My Approach to Relationship Repair
Relationships are serious business.
While I’ve made it my work to focus on relationships every day, I understand that you probably have places you’d rather be than talking with a stranger about the most personal parts of your life.
My first priority for anyone who walks through the door is helping them feel comfortable, respected and at ease. As an Aussie, I’m down-to-earth and direct — you won’t get any holier-than-thou vibes from me. I bring plenty of empathy, but I’m also not afraid to name what I see. When it comes to relationships, a lot is at stake.
Up-skilling you for life
I’m not interested in a model where you rely on me indefinitely. Relationship Repair is about helping you build the understanding, tools, and confidence to move forward on your own — not keeping you stuck in endless sessions.
For most people, the issue isn’t a lack of will, but a lack of skill — relational and emotional skills many of us were never taught growing up.
Our work together is collaborative. I’ll share my perspective on what seems to be happening, and I’ll invite your insight as well. I’m not afraid to be wrong, and I don’t expect you to be passive. Think of me as a relationship detective — I look for the patterns and dynamics beneath the pain you’re experiencing.
You won’t be lying on a couch, but honest conversations and some uncomfortable truths may be part of the process.
My aim is that you leave with new understanding, clearer beliefs, and practical skills that continue to serve you long after our work together ends. Throughout the process, I encourage curiosity, openness, and a willingness to try something different.
Training & Professional Background
My approach blends lived experience with structured training in relationship frameworks that focus on responsibility, communication, and change.
- Certified Personality Profiler through Personality Hacker
- Certified Relational Coach through Relational Life Therapy
- Level 1 Training in the Gottman Method
I’m also influenced by thinkers and teachers such as Esther Perel, Terry Real, Richard Rohr, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung — voices that emphasize meaning, responsibility, and honest connection.
Relationship Repair focuses on helping people understand what’s happening between them and decide how they want to move forward — without diagnostic labels or clinical treatment models.
About Me
How did I get here?
It was the 90s, and I was a 16-year-old punk-listening, baggy pants-wearing skateboarder. I planned to quit school, save money from my gas station job, and get rich by investing in property. By the time I was 17, my life was barely recognizable. I was in the midst of a breakdown, anxious and depressed, trying to come to terms with the fact my parents had just separated.
As an only child, I felt torn between my parents and not wanting to pick sides. My world had imploded, and I didn’t have the skills to deal. One of my parents took me to a psychologist, who got me back on track – but this wasn’t the same track I’d come off. I was now on a mission to help people, too.
I turned 18, did finish high school, moved out on my own, and pursued my dream of studying counseling. But despite great feedback about my potential, I was soon to drop out. I now know that before doing this work full-time, there was more life to live, pain to experience, and wisdom to gain.
Life became more focused.
In the following years, I traveled the world to China, India, Africa, Cambodia, and Thailand doing aid work. I got married, had another breakdown, found healing, and began formal training in mental health education and relational work.
For the next decade, I worked on the front lines of the disability, youth work, and mental health fields. I had a front-row seat to the breadth of the human condition. In other words, “It was one heck of a ride” – an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.
After funding cuts left me out of a job, I was in limbo re-evaluating my options. I realized it was time to bring it all together; I returned to my counseling training and haven’t stopped studying since.
At this point, I’d also achieved (what I once thought was) the unachievable: I have a happy marriage with Caitlin. We have since added three kids, and my only-child brain is still trying to understand why kids fight so much.
So, I’ve been around; I’ve seen pain and joy.
This isn’t an academic exercise for me; this is real life!
I also know the pain of a broken relationship and that happiness is available.
When I’m not working, I usually ride my electric skateboard, listen to a podcast, brew (and drink) kombucha, or hang out with my family.