It takes courage to face the issues that create psychological unease for our self as individuals and to resolve the distress that currently besieges your couple.  Looking at our self or our couple requires us to come to terms with the various life experiences that have shaped how we think, emotionally react, behave and relate to others in our relationships.  Such an exploration can bring up difficult emotions about our past and current relationship circumstances-signals that provide us with a sense of meaning, point to unmet need, and direct us to take action in the world to create a new sense of ourselves and our relationships.  I look forward to our journey together to building a more secure, resilient self and strengthening your relationships.   

Individual Adult Clients:  Since 2002, I have worked with adults facing a wide range of issues, including depression, anxiety, sexual functioning problems, interpersonal difficulties, personality related issues, and both post-traumatic stress and complex trauma.  In my individual work, I support you to explore your history and current lived context to understand the forces that have sharped your negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours and interpersonal difficulties.  I also support you to explore the adaptations you have made to painful, terrifying, angering, humiliating/shameful life experiences.  These adaptations may be contributing to current difficulties, particularly when defence and self-protection block you from living your best life- a life filled with aliveness, vitality, and meaning and purpose.  Learning to live with meaning, purpose, and connection again and finding joy, pride and excitement in everyday life requires reflection and exploration and transformation of the various thoughts and emotions that block you from living your fullest life.   

Prior to sessions, I will ask that you complete an assessment involving various evidence-based questionnaires.  These questionnaires will support me to gain a deeper and more expansive understanding of you prior to our meeting— saving numerous hours of sessions involved in ascertaining what’s been troubling you in this world.  I work from a neuroscienve, developmentally-oriented, integrative model of therapy— combining neuroscience, psychoanalysis, attachment, experiential, trauma-informed, EFT and cognitive-behavioural approaches. I look forward to our journey together. 

Couple and Relationship Therapy: In couple and relationship therapy, the primary focus of my clinical practice is to facilitate love and connection in relationships. Scholars have identified the presence or absence of love as one of the greatest sources of personal suffering, and possibly even the root of various social ills. When love flourishes—along with adequate psychological, emotional, and physical nurturance—life feels rich, complete, and filled with vitality, safety, and security.

Achieving a balance between self-love and love for others (i.e., aligning our capacity for attachment with a healthy sense of self and avoiding unhealthy forms of narcissism) is essential. This balance is easier to achieve when partners have a shared outlook on life; it can be more challenging, however, when differences arise (e.g., in opinions, thoughts, emotional experiences, needs, desires, values, and goals). Negotiating and co-constructing healthy relationships that enable us to love ourselves and each other despite these differences is crucial for creating a world where we can live authentically and connectively.

I work with couples to address a wide range of relationship issues, including enhancing emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy; repairing bonds after infidelity, betrayal, or other interpersonal injuries; and managing conflicts related to finances, parenting, and extended family dynamics (e.g., navigating difficult in-laws). I also support partners facing challenging life circumstances, such as chronic physical or mental health issues, or terminal illness. Additionally, I provide assistance to couples who have experienced complex trauma or other forms of PTSD in childhood or adulthood, helping them navigate the intricate issues that arise from these experiences. Topics such as non-monogamy, relationship diversity, and family planning decisions can also be explored within the context of our work together. All these discussions require some form of emotional engagement. Therefore, learning how to express emotions and heal past emotional wounds related to unresolved issues is a critical part of our journey together.

How I Work: Throughout our journey together, I provide a confidential therapeutic relationship characterized by compassion, empathy, genuineness, and authentic engagement. Before our first meeting, I will gather information through various questionnaires to better understand your current distress. This assessment process involves utilizing scientific, evidence-based measures, along with taking an in-depth personal history and accounting for your life and relationship experiences. This process will provide insights into your current self and relational difficulties.

During our initial session, I’ll gather additional information about your relationship struggles and collaboratively establish goals for our work together. Following this session, I will conduct individual sessions with each participant to integrate the findings from the questionnaires, deepening our understanding of your self-experience in relationships. After these individual sessions, we will reconvene for joint sessions to address the most salient issues identified in your journey as a couple.

I employ a developmentally oriented integrative clinical lens to understand you and your relationships, which further informs treatment planning. My psychotherapeutic approach integrates various theories of human psychological development—primarily from psychoanalytic and trauma-informed perspectives—to explore how your past development—as both an individual and as a person in relationships—has shaped how you experience yourself, think, feel, behave, and relate to others in close, intimate bonds. I further integrate affective/emotional approaches and psychoanalytically oriented, trauma-informed neuroscience research into my treatment interventions, tailoring them to promote greater self-resilience, authenticity, wholeness, and healthy interdependency in relationships.

I utilize techniques from various psychotherapy models to address your specific needs and concerns. By employing different systemic and structural models, I seek to understand the dynamics between couple partners. Emotion(ally)-focused, humanistic, and experiential models guide my approach, helping you explore and make sense of your internal reality—specifically, the emotional distress in your relationships, including the troubling emotional reactions, and feelings you have experienced. Existential models inform my perspective on the inner struggles that we all face simply due to our existence. Additionally, post-modern influences shape my clinical work, emphasizing how social, cultural, and historical contexts affect our subjective sense of reality, meaning-making, and self-expression. I also employ cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based strategies to address distressing thoughts, explore external realities, and alleviate symptoms and associated discomfort.

Current Professional and Research Activities: I am currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Centre for Interpersonal Relationships. In this capacity, I oversee all aspects of the Centre’s operations, including administration, finance, marketing, facilities, and technology.

Within CFIR, I am leading the development of a developmentally oriented integrative treatment model for DSM-5 disorders, as well as, psychological, self, and relationship issues. Additionally, I am working on developing a psychotherapy progress measure to effectively capture the impact of therapy on your growth as a client.

In terms of past academic activities, my background includes publications in various journal articles and book chapters, alongside presentations and workshops focused on couples, relationship trauma, and sex therapy. I am an original proponent of an integrated Emotionally Focused Therapy model for couples and sex therapy. My research has also delved into the process of relationship repair following challenging experiences, such as infidelity and betrayal.

Below are some of my recent publications:

Zuccarini, D., Johnson, S. & Makinen, J. (manuscript prepared and to be re-submitted to Journal of Marital and Family Therapy). Transforming power of emotion in forgiveness in EFT: An emotional processing model.

Zuccarini, D., Johnson, S., Dagleish, T., & Makinen, J. (2013). Forgiveness and reconciliation in EFT for couples: The client change process and therapist interventions. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 39, 148-162. 

Johnson, S. & Zuccarini, D. (2011). EFT for sexual issues: An integrated model of couple and sex therapy. In Furrow, J., Bradely, B., & Johnson, S. (Eds.). The Emotionally Focused Casebook: New Directions in Treating Couples. Routeldge Inc.

Zuccarini, D., & Karos, L. (2011). Emotionally focused therapy for gay and lesbian couples: Strong identities, strong bonds. In Furrow, J., Bradely, B., & Johnson, S. (Eds.). Emotionally Focused Casebook: New Directions in Treating Couples. Routeldge Inc.

Johnson, S. & Zuccarini, D. (2010). Sex and attachment: Addressing sexual issues in emotionally focused couple. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 36, 431- 445.

Kleinplatz, P.J., Ménard, A.D., Paquet, M.-C., Paradis, N., Campbell, M., Zuccarini, D., & Mehak, L. (2010).  The components of optimal sexuality: A portrait of ‘great sex’.  Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Spring-Summer.

Since 2007, I have taught under-graduate courses at the University of Ottawa in Interpersonal Relationships, Family Psychology and Human Sexual Behaviour. I continue to read peer-reviewed research articles and books about current treatments for psychological issues.

I am a registered member of the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario.

Professional Affiliations
2008-2011 Canadian Psychological Association
2007-2011 Ottawa Institute for Object Relations Therapy- Board Member
2012- Ottawa Academy of Psychologists
2012- Canadian Register of Health Service Psychologists