If you’ve read Dr. John Gottman’s books, heard him on a podcast, or had a friend mention “the Sound Relationship House,” you already know this approach is different. It’s not theory or opinion. It’s the result of four decades of clinical research on what actually predicts whether couples thrive or come apart.
At Legacy Marriage Resources, our counselors go through training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and use it as a foundation of how we work with couples. Brandon Coussens, our founder, has completed Level 2 Training in this method. Shenikka Jackson, Devin Power, and Michael Hough have each completed Level 1 Training. Whether you’re working through ongoing conflict, recovering from infidelity, or trying to reconnect after years of drift, we bring research-supported tools to every session.
What is Gottman Method Couples Therapy?
Gottman Method Couples Therapy was developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman based on more than 40 years of research with thousands of couples. The Gottmans studied what successful couples actually do: how they argue, how they repair, how they stay close even through hard seasons.
What they found contradicted a lot of conventional therapy wisdom. Successful couples don’t avoid conflict. They argue and have differences. The difference is in how they handle those moments. They “turn toward” each other instead of away. They repair quickly when things go sideways. They build a culture of fondness and admiration that buffers them through hard seasons.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy organizes those findings into a structured framework called the Sound Relationship House. It includes concepts you may have heard:
- Building Love Maps: Knowing your partner’s inner world.
- The Four Horsemen: The communication patterns that predict relationship breakdown.
- Repair Attempts: How to recover when conflict escalates.
- Managing Conflict: Distinguishing solvable problems from perpetual ones.
- Creating Shared Meaning: Building the rituals, values, and goals that hold a relationship together.
In sessions, your counselor uses these tools to help you understand what’s happening in your relationship and what to do about it.
Why Research Matters
Most couples therapy approaches are based on a therapist’s intuition, philosophy, or training tradition. Some work. Some don’t. It’s hard to know which is which because the field has historically been light on outcome data.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy is different. It’s built on observational research where couples were filmed in apartments wired with sensors, conversations coded second by second, and outcomes tracked for years afterward. The Gottmans claim to be able to predict with over 90% accuracy whether a couple will stay together based on a few minutes of observed conflict due to the patterns they have seen in their research.
This matters for you because:
- You’re not getting opinion-based therapy. You’re getting tools studied across thousands of couples.
- The patterns your counselor identifies in your relationship are research-validated, not guesses.
- The interventions used in session have been tested and refined over decades.
When you do this work, you’re doing work that has been shown to change outcomes for couples who commit to it.
Brandon Coussens, LMFT — Level 2 Training
Brandon Coussens, our founder, has completed Level 2 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Level 2 is the advanced practitioner training, building on Level 1’s foundational concepts with deeper work in:
- Conflict management interventions
- Trauma and PTSD’s impact on couples
- Affair recovery and the rebuilding of trust
- Working with high-conflict couples
- Integration of Gottman Method tools with other clinical approaches
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Georgia License #001247, South Carolina License LMF.8266) with over 15 years of clinical experience, Brandon brings deep familiarity with this method. He also holds Certified Sex Therapist (CST) credentials, which pairs naturally with the Gottman approach for couples dealing with intimacy concerns or sexual issues.
If you’re searching for a counselor in Augusta with Level 2 Training, Brandon is one of the few.
Our Team’s Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Brandon isn’t the only counselor at Legacy Marriage Resources using this method. Each of our counselors has completed Level 1 Training:
Shenikka Jackson, MA — Completed Level 1 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Works with individuals, couples, and families across marriage strain, parenting concerns, and life transitions. Read Shenikka’s bio
Devin Power, Marriage and Family Therapy Intern — Completed Level 1 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Specializes in couples working through hurt, disconnection, and infidelity recovery, with particular care for military families. Read Devin’s bio
Michael Hough, Counseling Intern — Completed Level 1 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Brings particular care for men, veterans, and service members, with strong work in premarital and couples preparation. Read Michael’s bio
Whichever counselor you work with at LMR, you’re working with someone who uses Gottman Method Couples Therapy in the room with you.
What Couples Can Expect
A typical course of Gottman Method Couples Therapy at LMR looks something like this:
Assessment phase (first 3-4 sessions): Intensive and thorough assessments are important to charting the correct course of therapy.
- A joint session to understand your relationship history and what’s bringing you to counseling.
- Individual sessions with each partner to hear each person’s perspective fully and gather their individual history.
- A feedback session where your counselor shares observations and collaborates with you as a couple to create a plan on how to move forward and more successfully reach your goals.
Intervention phase (ongoing):
- Weekly sessions tailored to the specific issues in your relationship as defined in the plan we developed together.
- Practical exercises to practice during and between sessions.
- Specific tools for the patterns showing up in your relationship.
Maintenance phase (as needed):
- Less frequent sessions to consolidate gains and prevent regression, usually moving to biweekly, then to monthly, then to as needed.
- Tools for handling new challenges as they arise.
Some couples need eight sessions. Some need eighteen. Some need even more. The work moves at the pace of what your relationship actually needs, as well as the work you put in, not a predetermined timeline.
What This Approach Addresses
Couples come to us because we use Gottman Method Couples Therapy to work through:
- Recurring conflict — The same fight, in different forms, over and over.
- Communication breakdowns — Talking past each other, avoiding hard conversations, or escalating quickly.
- Emotional disconnection — Feeling like roommates rather than partners.
- Trust ruptures — Recovery after infidelity, betrayal, or broken commitments.
- Intimacy issues — Mismatched desire, lack of closeness, sexual concerns.
- Premarital preparation — Building skills before challenges arrive.
- Major transitions — New baby, career changes, blended-family adjustments, empty nest.
- Long-standing patterns — Perpetual issues that have shaped years of the relationship.
Each of these has specific Gottman Method-derived interventions your counselor will use.
Faith Integration Available
For couples who want their Christian faith part of the therapy room, we integrate biblical principles and prayer alongside Gottman Method Couples Therapy. We approach faith integration with reverence: never imposed and always at your invitation.
For couples who prefer a secular approach, we bring the same clinical care without faith content. You decide what role, if any, faith plays in your sessions.
Serving Augusta, Evans, and the CSRA
Legacy Marriage Resources is located at 3540 Wheeler Road, Suite 110, in Augusta, GA. We see couples in person from across the Central Savannah River Area, including Evans, Martinez, Grovetown, Hephzibah, Thomson, Fort Eisenhower, North Augusta, and Aiken.
We also offer Gottman Method Couples Therapy online through secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth for couples located anywhere in Georgia..
Ready to Start?
Whether your relationship is in crisis or you’re just ready for the kind of work that actually changes patterns, we’d be honored to walk this with you.
Schedule an appointment or call (706) 916-6740 to talk with us about whether we’re the right fit.
* Gottman Method Couples Therapy, the Sound Relationship House, and related concepts referenced above were developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman of The Gottman Institute. Learn more at gottman.com. Legacy Marriage Resources, LLC attributes this work to the Gottmans and does not claim it as our own. Some descriptions reflect our perspective on how we use these tools in clinical practice, and do not necessarily reflect the official statements of Drs. John and Julie Gottman or The Gottman Institute.
