Licensed to practice in Arizona and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in Couples Counseling, Trauma and PTSD, Anxiety and 10 more.
(he/him)
New to Grow
I’m Eric Henley, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of REtherapy Center. I work with thoughtful adults and couples who often understand their challenges intellectually but still feel caught in familiar emotional, relational, and protective patterns. My practice is active, compassionate, and direct. I help clients slow down what is happening beneath the surface so they can better understand how attachment, trauma, family history, and past experiences continue to shape present emotions, perceptions, and choices. Rather than simply talking about the problem, we work to recognize the cycle, create greater emotional safety, and practice more intentional ways of responding. I specialize in helping couples navigate recurring conflict, emotional distance, betrayal, intimacy concerns, and uncertainty about the future of their relationship. I also support adults working through trauma, anxiety, relationship wounds, and patterns that have become difficult to change alone. My approach integrates Emotionally Focused Therapy, the Gottman Method, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, family systems, cognitive approaches, and somatic awareness. I offer in-person therapy and Discernment Counseling in Arizona for adults and couples throughout the state.
Your first session is a chance for us to slow things down, understand what has been happening, and begin making sense of the patterns that brought you to therapy. We will start by talking about what led you to reach out now. I will ask questions about the concerns you are facing, how long they have been present, what you have already tried, and what you hope will be different through therapy. You do not need to arrive with the perfect words or a complete explanation. My role is to help create enough structure and safety for the important pieces to emerge. If you are coming as a couple, I will want to hear from both of you. We will begin identifying the cycle beneath the conflict rather than deciding who is right or wrong. Often, couples arrive focused on the subject of the argument—communication, trust, sex, money, parenting, betrayal, or emotional distance. We will also look beneath that subject at the deeper emotions, protective reactions, unmet needs, and attachment concerns that may be keeping the pattern alive. I will ask about the history of your relationship, significant stressors, previous attempts to repair the problem, and the strengths that still exist between you. I may also ask about family history, trauma, past relationships, physical health, medication, substance use, and other experiences that could be shaping the present. Some questions may be personal, but you remain in control of what you share and when you share it. If you are attending individually, we will explore the concerns affecting your life, relationships, emotions, or sense of direction. We may begin noticing how past experiences continue to influence present perceptions, protective responses, and choices. The goal is not simply to analyze the past, but to understand how it may still be operating in the present. My style is active, compassionate, and direct. I will listen carefully, but I will not remain silent while you struggle to organize everything alone. I may reflect patterns I notice, ask questions that slow down automatic reactions, or gently challenge assumptions that may be keeping you stuck. I will also explain what I believe may be happening and how we might approach it together. The first session is also an opportunity for you to evaluate me. Therapy works best when there is enough trust, honesty, and fit for meaningful work to happen. You are welcome to ask about my approach, experience, expectations, fees, scheduling, confidentiality, or anything else that
I bring a combination of clinical depth, relational insight, directness, and calm presence to each session. My goal is not simply to help clients talk about what is happening, but to help them see the deeper pattern shaping it. I am especially skilled at noticing what is often missed beneath the surface. A conflict may appear to be about communication, trust, sex, parenting, money, or unmet expectations. Underneath, however, there are often deeper questions about safety, belonging, worth, rejection, control, or whether it is safe to be fully known. I help clients slow these moments down so they can understand not only what they are doing, but what their reactions are trying to protect. My approach is active, compassionate, and direct. I listen carefully, but I do not expect clients to carry the entire session or find the path forward alone. I ask focused questions, reflect patterns, offer clinical observations, and gently challenge beliefs or behaviors that may be keeping someone stuck. I work to create a space where honesty is welcomed without shame and accountability is possible without condemnation. Another strength I bring is the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once. In couples therapy, I do not reduce the relationship to a simple question of who is right and who is wrong. I help each person feel heard while also examining how both partners participate in the cycle. At the same time, I do not create false equivalence when responsibility, harm, or power are not equal. My role is to help couples move toward greater clarity, ownership, emotional safety, and repair. I also work well with thoughtful, high-functioning clients who already understand many of their challenges intellectually but still find themselves repeating the same emotional or relational reactions. Insight is valuable, but insight alone does not always create change. I help clients connect what they know with what they feel, notice in their bodies, expect from others, and choose in difficult moments. My work is informed by attachment theory, trauma treatment, family systems, Emotionally Focused Therapy, the Gottman Method, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, cognitive approaches, and somatic awareness. I do not force every client into one model. Instead, I draw from these approaches according to the needs, goals, history, and readiness of the person or couple in front of me. I also bring steadiness to emotionally intense conversations. Strong emotions, conflict, silence, uncertain
My ideal client is thoughtful, self-aware, and ready to look honestly at the patterns shaping their life or relationship. They may understand their struggles intellectually yet still feel trapped in familiar reactions—conflict, withdrawal, overthinking, self-protection, resentment, anxiety, or emotional distance. I work especially well with adults and couples who want more than temporary relief. They are willing to slow down, become curious about what is happening beneath the surface, and take meaningful responsibility for change. They do not need to arrive with perfect insight or complete certainty. They only need enough openness to examine what is no longer working. For couples, this may include partners caught in recurring conflict, emotional disconnection, betrayal, intimacy concerns, or uncertainty about whether to remain together. They may still care deeply for one another but feel unable to stop the cycle that keeps leaving both people hurt, defensive, or alone. For individual clients, this may include people navigating trauma, relationship wounds, anxiety, life transitions, or patterns rooted in family history and past experiences. They may be high-functioning in many areas of life while privately struggling to feel grounded, connected, or free from reactions they no longer want controlling them. The clients who benefit most from my approach value honesty, depth, compassion, and practical movement. They are open to being supported and challenged. Their goal is not to become someone entirely different, but to understand themselves more clearly, respond more intentionally, and build healthier relationships with themselves and the people who matter most.
Other specialties
I identify as
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
I use Emotionally Focused Therapy to help individuals and couples understand the deeper emotional and attachment needs beneath recurring conflict, withdrawal, defensiveness, and disconnection. In couples therapy, we first identify the negative cycle that has begun to take over the relationship. One partner may pursue, criticize, or demand reassurance while the other withdraws, shuts down, or becomes defensive. Rather than treating either person as the problem, we examine how the cycle pulls both partners into protective reactions that leave each feeling unseen, unsafe, or alone. I help couples slow these moments down and look beneath anger, silence, blame, or avoidance. Often, more vulnerable emotions are present underneath—fear of rejection, shame, loneliness, hurt, or uncertainty about whether the relationship is still secure. As these emotions become clearer and safer to express, partners can begin responding to one another with greater understanding and less automatic protection. The goal is not simply to improve communication techniques. It is to help couples create a stronger emotional bond in which each person can reach, respond, and repair more effectively. Over time, partners may become better able to recognize the cycle as the shared problem, communicate deeper needs, and build greater trust and emotional safety. I also use Emotionally Focused principles in individual therapy. This may involve exploring attachment patterns, unmet emotional needs, fears of closeness or abandonment, and the protective strategies a person developed through earlier relationships. The work helps clients understand how these patterns continue to shape present emotions, expectations, and choices. My use of Emotionally Focused Therapy is active, compassionate, and experiential. I do not only ask clients to talk about what happened. I help them notice what is happening emotionally in the room, give language to experiences that are difficult to express, and practice new ways of reaching for connection.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients understand the connection between their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical responses. The goal is not to force positive thinking, but to identify the interpretations and habits that may be intensifying distress or keeping familiar patterns in place. In practice, we examine what happens in difficult moments: the situation, the meaning assigned to it, the emotion that follows, and the response that comes next. Clients may begin noticing patterns such as catastrophizing, assuming another person’s intentions, expecting rejection, engaging in all-or-nothing thinking, or treating fear as proof that something is unsafe. I help clients evaluate whether these thoughts are accurate, incomplete, or shaped by past experiences. Together, we develop more balanced ways of interpreting situations and experiment with behaviors that support the client’s values and goals. This may include practicing boundaries, approaching avoided situations, changing unhelpful routines, improving problem-solving, or responding differently during conflict. In couples therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help partners identify the assumptions and automatic interpretations that quickly escalate disconnection. One partner may interpret silence as rejection, while the other experiences questions as criticism or control. By slowing down these reactions, couples can separate what is actually happening from what they fear is happening and respond with greater clarity. I also use CBT to support clients working through anxiety, depression, trauma-related reactions, self-criticism, and recurring relationship patterns. When appropriate, I may suggest thought records, behavioral experiments, journaling, or other structured practices between sessions. My use of CBT is practical and collaborative, but not rigid. I integrate cognitive work with attachment, trauma-informed, relational, and somatic approaches so that therapy addresses not only what clients think, but also what they feel, expect, protect against, and experience in their bodies. The aim is greater awareness, more flexible thinking, and choices that are less controlled by automatic reactions.
Trauma Informed Care
I use trauma-informed care to create therapy that is safe, collaborative, respectful, and sensitive to the ways past experiences may continue to shape the present. Trauma-informed care is not a single technique. It is a way of approaching the entire therapeutic relationship. In practice, this means I do not assume that a client’s reactions are irrational, resistant, or overly intense. Behaviors such as withdrawal, anger, hypervigilance, perfectionism, people-pleasing, avoidance, emotional numbness, or difficulty trusting often developed for understandable reasons. We explore what these responses may have protected, how they once helped, and whether they are still serving the client now. I pay close attention to pacing, consent, choice, and emotional safety. Clients are not pressured to disclose painful experiences before they are ready. We work to build enough stability and trust before moving into difficult material. I also explain the purpose of interventions so clients understand what we are doing and remain active participants in the process. Trauma-informed care also involves noticing how the nervous system responds to perceived threat. Clients may learn to recognize signs of activation, shutdown, dissociation, or overwhelm and develop practical ways to become more grounded and present. This can include slowing down, orienting to the present, identifying physical sensations, strengthening emotional regulation, and increasing tolerance for difficult feelings without becoming consumed by them. In couples therapy, I help partners understand how trauma can shape conflict, trust, closeness, sexuality, and emotional safety. A present-day disagreement may activate older fears of rejection, abandonment, criticism, control, or betrayal. By recognizing these reactions, couples can begin responding to the current relationship rather than automatically reliving the past through one another. My trauma-informed approach is compassionate without removing accountability. Understanding where a reaction comes from does not excuse harmful behavior. Instead, it creates a clearer path toward responsibility, repair, and change. The goal is not to define clients by what happened to them. It is to help them understand how trauma may still be influencing perception, emotion, protection, relationships, and choice so they can move through life with greater safety, clarity, and freedom.
EMDR
I use Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, to help clients process distressing experiences that continue to shape present emotions, beliefs, physical reactions, and relationships. EMDR is based on the understanding that some experiences remain insufficiently processed. Even when a person knows intellectually that the danger has passed, the nervous system may still react as though it is happening now. This can show up as intrusive memories, anxiety, shame, avoidance, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, or reactions that feel larger than the present moment. Before beginning reprocessing, I work with clients to understand their history, current stability, goals, and readiness. We build grounding skills and identify internal and external resources that can help the client remain present during difficult work. EMDR is not about forcing disclosure or moving into painful memories before adequate preparation has occurred. During reprocessing, clients briefly focus on aspects of a distressing memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or alternating taps. The goal is not to erase the memory. It is to help the brain process it in a way that reduces its emotional intensity and allows more adaptive beliefs and responses to emerge. I use EMDR with concerns such as trauma, betrayal, relationship injuries, anxiety, shame, grief, and painful experiences that continue to trigger automatic reactions. In couples work, EMDR may be used individually when one partner’s unresolved trauma or attachment injuries are strongly influencing the relationship. Couples sessions and individual trauma processing are handled thoughtfully so that roles, consent, and treatment goals remain clear. My use of EMDR is structured, collaborative, and trauma-informed. I monitor pacing carefully and help clients notice what is happening emotionally, physically, and cognitively throughout the process. If a client becomes overwhelmed, we slow down, return to stabilization, and adjust the work. EMDR is one part of a broader treatment approach. I may integrate it with attachment-based, relational, cognitive, somatic, and family-systems work depending on the client’s needs. The goal is not to change the facts of the past. It is to reduce the power those experiences continue to hold in the present so clients can respond with greater freedom, stability, and choice.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
I use Internal Family Systems, or IFS, to help clients understand the different parts of themselves that carry emotion, fear, responsibility, shame, anger, protection, and unmet needs. Rather than viewing inner conflict as evidence that something is wrong with a person, IFS recognizes that different parts often developed for understandable reasons. One part may push for perfection, another may avoid risk, another may become angry, and another may carry old hurt or fear. These parts may seem to work against one another, but each is usually trying to protect the person in some way. In therapy, we slow down and become curious about these internal responses instead of judging or suppressing them. Clients may learn to notice which parts become activated, what those parts fear, what they are trying to prevent, and what they need in order to soften. This creates greater distance from automatic reactions and more room for choice. I also help clients connect with what IFS describes as the Self—the calm, compassionate, clear, and grounded center that can lead the internal system with greater wisdom. The goal is not to eliminate parts, but to help them feel understood, less burdened, and less forced to take over. In individual therapy, IFS can be useful for trauma, shame, anxiety, self-criticism, people-pleasing, anger, avoidance, and recurring relationship patterns. It helps clients understand why they may want closeness while also fearing it, why they may long for change while resisting it, or why certain situations trigger reactions that feel larger than the present moment. In couples therapy, I may use IFS principles to help each partner recognize the protective parts that enter conflict. One partner’s critical part may be trying to prevent abandonment, while the other partner’s withdrawing part may be trying to avoid shame or escalation. When couples can identify these reactions without reducing each other to them, conflict becomes less personal and more understandable. My use of IFS is compassionate, experiential, and practical. I do not treat every thought or feeling as the whole truth. Instead, I help clients listen for the parts beneath the reaction and respond from a more grounded place. The goal is greater internal cooperation, less shame, and more freedom to choose how to respond rather than being controlled by the loudest or most frightened part in the moment.