The Couples Center — Marriage or relationship counselor in City and County of San Francisco, CA

This is a review for the in-person Love Workshop that my husband and I took over the weekend. Even with all the five-star reviews, I was still a little apprehensive about whether we could last two full days talking about our relationship. I can tell you now that when it wrapped up, we were actually bummed it was over. We were fully engaged in every exercise and with each other the entire time — and honestly wanted more. That said, it wasn’t easy. Over the two days, we went through a real rollercoaster of emotions. We brought up some of our most “stuck” issues and had to sit in discomfort at times. There were vulnerable moments and hard conversations. But that’s exactly what made it so powerful. The structure and facilitation created a space that felt safe enough to go there. Gal and Liron are an amazing couple and wonderful teachers. They brought their own real-life stories and struggles into the teaching, which made everything feel authentic and relatable. The way they designed and led the course made complex emotional dynamics feel simple and inviting to engage with. I was also worried that even if I stayed engaged, my husband might get tired or check out — it’s about nine hours each day after all. I’m happy to share that I was wrong. We both fully participated until the very last minute and walked away feeling inspired and closer than ever. We are especially thankful that we now have a much better mutual understanding of our triggers and why we may have sensitivities in certain areas — many of which have more to do with our childhood experiences than with each other. It felt like we got to know each other as our 12-year-old selves… and fell in love with them too. We’ve been married 18 years and are looking forward to 40 more together. There were about 15 couples in the workshop, ranging from under five years to over 30+ years of marriage. It was incredibly helpful to hear their comments and questions throughout the weekend. I highly recommend this workshop for any couple — whether you’re feeling stuck or simply want to take your relationship to the next level. It truly meets you wherever you are, as long as you’re both open and committed. They absolutely deliver on their promise, and we feel equipped with new tools to connect — even around the most difficult issues. We’re so grateful we said yes

My husband and I hit a really rough spot in our relationship and although we are both therapists and in both individual and couples therapy, I was starting to feel hopeless that we could ever bridge the disconnection we were experiencing. We attended Liron and Gal's Love Made Simple Workshop. I entered the workshop with lots and lots of pain and disconnection. Through the weekend we were skillfully led through therapeutic exercises, supported by relationship experts in the room, embodiment practices to help us regulate and come back to connection, and lots of fruitful discussion in the group. After many many tears we left holding hands, kissing, and feeling connected and with more hope than we have had in a long time. I am so so grateful for the masterful space that Gal and Liron hold. I've attended many couples workshops as a therapist myself, and these two model the truth of vulnerable, messy long term relationship and how to consistently come back to love. I highly recommend their workshops, both in person and on line!

As a therapist, I have attended and supported a multitude of workshops and trainings. I was honored to participate as an assistant therapist in Gal and Liron's Breakthrough to Love Couple's Workshop. Using their diverse knowledge and experiences, Gal and Liron have thoughtfully and masterfully designed a Couples Workshop that brings couples and individuals into presence, authenticity, and agency to make the changes they want in their lives. As a therapist who believes in the transformative and effective power of brain-body-based therapies, hands-on experiential engagement, and psychoeducation, I highly recommend this workshop for anyone in a relationship who is called to deepen connection with themselves and their partners.

I've recently completed professional couples therapy training with Gal Szekely, founder of The Couples Center. I’ve worked with couples for 10+ years and found many new tools and techniques. I found the model comprehensive and immediately applicable to couples I’m working with. I love how it integrates a variety of other systems while also being its own holistic approach. I really appreciated the in-person intensive with plenty of time to practice and get valuable feedback. I can’t wait to apply it all in my upcoming sessions!

Gal is an incredible therapist and trainer! I highly recommend their somatic couples training program! I received such helpful guidance and support in deepening my work with couples in my practice through this training and would recommend it to anyone!

As a therapist, I am always looking for useful and inspiring work to continue my education. Love made Smple has been a comprehensive training that provided both for me. Gal and Liron have created a Intergrative approach to couples therapy that is transformative for and couples alike.

As a grad student in the Somatic Couples Therapy training, I feel this training created a powerful and integrated foundation for my future practicing psychotherapy with couples. Without ever having worked with a couple before, I now feel I have the confidence of holding a reliable map for exploring the complexities and unknowns couples therapy.

My wife and I are in our 60's and took Gal and Liron's "Breakthrough to Love" 2 day workshop. We both have done some couples counseling in the past and have spent conscious effort to deepen our relationship. We were both deeply affected by the various instruction and experiential exercises offered in the workshop. Gal and Liron have designed a way to learn on multiple levels, they offered guidance and provided many opportunities for us to deepen our understanding of each other. They both create a very safe space to explore and normalize all types of relationship dynamics. We both felt a deeper ability to listen and to love each other. This was well worth our time and money! Moby C

We attended a marriage workshop called, Love Made Simple. It was one of the best workshops we've been to, and we've been to quite a few. We appreciate the authenticity and vulnerability that Liron & Gal showed as facilitators. In addition, the amount of work and intentionality that was put into the workshop is very apparent. The frameworks covered are concise and taught in a simple way that can be remembered. The takeaways and tools given to us are also very useful. We'd definitely recommend the Love Made Simple workshop and look forward to any continuation of this workshop in the future!

The Love Made Simple Workshop is an excellent workshop on how to communicate with your partner (and pretty much anyone in your life). Gal and Liron explain in easy to understand terms on how to increase the connection between partners without having to sacrificing each partner's individuality and autonomy. In essence, they pretty much teach couples how to create win-win situations for both people through listening and communication. I found the workshop refreshing and enlightening because it reminded me what was truly important. Thank you, Gal and Liron! We plan on taking more workshops in the future!