Emotional distance in a long-term relationship tends to develop gradually, which is part of what makes it so difficult to address. By the time couples in Boca Raton seek a couples therapist for intimacy issues, the distance has often been building for years and has become the relationship's established baseline. Both partners may have adapted to it in ways that make reconnection feel awkward or even threatening. The avoidance of closeness that characterizes emotional distance is usually not indifference; it is often a protection against the vulnerability that intimacy requires.
Dr. Steinbok's work with couples dealing with intimacy problems involves examining what each partner has come to expect from closeness and what experiences, relational or personal, have made proximity feel unsafe or unwanted. This is not a conversation about communication skills, though communication tends to improve when the underlying dynamics are better understood. For couples in Boca Raton dealing with a relationship that has become more functional than intimate, where two people coexist without real connection, the psychodynamic couples work Dr. Steinbok offers creates conditions for that connection to re-emerge.
