“We fall in love by chance, we stay in love by choice”
About Us
LOUANN SMITH, LCSW-R
LouAnn Smith, LCSW-R has over 30 years of experience and is certified in Group Therapy, Divorce /Family Mediation, Couple and Family Therapy, Clinical Supervision, EMDR and is currently working toward ASSECT (Sex Therapy) certification.
LouAnn currently leads seminars in Divorce Mediation, Working with Couples and Sexuality in Therapy, and Systemic Couples Therapy. She is active on the faculties of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and The Training Institute for Mental Health Practitioners. LouAnn is a clinical supervisor and has a special interest and experience in working with family subgroups, eg. daughters/mothers and siblings.
For more information about LouAnn, go to louannsmithpsychotherapy.com
RITA GAZARIK, LCSW-R
Rita Gazarik, LCSW-R has over 30 years of administrative, training teaching and clinical experience. She is a graduate of Ackerman Institute for the Family and Family Institute of Westchester. Rita was involved in family research in gay adolescents and their families as part of the development of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, She has published several articles and co-authored a chapter in Ethnicity & Family Therapy, on Czechoslovak culture for family therapists.
Presently, Rita is director of Family Life Associates, located in New York City and adjunct faculty at The Silberman Graduate School of Social Work (CUNY).
For more information about Rita, go to ritagazarik.com
It’s the attitude that you bring to your marriage, with the accompanying expressed intention of curiosity that helps to keep a relationship healthy.
Besides kindness and generosity toward your partner—both important attitudes to bring to your relationship—the following three intentions help to keep a relationship robust.
-
Stay interested in learning about yourself and your partner, especially how you listen and talk to each other.
-
Although most of us prefer to put potential and real conflict to the side, we need to lean into adversity and challenges. We don’t live without conflict and disagreements, especially in our marriages and with our families. We need to develop our competency in listening and responding—when it’s hard. We need to be committed to conflict resolution.
-
Couples succeed when they share leadership and collaborate. It’s hard to let go of our power and share it—for the benefit of “the team”.