An experienced counselor offering
both long and short-term couples therapy.

Alex Szablya Portrait

My goals as a therapist are simple: I will help you identify problems and provide opportunities for deepening your relationship. Our work will focus on what you think is right between the two of you…and what’s not. I teach couples to hear and understand each other. I will help you recognize that very often it’s communication that’s the problem. Together we will identify negative communication patterns and change them into new, healing, healthy, connections. Once couples reconnect, partners feel safe enough to be vulnerable to the other again. That is truly when relationship growth happens.

I offer Marathon Couples Therapy in New Orleans and Seattle — a two-day intensive therapeutic program for couples — as well as traditional couples therapy. Watch my introduction video below where I discuss my approach further.

ABOUT MARATHON COUPLES THERAPY

The quality of our
relationships determines
the quality of our lives.

–Esther Perel

Marathon Couples Therapy

A highly-effective, intensive, and evidence-based therapeutic modality for couples wanting to heal old wounds, move beyond negative interactive patterns and embrace new communication skills for creating the best relationship ever.

Learn more about the Marathon counseling process below.
Recommended for couples who
...are ready to dive in and make lasting, positive changes in their relationship.
...are in distress or crisis and unsure of the path forward, but know it can’t stay how it is now. 
...feel stuck in a negative cycle and want the fighting to stop. 
...have become distant—like roommates—and don’t know how to be close again. 
...find that weekly counseling isn’t working with their schedules or the childcare shuffle. 
...already see a therapist, and weekly sessions aren’t working out. 
...want to get away from it all AND rebuild their relationship.

By special request I can provide short-term counseling and regular sessions.

Note that my rates, across Marathon counseling and other services, are $300 per hour for couples and $250 per hour for individuals.

There is an alchemy that happens when we give ourselves over to deeply loving another: the joy, the vulnerability, the suffering. Either we expand (in love) or we contract (in suffering).

– Connie Feutz, Master Marathon Counselor

Accreditations

  • Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
  • Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
  • Master in Psychology, Seattle University
  • B.A. in Psychology, University of Washington
  • Trained in The Gottman Method
  • Trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
  • Certified in Theme Centered Interaction: a holistic group paradigm based upon structure, process, & trust
  • Trained as a hospice volunteer
  • Humanistic therapist, educated within existential-phenomenological psychology

About Alex Szablya

I was married, widowed in my forties, and found love again with my new husband in my fifties. In addition to that, I was a mother of two kids who are now successful adults. When my first husband died I upheaved my whole life to pursue therapy as a career, returning to school and working — all while raising my children. Life goes on whether one is prepared or not, as I’ve experienced many times.

I’ve learned that it is best to be prepared in all aspects of life. Connecting to the moment you’re living and being truly present is the most important thing one can learn how to do. Though our past gets in the way of the here and now, therapy has the power to intervene, relegate the past to the past, and firmly establish you in the present so you can enjoy life now.

I also have a special focus on sexual issues in committed relationships and deeply enjoy working with couples to help them get where they want to be. I work to establish effective communication, help couples rediscover why they chose each other in the first place, and help them create a lasting stability that can guide them through life.

What Clients Say

My girlfriend and I were having trouble trying to make a big decision about whether to move to NYC to be closer to her parents or to stay in Seattle closer to mine. Working with Alex over the course of two days allowed us to explore the different challenges we’d face with either decision and were able to make the choice we decided was best for us. (We moved!) – HM

My husband and I were afraid we were on the brink of divorce. We were seriously worried we weren’t going to make it. Alex’s guidance reminded us how much we love each other. In two short days we reconnected to the reasons we’re a couple and how deep our love really is. – JF

Alex is a therapist who is not afraid to guide and coach you to the place you want to be. She does this with solid information in addition to warmth, joy, and a surprising amount of laughter. We recommend her without reserve. – BKI

Contact

Fill in your information below to find out more about my practice and check availability. I offer a 30 minute free consult to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Contact Form 2024