Women to Watch: Risa Ganel, LCMFT

Risa Ganel, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist who is the owner of and principal therapist at Together Couples Counseling, stands outside her office in Columbia. (Photo by Steve Ruark)

Together Couples Counseling

8894 Stanford Blvd., Suite 103

Columbia, Md.

410-440-1413

togethercouplescounseling.com

“We were really struggling with becomingretirees. We thought our marriage might need to end and reached out to you as alast resort; you helped us find the strength in our relationship, find our waythrough this new stage and feel more like we did when we were first married,” aclient recently told Risa Ganel, Licensed Clinical Marriage and FamilyTherapist and owner of Together Couples Counseling (TCC).

Ganel, who graduated from the University ofMaryland, College Park, with a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy, hasbeen helping clients since 1994, and founded TCC in 2005. “I passionately believethat our relationships have the power to heal the world,” she says. “We are wiredfor connection, and when our relationships struggle, our families, our communitiesand the world suffers.”

Many couplescomplain about communication issues, but that’s just the surfacesymptom. Navigating modern marriage is complex and understanding thecomplexity of relationships is at the heart of the specialized trainingof Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs), making them the ultimaterelationship experts. That’s why Ganel hired five other graduates ofthe College Park MFT program to help more couples than she could by herself.

TCC is expanding to an additional location inthe Severna Park area, to support couples and families beyond Howard County,making couples counseling more accessible for people looking to heal andstrengthen their connection.

Ganel trained directly for over a year with well-known relationship expert Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs, and is currently studying with  Terry Real, author of The New Rules of Marriage and I Don’t Want to Talk About It. She serves as the Chair of the Maryland State Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists, and is past President of the Middle Atlantic Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

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