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Family Ties Counseling and Coaching

PHONE: 602-730-4105
ADDRESS: 3420 E. Shea Blvd
Ste 211| Phoenix, AZ 85028

Helping Individuals, Couples, and Families Find a Path Forward

Compassionate counseling for couples, individuals, and families in Phoenix, with specialized support for couples recovering from infidelity.

Schedule a Standard Session
Explore Extended Affair Recovery Sessions

Heather Ford

Licensed Professional Counselor

Heather is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in helping children and families heal from the effects of trauma. Her work with couples has also inspired a deep passion for supporting partners through the intense healing required after infidelity and other relationship challenges.

Trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy, sandtray therapy, and trauma-based interventions, Heather brings a highly relational and reflective approach to treatment - one that authentically reflects how she lives her own life. Having been married to her high school sweetheart for more than 26 years, she understands firsthand the challenges, growth, and resilience involved in sustaining a long-term relationship.

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Brian Ford

Life Coach

In today's fast-paced world, balancing the roles of husband, partner, and father can feel stressful, confusing, and overwhelming. Many men have never been given the emotional tools to communicate openly, navigate conflict, or express their thoughts and feelings within relationships.

As a life coach, I am committed to helping men strengthen their relationships with their partners, spouses, and children. As a father of two who has been married to his high school sweetheart for many years, I understand the challenges of raising a family while nurturing a healthy, lasting relationship.

I am passionate about helping men build deeper connections, develop greater emotional confidence, and rediscover a sense of purpose, passion, and excitement in life's journey.

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OUR THERAPY SERVICES

COUPLES COUNSELING

Reconnect. Repair. Strengthen Your Relationship.

Every relationship experiences challenges. Whether you’re struggling with communication, recurring conflict, emotional distance, or recovering from betrayal, it is possible to rebuild connection and create a healthier relationship.

Many couples wait months—or even years—before seeking help, hoping things will improve on their own. Unfortunately, unresolved issues often become larger over time, leading to resentment, loneliness, and disconnection. Couples counseling provides a safe, supportive environment where both partners can feel heard, understood, and empowered to create lasting change.

You don’t have to continue having the same arguments or feeling like you’re growing apart. Healing is possible, and change begins with understanding.

My Approach

Heather is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), one of the most researched and effective approaches to couples counseling. Rather than simply teaching communication skills, EFT helps couples understand the emotional patterns that keep them stuck.

Together, we’ll identify the negative cycles that create conflict and disconnection while strengthening emotional safety, trust, and secure attachment. As couples begin to understand one another on a deeper level, communication naturally improves and lasting change becomes possible.

My goal is not to determine who is right or wrong. Instead, I help both partners feel heard, understood, and supported as we work together toward healing and reconnection.

What You Can Expect

During therapy, we’ll work together to:

  • Improve communication and reduce conflict

  • Rebuild trust and emotional safety

  • Strengthen emotional and physical intimacy

  • Develop healthier ways of resolving disagreements

  • Understand each partner’s attachment needs

  • Break unhealthy relationship patterns

  • Create a stronger foundation for the future

Every couple’s journey is unique. Sessions are tailored to your specific goals, challenges, and strengths.

"We are born in relationship, we are wounded in relationship, and we can be healed in relationship."  - Harville Hendrix

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OUR THERAPY SERVICES

 

Affair Recovery

Marriages Can Heal After an Affair. There Is Hope.

Discovering an affair is one of the most painful experiences a relationship can endure. The betrayal often leaves both partners feeling overwhelmed, uncertain, and emotionally exhausted. While the road to healing is not easy, many couples not only recover—they build stronger, healthier relationships than they had before.

Healing requires commitment, guidance, and a willingness to understand what happened beneath the surface of the affair. Recovery is possible, and you do not have to navigate this journey alone.

What Does Healing Require?

Commitment to the Process

Affair recovery is rarely a quick or straightforward journey. Both partners must be willing to invest time, emotional energy, and honesty into rebuilding the relationship. There will be difficult conversations, setbacks, and moments of uncertainty, but lasting healing comes from consistently choosing the relationship over avoidance.

When both individuals commit to the recovery process, they begin laying the foundation for renewed trust and emotional safety.

Patience

Healing takes time.

For many couples, meaningful recovery occurs over 18–24 months. This timeline isn’t because the relationship is failing—it’s because betrayal creates a significant emotional injury that cannot simply be “gotten over.”

The betrayed partner often experiences waves of grief, anger, fear, and intrusive thoughts, while the partner who had the affair may struggle with shame, guilt, and uncertainty about how to help. Both experiences deserve compassion and understanding.

Progress happens gradually, and every small step forward matters.

Specialized Therapy Matters

Affair recovery is different from traditional couples counseling.

Infidelity creates unique challenges that require specialized treatment. Without proper guidance, couples often find themselves repeating painful conversations without making meaningful progress.

Working with a therapist trained in affair recovery helps couples:

  • Understand why the affair occurred without placing blame

  • Process betrayal and rebuild emotional safety

  • Improve communication and conflict resolution

  • Learn how to answer difficult questions productively

  • Re-establish trust through consistent actions

  • Develop a healthier, more connected relationship moving forward

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OUR THERAPY SERVICES

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

Our past experiences often shape how we think, feel, behave, and navigate relationships. Patterns developed through earlier relationships or difficult experiences may have once helped us cope, but over time, they can leave us feeling stuck, disconnected, or unsure of how to move forward.

Individual counseling offers a safe, supportive space to explore these patterns with curiosity and compassion. Together, we can identify the experiences and beliefs influencing your present life, deepen your understanding of yourself, and develop healthier ways of responding to challenges. This process can help you navigate relationships more effectively by improving communication, recognizing your needs, establishing meaningful boundaries, and working through conflict with greater confidence. As you build emotional awareness and self-understanding, you can strengthen your connection with yourself and create healthier, more fulfilling relationships with others.

FAMILY THERAPY

Family relationships can be a meaningful source of love and support, but they can also become strained by conflict, changing roles, life transitions, past experiences, and unmet needs. Over time, families may fall into patterns that leave members feeling misunderstood, disconnected, or isolated from one another.

Family counseling provides a safe and supportive space for each person to feel heard and better understand the experiences and perspectives of others. By working with the family as a whole, we can identify unhelpful patterns, improve communication, navigate changing roles, establish healthy boundaries, and develop more effective ways of managing conflict.

Through this collaborative process, families can begin to repair emotional wounds, rebuild trust, and strengthen their relationships. The goal is not to create a perfect family, but to help family members relate to one another with greater empathy, respect, and understanding - creating lasting opportunities for connection, healing, and growth.

"Healing doesn't mean the pain never existed.  It means the damage no longer controls our lives"   - NotSalmon.com

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“When you love someone, you make mistakes together.  You take steps backward together.  You recover together.  You fumble through the world together, because no matter how long you have been together, there are always going to be new things to learn.”

-Holly Riordan

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Schedule a Session

Currently, we take United Healthcare Insurance, Cigna and Aetna Insurance. 

Self pay sessions are $165 for couples and $135 for individuals and we accept cash, check or credit card.

Extended weekend sessions

Offered with Heather and Brian. These sessions are offered on a limited basis and require a fit consultation.

If an extended session is offered, the $500 self-pay fee is collected after the consultation to reserve the two-hour weekend appointment.

**Insurance is not billed for this service.**

A consultation helps us understand your circumstances, discuss safety and readiness, and determine whether this format is appropriate.

Submission of a consultation request does not guarantee acceptance or reserve an appointment.

3420 East Shea Boulevard
Suite 211
Phoenix, AZ 85028

602-730-4105

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