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Communication breakdown is one of the most common reasons couples seek therapy — and one of the most solvable with the right guidance. When conversations regularly end in argument, silence, or frustration, it is usually not because either partner is a bad communicator. It is because both are communicating from different emotional histories, different needs, and different unconscious assumptions about what the other person means.
Dr. Sally Hackman, PhD, MFT, helps couples in Santa Monica and Los Angeles understand what is really happening in their conversations — beneath the words, beneath the tone — and learn to communicate in ways that actually reach each other.

Learn to hear each other's feelings and needs rather than reacting to surface words — and develop communication skills that hold up even in difficult moments.

Couples sessions offer a neutral, skilled space where both partners can speak and be heard — without the conversation derailing the way it might at home.

Dr. Hackman integrates evidence-based communication techniques with psychoanalytic insight into each partner's patterns — so the changes go deep and last.
The goal is not perfect communication — it is communication that feels honest, safe, and connected. Many couples find that as their communication improves, many other relationship challenges begin to resolve naturally.
Recurring arguments are almost always about something deeper than their surface subject. They usually reflect unmet emotional needs, attachment fears, or unresolved experiences from each partner's past. Therapy helps you see what the argument is really about — and address that.
Different styles are workable — they just need to be understood. Dr. Hackman helps partners understand and adapt to each other's styles without either person having to become someone they're not.