Atlanta Marriage Counseling
Individual Therapy & Family Therapy
Marriage Counseling
Marital or Couples therapy helps partners by creating a context where emotionally charged issues in the relationship can be explored and where each partner develops awareness of how their behavior contributes to the problem situation. Couples come to therapy seeking to revive love, sex, intimacy, and communication in their relationship. Typical problems include threats of divorce, infidelity or cheating, fighting, anxiety, substance abuse, emotional withdrawal and conflict over spending and money.
Individual Therapy
From a Relational or Family Systems model, I focus on counseling the person to become aware of how his behavior effects others and prevents him from developing closeness and stability in relationships. The therapy also helps the person examine and change destructive premises and beliefs that lead to behaviors that are self defeating.
Family Therapy
I often counsel families with children and adolescents. My focus is on helping parents understand the interactional patterns and how their children’s behavior often triggers responses in parents that may make problems worse. I adhere to the classic premise of the Mental Research Institute. It says if you try to solve a problem in others by repeating the same solution more forcefully, it often makes it worse and at times even creates a chronic problem.
Meet therapist Gerry Lane in these interesting videos…
About Gerry Lane, LCSW, LMFT, Therapist
Gerry Lane, LCSW, LMFT is a Psychotherapist and Marriage Counselor in private practice in Atlanta with his office located in Buckhead. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 27 years of experience counseling couples, individuals, and families. He is recognized internationally for advancing Family Systems and Relational Therapy in collaborative work with Gianfranco Cecchin M.D. and Wendel Ray Ph.D. He has co-authored two books on solving relationship problems that have been translated into five languages. He has also authored book chapters and numerous articles published in journals such as The American Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, The Psychotherapy Networker, The German Journal Of Family Therapy, and The Journal of Brief Therapy. He has conducted workshops for therapists throughout the U.S. and Europe. He served as a consultant and guest teacher at The Milan Center For The Study Of The Family in Milan Italy and has been the Director of Training at Families First.
Gerry’s counseling practice is based on Family Systems Theory which is focused on changing relationship patterns and belief systems, this applies whether counseling individuals, couples or families. His emphasis is on helping clients change destructive behavior and thinking that prevent them from building and maintaining positive and lasting relationships with people that are important to them. He believes that most emotional problems from depression to anxiety disorder or caused by an inability to maintain positive relationships. This is based on understanding that humans have a powerful need for love and belonging. He believes the core of any good therapy is based on the Counselor building a relationship of trust, empathy, and respect with the client.
Gerry is a Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
Gerry’s Blog
3 Common Mistakes in Marriage Communication
Erika Krull, MSEd, LMHP, has written a good article entitled, "Marriage Communication: 3 Common Mistakes and How To Fix Them." In her article she lists these 3 common mistakes: Yelling at your spouse. Having a competitive attitude. Making marriage about me instead of...
Marriage Is Compromise
Marriage is compromise! Nobody gets everything they want from their partner all the time but as the Rolling Stones song says, "you can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you just may find you get what you need." Remember nobody is loved perfectly in...
Too Much Love
"You love me so much, you want to put me in your pocket. And I should die there smothered." D.H. Lawrence "Demanding too much togetherness in romantic relationships tends to push people away and kill their desire." Gerry Lane, LCSW, LMFT
When is Less Emotion Good?
The less emotionally reactive each spouse is to the other the healthier the relationship. If one spouse reacts with strong emotion to the smallest change the other spouse makes for some freedom then either the couple fights openly and creates distance or the spouse...
Favorite Quotes
"Seldom, or perhaps never, does a marriage develop into an individual relationship smoothly and without crises; there is no coming to consciousness without pain." Carl G. Jung "It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling than to feel yourself into a new way...
Couples Counseling
Marriage Counseling is a different animal than Individual Therapy. Individual Therapy focuses far more on the internal cognitive processes and helps the person examine personal choices. In Couples Counseling the focus is on the interaction between partners. The...
Some Thoughts on Marriage
A marriage without fidelity provides no security or real intimacy! In marriage two wrongs don't make a right but make a good excuse. The narcissist misses the great pleasure of life, which is to love another as much as he loves himself. Gerry Lane, LCSW, LMFT....
Gerry Lane Quoted in The Wall Street Journal
Gerry Lane was quoted as the expert on marriage counseling in The Wall Street Journal about Danny Lee Hormann, who suspected his wife was having an affair.
Marriage Counseling
Gerry specializes in counseling couples in conflict and often in crisis. He counsels many couples who are dealing with the issue of infidelity. Research indicates that adultery often leads to divorce; however with appropriate therapy couples can work through this crisis and change, often building a much stronger healthier relationship. Philosophically he supports marriage, commitment, and monogamy. He rarely sees divorce benefiting either marital partner and believes that it has clearly been proven to be destructive in most situations to children.
Wall Street Journal features Gerry Lane
The Wall Street Journal called Gerry for an expert’s opinion for a news story about a man who was jailed for spying on his wife when he suspected her of having an affair.
Atlanta Journal Constitution features Gerry Lane
Gerry was the marriage therapist called by the Atlanta Journal Constitution to comment on the extramarital affairs of Presidential candidate Herman Cain. Gerry discusses how the deception of a hidden affair destroys trust in a marriage.
CNN features Gerry Lane
Could you be infected by your friends divorce? CNN interviewed marriage therapist Gerry Lane who based on experience with his clients has seen that friends can influence your desire for a divorce.
Atlanta Journal Constitution features Gerry Lane
When the Atlanta Journal Constitution needed an Atlanta marriage counseling expert to comment on the extramarital affair of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, they called Atlanta therapist Gerry Lane. Gerry is featured in the news article where he explains how it’s difficult to cover up an extramariatal affair in today’s world of cell phones, emails and text messages.