Dina & Mike ClabaughThe Connecting Couple: The Journey to Relationship Re Enchantment

biography

Dina Clabaugh, LICSW, is the founder of Insight Counseling in Duluth, MN. For the past decade, Dina has been practicing psychotherapy with special interests in attachment, connection, neuroscience, and the intimate partner bond. She has studied Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), and IMAGO Theory. She is influenced by the works of Esther Perel, Terry Real, Richard Schwartz, and Peter Fraenkel.

By supporting couples Dina feels she is also indirectly (or directly) supporting the whole family system. Our individual wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us mirror the quality of our intimate partner relationship. It matters. Like anything we do in life, practice makes perfect. While relationships will never be perfect, with skilled direction and compassionate support, Dina believes couples can experience the revolutionary sensations of full aliveness, joyful relaxation, and wonder. They discover re enchantment.

Michael Clabaugh, LGSW, MA, MSW, is a couple therapist practicing at Insight Counseling in Duluth, MN. Michael sees relationships as the place we go as adults for comfort, solace, validation and as a place where our most vulnerable parts can be seen and held. Because it is two people each seeking this deep love, this intense relationship is also a crucible and struggle. Freud said, "We are never so open to suffering as when we love." The relationship either breaks or stagnates. Or, it grows and blossoms as each confronts the challenge to grow and to become the person that a relationship ultimately requires of us. "I am I because you are you; you are you because I am me. Therefore I am not me and you are not you."

Michael holds degrees from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Harvard, and The College of St. Scholastica. Michael is Level 1 trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Level 1 trained in clinical hypnosis by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH); he is an avid student of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), David Schnarch, and IMAGO Relationship Therapy.