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(Virtual) Couples Counseling Done Differently

Stop Fighting. Start Connecting.

Find Your Way Back to Your Partner and Yourself

You Don't Have to Stay Stuck

You know that feeling when a fight starts brewing–the same fight you and your partner have had a million times. You push one another's buttons. You wish the other would change. And that things between you would just be easier. You accuse, shut down, argue, and walk away feeling alone and misunderstood. Why does this keep happening?
 

You might be getting stuck in patterns that are damaging your relationship. But connection is your birthright, and getting unstuck is easier than you might think.

Older couple hugging warmly

How I Can Help 

Individual
Therapy

  • Better understand yourself

  • Learn to ground yourself and regulate 

  • Get practical skills for managing anxiety and overcoming trauma

  • Learn more about Candy's individual therapy model

Virtual
Couples Counseling

  • Convenient virtual appointments 

  • Relational Life Therapy Model

  • Connect with and understand your partner on a deeper level

  • Learn new skills and break bad habits

  • Unpack key challenges and recurring fights

  • Learn more about Candy's couples' therapy model and couples' therapy options

Somatic Experiencing Sessions & Consults (SE Students/Providers) 

  • Learn from a SE practitioner with 20+ years of experience! 

  • Get help and advice for any SE level 

  • Build your SE credits

  • ​Get personal and case consultations

  • Learn how to deepen your skills and integrate relational healing 

  • Get the details on Candy's SE training for professionals

Couples Therapy Packages

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Couples Boot Camp

  • $1,200 for 4, 2-hour sessions

  • A personal workshop tailored to you and your partner 

  • Identify your unique pitfalls and recurring conflicts 

  • Learn the key skills you need to thrive in a healthy relationship

  • Develop new connection and communication skills

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Couples Intensive

  • $2,500 for 2-days back-to-back

  • Unpack your biggest challenges

  • Perfect for couples on the brink of ending things

  • Designed to help you do a 'relational reckoning' and decide if the relationship is worth fighting for

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Self-Paced Course

  • $50 per video 

  • Recorded workshop unpacks crucial relational strategies

  • Build skills specific to you and your partner

  • Watch any time, any place

  • Perfect for couples who want to dig deeper but have packed schedules 

Reimagine Your Relationship

As a Terry Real Relational Life Therapy model therapist, my mission is to help couples do counseling differently. For example, I help couples: 

  • Identify their unique pitfalls and fighting styles

  • Decide if their relationship is worth staying in, and how to save it

  • Unpack what triggers them and why

  • Help couples build the everyday skills they need to communicate and connect

  • Teach them how to regulate their emotions and ground themselves through somatic experiencing

The Relationship Grid | Terry Real

01.

First, we gather data. We identify how you and your partner show up when you're upset.

02.

Then we explore your families of origin, specifically why you've learned to adapt and cope the way you have.

03.

Lastly, we work on building skills. These are the crucial skills that shift your dynamic out of conflict and into deep connection.

How It Works

Candy's warm, friendly, well-organized approach helped calm our anxiety about beginning couples therapy. And most importantly, she has been more helpful than either of us imagined possible. She offered us a clear and concrete way to navigate conflict that helps us move from getting polarized or 'walking on eggshells' into an open, honest, caring connection. Her skill at working with both our unproductive interactions as a couple and our 'young parts' that result in those unproductive interactions has been extraordinarily helpful. We are deeply grateful for Candy's supportive and skillful guidance in growing both as individuals and as a couple.

- Jim & Denise

About Candy Smith

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor | Somatic Experiencing™ (SE®) Practitioner | Registered Play Therapist / Supervisor

I'm Candy. I'm a wife, mother, and grandmother, and I am passionate about helping people heal and grow in relationships. I love helping people connect to their true selves and reconnect in new ways to their relationships. What gets me excited is understanding what makes people tick, why they get stuck, and how to have safe and loving relationships with the people they're close to.

 

I've found personal freedom in this work and want to share that freedom with others. My goal is to help people overcome the things that are getting in their way of being relational. 

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Specialties

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In my free time, I love playing with my grandkids here in Kansas City and planning my next trip to visit the ones out of state.

Candy Smith Counseling Profile / Headshot
  • What is Relational Life Therapy?
    Relational Life Therapy is a form of couples counseling that helps partners understand the dance they do relationally. Once we begin to understand the dance we are then able to look at the pattern and work to change the steps in the dance that are not working for the couple. In order to change the dance we need insight and understanding to gain awareness of where those patterns come from. When we start to understand where they are coming from we will learn new skills that will help the couple resolve conflicts, develop personal accountability, improve communication and foster intimacy.
  • What is Somatic Experiencing™ ?
    Somatic Experiencing is a neurobiological approach to treating trauma. A definition of trauma that I like is anything that is too much, too fast, too soon or not enough for too long. (Peter Levine). Somatic means “of the body.” SE® is a method of releasing stress and trauma that gets “stuck” in the body. When we become stressed by an overwhelming life event of some kind, our brains tell our bodies to either run, fight, or freeze. Since running or fighting doesn’t usually make sense to us, we stifle all of that energy, and it gets trapped inside the body. Under these conditions, Dr. Peter Levine’s research shows that a trauma event creates a physiological energy which, unless released, can cause problematic symptoms.
  • What is the goal of Somatic Experiencing?
    The goal of Somatic Experiencing is to regulate the nervous system through the use of sensations, imagery behaviors, emotion and meaning. This method is designed to restore resilience and reconnect the body's inner wisdom, which moves naturally toward balance.
  • Will I get better?
    Most people report feeling hope after their first session and continue to shift toward healing and growth over time. Of course, therapy is a very individual process, and in partnership with Candy, close attention is paid to the shifts and changes in your sense of well being.
  • What is the work process?
    Whether doing Individual or Couples sessions Candy will invite you to tell her what you would like out of our time together often starting a session with “If this were a great session what would we accomplish in our time together.” She believes you are here with a need and would like to meet you where you are and help you accomplish your wish. Candy will ask you to slow down, come into your body and find your wisdom. She will be present for what shows up and help you lean into your story and truth.
  • Are in person sessions available?
    No, Candy is fully remote and telephone and zoom sessions are available Monday through Friday from 8-4pm Central.
  • Do you take insurance?
    No, but an invoice will be sent to you with everything you need to submit to your insurance company.
  • How does billing work?
    Your credit card will be kept on file and charged the agreed-upon fee after each scheduled session/appointment.
  • What is the cancellation, or missed appointment policy?
    24 hour notice is required for all cancellations. Failure to cancel within that time frame results in a full session fee charge.
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