of commitment, history, shared identity, family strains and in many cases children. Whether you are newly married and already feeling the rattle of concern, years in and aware of a growing disconnect, navigating the complexity of a blended family, or approaching marriage and wanting to start (or restart) with more intention, there is a place here for where you are - right now. Marriage counseling isn't a last resort. For many couples it's the most important investment they make in affirming the bond they share, even when these goals appear to diverge.
Inclusive Relationship Counseling / Consensual Non-Monogamy Counseling
Relationship structures are not one size fits all, and neither is therapy. Whether you are navigating consensual non-monogamy, exploring questions of sexuality or gender within your relationship, or simply find that your relationship doesn't fit the conventional template, you will find a non-judgemental space here. The questions occupying your thoughts and emotions deserve careful, open exploration. Let's find what works for you.
