Couples & Individual Therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah OFFERING VIRTUAL THERAPY IN VIRGINIA AND UTAH
Specializing in couples therapy, infidelity recovery, and life transitions
You and your partner feel more like roommates. Your communication is falling apart. You feel riddled with depression and anxiety and don' t know how to move forward. You just found out your partner cheated on you. You have no idea how to navigate a new chapter in your life.
Several paths into a world of healing, change and self-discovery.
Couples Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTCouples Therapy
Right now, the words just aren't landing. You don't talk to each other like you used to. You just can't communicate what you're feeling or you have no idea what your partner is thinking. You're like ships in the night. The love is still there, the connection just isn't what it used to be. Maybe there are even fights about the dishes, how often you have sex or parenting responsibilities. Couples come in for many reasons. You might recognize yourselves here: - Having the **same argument on repeat** with a different label each time - **Walking on eggshells** to keep the peace - **Hearing criticism** where your partner meant a request - **Keeping score** without meaning to - **Texting** more easily than talking - Missing the version of you two that used to **laugh together** - Rarely initiating sex because **rejection stings** more than going without - **Exhausted** by work, kids, or health and left with nothing at the end of the day - Running the household well together and feeling more like **co-managers than lovers** - Trying to fix it with a weekend away and watching it **fade by Tuesday** Here, we rebuild the conversation - how you speak, how you listen, and how you stay connected. We dig into topics that frequently lead to arguments, fights and distance. You find out that it's not about the dishes, how often you have sex or the kids. ## How I will help you In couples therapy with me, you will learn how to validate one another and how to avoid criticism. You will experience clarity in session that will empower you to connect even further during the rest of the week. We separate emotional intimacy from sexual intimacy so each one gets its own honest conversation instead of collapsing into a single argument. You name what you actually want rather than guessing at each other. Between sessions you practice initiating and responding, and we review what actually happened - not what should have happened. ## You will feel understood by your partner again! I have worked with many couples in the Salt Lake City area. My couples therapy work is Gottman-informed with attachment theory underneath, which means we look at the bids you are making for each other and what happens when they get missed. I use research-based tools to replace criticism and shutdown with skills that help you feel heard, understood, and on the same team again. Rather than talking to me, I guide you to talk to each other! I remain impartial and unbiased in the conversation, acting as a guide to help you rebuild the relationship to a stronger, healthier place. I will assign you to implement skills and have experiences outside of session that will only help bring you closer together as partners. For more information about the Gottman method, click [here](https://www.gottman.com/blog/an-introduction-to-the-gottman-method-of-relationship-therapy/). It doesn't have to be "you versus your parter." It can be "you two versus the issue.".
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Couples Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTPre-Marital Therapy
What is the next step for your relationship? You want to make sure you are both on the same page before the wedding or before moving in together. Pre-Marital Therapy has proven to help couples start their marriages off on the right foot. ## Pre-Martial Therapy is not a warning sign - it's preparation You have talked about the venue, the guest list, and the budget for the reception far more than you have talked about money, in-laws, or what a hard week is going to look like for the two of you. The conversations you keep meaning to have get pushed to after things settle down - and things rarely settle down on their own. Couples come in for Pre-Marital Therapy because they're: - **Engaged** and wanting to **start strong** rather than repair later - **Moving in together** and unsure how to split money, chores, and time - **Blending families**, kids, or very different lifestyles and traditions - Getting a lot of **opinions from family** about how their relationship should go - Carrying **patterns from home** that you do not want to inherit - Coming from families that **handled conflict** in completely different ways - Unsure how you will **handle money** as a team versus separately - Wondering how **faith, holidays, and traditions** will get decided - Not fighting yet, and wanting to know **what to do when you do** You do not need to have your future mapped out to begin Pre-Marital Therapy. Most couples find out in the first session that they have never actually said certain expectations out loud. There is a reason preparing early works. Most marital problems are not new problems - they are old patterns that never got named, assumptions each person carried in from home and quietly expected the other to share. Preparation is far cheaper than repair, and it is a lot easier to build a habit than to break one. ## How I will help you In Premarital Therapy, the first sessions get concrete. We take stock of your strengths as a couple, because most couples underestimate theirs. We identify the areas of concern before they become arguments. We put expectations into words - about money, roles, sex, kids, time with family, and what support looks like when one of you is struggling. I have worked with several couples in the Salt Lake City area and I will work with you on expectations, finances, family, intimacy, and the patterns you don't want to inherit. Utilizing Gottman therapy, I will guide you to discuss your fears and anxieties as well as your excitement for the next step. You will build a shared plan for conflict before conflict shows up uninvited. What you leave with is practical. Language for the hard topics, a plan for how you fight and how you repair, and a much clearer picture of the marriage you are both actually signing up for. Starting well is a skill, and it is one you can learn together.
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Couples Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTInfidelity Recovery Therapy
## The relationship has been nuked You don't know if you can trust each other, or yourself, again. The day the affair came out split your life into before and after, and right now the after is very loud. Whether the affair was sexual or emotional, you can't look at your partner the same. The affair may have been disclosed or discovered. Loving memories together now feel tainted. You're not sure if you want to save your relationship or to call it quits. Couples come in for Infidelity Recovery Therapy after betrayal because they're: - Cycling between **rage**, **numbness**, and wanting to fix it all today - Asking the same questions and never **feeling settled** by the answers - Unsure whether staying makes them **strong** or **foolish** - Checking phones, timelines, and stories for **proof** - Carrying **shame** that makes honest conversation feel impossible - Trying to protect the kids from something they already **sense** - Wanting to **repair** and not knowing where to put their hands You may not be sure if there is hope in saving the relationship or if you should just walk away. The good news is you do not have to decide the future of the relationship before you begin. You only have to decide to talk about it in a room where it can be handled. ## How I will help you In Infidelity Recovery Therapy, I first help you decide a direction. If there is hope in staying together. I help you reconnect emotionally and rebuild trust after betrayal with a structured path forward. We utilize honest conversations, accountability, and skills to repair at a pace that holds. I help the hurt partner express the impact without the conversation turning into an interrogation, and I help the partner who strayed take real accountability without hiding behind defensiveness or vague apologies. ## Together we name what actually broke, what needs to be repaired, and whether both of you want to do the repair work. If you choose to stay, we build a new contract for transparency, conflict, and physical and emotional safety. If you choose to separate, we do it with clarity and respect so neither of you carries unnecessary wreckage into the next chapter. I have helped so many couples in Infidelity Recovery Therapy in the Salt Lake City area. In our work, we slow down the interrogation cycle, make room for the hurt to be spoken and heard, and build transparency that is real rather than performed. If it is decided to end the relationship, I help you begin to trust yourself first and develop confidence in your future. Recovery is more than possible, for both partners. Partners can rebuild something more honest than what they had before.
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Individual Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTAnxiety & Depression Therapy
Your life is going crazy! So much that it's hard to handle! Maybe you feel stretched thin and pulled in so many different directions. ## You feel like you cannot live up to anyone's expectations, even your own. Anxiety and depression rarely announce themselves. They show up as ordinary days that take everything you have. You might be looking for therapy because you're: - Waking up already **feeling behind**, already tired - Lying awake running the same conversation for the tenth time - **Snapping at the people you love most**, then feeling awful about it - Saying yes to everything and **resenting** all of it - Avoiding calls, texts, and plans you used to **enjoy** - Feeling **numb** rather than sad, flat rather than upset - Convinced everyone else has their life together while yours is a **wreck** - Performing "fine" all day and **falling apart** in the car You don't have to arrive with it all figured out. Most people come in able to say only that something is off. That is enough to start. ## How I will help In Anxiety and Depression Therapy, we quiet the noise. You and I work to understand your triggers. We evaluate the expectations and demands and go on to assess for resources and strengths. At your pace, we go back in time to when the unhealthy patterns began. I guide you to exercise self-compassion, on your way to develop understanding towards your past self rather than resentment or shame. From there, I guide you to master tools to steady yourself when life feels like too much. I am your biggest fan. I am cheering you on the whole way - through the ups and downs. Utilizing Solution Focused (SFT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), I help you discover the faulty thought patterns. I help you make necessary changes within your control and achieve a new identity filled with self-compassion and confidence.
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Individual Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTPersonal Growth Therapy
Nothing is technically wrong. That's part of what makes it confusing. From the outside your life looks fine - or you have already adjusted to the change - and still you have the nagging sense that you have stalled somewhere along the way. It is usually quieter than a crisis. The calendar is full, the job is fine, the bills get paid, and you have the distinct feeling you are maintaining rather than moving. Or life just changed on you, and the routines and decisions that used to run themselves now take real effort. There is a version of yourself you keep meaning to get back to, and the week keeps ending before you do. This work takes a lot of forms. You might be looking for therapy because you're: - Successful on paper and **unsatisfied in practice** - Setting goals in January and **abandoning them by March** - **Adjusting to a move** or major change in your environment - **Getting married**, or going through a **divorce or separation** - **Grieving a significant loss** or ending - **Questioning your identity**, purpose, or direction - Feeling **stuck** or uncertain about what comes next - You simply wake up one day and think, “Is this really what I'm doing with my life?” You don't need a crisis to earn a seat here. Some of the best work I do is with people who are functioning well and want more than functioning - they want to thrive. ## How I will help you I have worked with so many people in the Salt Lake City area. The first few sessions of Personal Growth Therapy get specific. We name the fears quietly running the show, then test them against reality instead of arguing with them. We clarify what you actually want rather than what sounds acceptable out loud. We map the pattern and name what it is costing you - in time, in relationships, in opportunities you talked yourself out of. I have worked with so many people in the Salt Lake City area. The first few sessions of Personal Growth Therapy get specific. We name the fears quietly running the show, then test them against reality instead of arguing with them. We clarify what you actually want rather than what sounds acceptable out loud. We map the pattern and name what it is costing you - in time, in relationships, in opportunities you talked yourself out of. ## I help you feel like yourself again - who you were and, more importantly, who you are becoming. In Personal Growth Therapy, we take inventory of the strengths already there, because most people underestimate theirs badly. Then we set goals concrete enough to measure, so progress is something you can see rather than something you hope you feel. Between sessions you practice, and we adjust based on what actually happened rather than what should have happened. My approach is warm, collaborative, and Humanistic - grounded in the belief that you don't need everything figured out before you begin. What changes is rarely dramatic at first. Decisions get faster. The internal commentary gets kinder and quieter. Boundaries stop feeling like conflict and start feeling like clarity. Clarity tends to arrive before certainty does. Growth is not a personality trait. It is a set of skills, and they can be learned - and you don't have to navigate the transition alone.
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Family Therapy in Salt Lake City, UTKids and Teens Therapy
Growing up is hard for everyone - especially kids! Their world is bigger and faster than the one their parents grew up in, and they are expected to handle it with a brain that is still under construction. At home it usually looks smaller than it feels. The door closes after school. You get one-word answers and a headline instead of the story. Then something small - a lost charger, a change of plans - turns into a meltdown that clearly is not about the charger. You are left guessing at what is actually going on, and asking directly tends to make it worse. Kids who could benefit from Kids and Teens Therapy may be: - **Shutting down** or answering everything with "I'm fine" - **Anxious** about school, friends, or the future - **Angry** in ways that surprise everybody, including them - **Struggling socially** or feeling left out - **Glued to a screen** and disconnected from the room - **Losing sleep**, motivation, or interest in what they used to love - **Refusing school** or dragging through every single morning - **Comparing themselves** to everyone on their phone - **Lying or hiding** things they used to tell you - Recently told they have **anxiety, ADHD, or a learning difference**, with no idea what to do with that There are real reasons life gets hard. The teenage brain is rebuilding itself, and the parts that handle impulse and perspective finish last. At the same time they are working out who they are and where they belong, doing it in front of an audience that never logs off. Add short sleep, academic pressure, and any change at home, and you get a kid running on empty. Shutting down and blowing up are usually protection, not disrespect. ## How I will help you They do not have to want therapy on day one. Most do not. My job is to make the room worth showing up to. In Kids and Teens Therapy, the first session is mostly about safety and joining. They get to set some of the terms - what we talk about first, what we leave alone for now. From there we name feelings before we try to manage them, because you cannot regulate something you cannot describe. Then we build practical skills for anxiety, anger, and sleep, and we practice the hard conversations - with me first, then with you. Homework stays small enough to actually get done. I have worked with numerous families in the Salt Lake area. Parents get regular check-ins. Your child gets real privacy about the day-to-day, and I will always tell you anything that involves their safety. That balance is what makes them willing to talk in the first place. Parents stay involved, and kids keep a space that is genuinely theirs.
Open →You are the heroes of your own story — I just help you find your way back.
My name is Hugh Pinnock. I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Utah and Virginia. I help couples rebuild their relationships, families understand one another, and individuals reach new heights. I'm available in person in Salt Lake City and by telehealth.
If you are reading this at 2 AM wondering whether to reach out, you are not the first. Let's get you back on track. Start with a free 15-minute call.
Hugh Pinnock, LMFT
Your Couples Therapist in Salt Lake City, UT!
Seven-plus years in active practice. Licensed in Utah and Virginia. Gottman-trained, attachment-grounded, with the right modality picked for the room you're in.
More about Hugh →Real people, real change.
"Hugh is fantastic and has real empathy for those he treats."
Colleague and Local Doctor
Utah
"Hugh is such a pleasure to work with. He is a kind, understanding and sympathetic listener. I really appreciate his insights. 10/10 would recommend!"
Colleague
Virginia
"Hugh is dedicated to helping people and is the best at what he does. He will do what it takes to help you become the best version of yourself!"
Colleague
Utah
Three simple steps to get started.
Request a FREE 15-minute consultation
Not sure if I'm the right one for you? Reach out by phone, text, or email and let's find a time that works to see if we're a fit! We will talk through what brought you here and what you're looking for!
Request your free 15-minute consult →Schedule your first session
If it feels like a fit, let's get to work! We'll set up your first 50- or 90-minute session — by telehealth in Utah or Virginia. We'll get to know the issue, set goals and get a clear direction.
Begin the work
Here we go! We name your goals, identify the patterns keeping you stuck, and start building the skills that move you forward, whether that's in your own life, your relationship or your family.
Ready to talk?
The first step is a free 15-minute call. No pressure, no paperwork. Just a real conversation about whether we are a fit.