Couples Therapy & Marriage Counseling | Couples Workshops → Raleigh, NC

Couple Forward
Christian's two American staffies sitting on the couch in the Couple Forward office in Raleigh, NC

Dogs Not Included!

1:1 Sessions

“This is my craft. I've treated thousands of couples using an integrated approach: Gottman, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), blended into a proprietary protocol for lasting and intentional change.”

Christian J. Charette, LMFT

Stuck in a loop. The same fight, the same distance. You want someone who will actually move the needle, not reflect it back at you.

The Method

The Couple Forward Method

Three Phases|One ArcNot a process you complete. An operating system you install.

01

Sessions 1–3

Map the Loop

Your pattern has a source. This is where we find it.

Most couples can describe their fight in detail. The trigger. The escalation. How it ends. What they cannot see is the wiring underneath it: the survival strategies, nervous system patterns, and original story running the loop before the first word is spoken. Using MAPSS and the Couple Forward Compass, we map your specific cycle from the surface argument all the way down to what it is actually about. You stop arguing about what happened and start understanding why it keeps happening.

Intake · Couple Forward Compass · MAPSS

02

Sessions 4–7

Recode the System

Understanding the pattern is not the same as changing it.

The loop runs at the nervous system level, below the reach of most conversations. Building skills on top of an unmapped system just produces more sophisticated conflict. Using the Intentional Conversation Protocol and the Order of a Conversation, we build the conflict architecture that lets you stay connected under pressure. Not by fighting less, but by fighting differently. You leave each session with tools that work in real time. Not just in theory. Not just in the room.

Intentional Conversation Protocol · Order of a Conversation · Inner Compass Assessment

03

Sessions 8–On

Rewire Forward

Reframe | Repair | Rewire

The goal is not to stop the fighting. It is to change what the fight is made of. This phase installs the rituals, somatic practices, and repair protocols that replace the old loop with one that actually serves both of you. For couples ready to go further, this is also where the 90-Day Rewire begins: a fully customized intensive that takes everything mapped in Phase 1 and builds a precision plan around your specific wiring, your specific cycle, your specific next chapter.

Couple Forward Huddle · Somatic Practices · 90-Day Rewire

Composite case. Not a specific client.

A composite case

The pursue-withdraw loop running underneath the schedule fight.

Both partners successful. Both in their late thirties. Both have read the books. One can name her attachment style. The other can name his protector parts. They came in fighting about the calendar.

Underneath the calendar fight was a loop they’d been running for nine years. One partner protested. The other shut down. The protest got louder. The shutdown got deeper. The fight was never really about Tuesday at six. The fight was about a survival strategy from her family of origin meeting a survival strategy from his, and neither one had ever been named out loud.

We mapped it across the five layers. The trigger was visibility, not the schedule. The attribution loop assigned bad intent on both sides. Her survival strategy was loud connection-seeking. His was quiet self-protection. Underneath both was the same core need on different settings. Once they could see it, they stopped arguing about Tuesday. They started running the new pattern instead.

The fight didn’t go away. The loop changed.

What couples say after the work

Wifey and I met with Christian awhile back and had good results. It didn't show-up at 1st, but as time went by, what happened in the room, led to some break-throughs for us. I was particularly taken by Christian's approach, of not only listening and getting us, but also adding to with his own personal experiences and how it related to ours. This made the experience relatable and real for us. Having been to quite a few therapists now (I'm 76), I can honestly say only good things about my experience with Christian. It might even be time for a tune-up...

Tom E.

When Weekly Isn’t Enough

Some couples reach a point where weekly sessions are no longer the right container. The pattern is mapped. The work is clear. What’s missing is a defined arc with a beginning, a middle, and something to show at the end. The 90-Day Rewire is built for that moment. A structured intensive with a specific plan, built around your cycle, with accountability across every week of it. Not open-ended. Not indefinite. Ninety days.

Learn more about the 90-Day Rewire →

Virtual|In Person

213 E. Cabarrus St · Raleigh, NC 27601

Begin

Start with a session.

Twenty years of clinical work distilled into a structured arc. Not endless processing. A clear sequence, a specific map, and a direction.

The same fight. The same distance. The same conversation that goes nowhere. I work with couples who are done circling the pattern and ready to map what’s actually underneath it.

Christian J. Charette, LMFT

213 E. Cabarrus St · Raleigh, NC