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Intercultural Couples · In Person
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Two Languages, One Home

You fell in love in your second language. You fight in your first.

Six weeks for intercultural and mixed-language couples — the invisible rulebooks, and the third culture you build together.

When
Weekends · TBD · six weeks · 90 min
For
Intercultural & mixed-language couples
Where
182 Tamarack Circle, Skillman, NJ 08558
Language
English · Ukrainian · Russian
Approach
The Gottman Method

Every culture hands you a rulebook — about closeness, conflict, respect, obligation — and it feels like reality rather than culture, until you love someone whose rules are just as invisible to them.

When one partner argues in their native tongue and the other doesn’t, the fight is never fair — and the fluent partner rarely knows it.

I’ve lived the second-language thing myself, which is part of why that week lands. Each week is a short teaching piece, then private practice in the room — and couples tend to leave with something they didn’t have walking in: the words for it.

♡ ♡ ♡

The six weeks

From the invisible rulebook to the third culture you get to build together.

Week
1

The invisible rulebook

Every culture hands you rules about closeness, conflict, respect, and obligation, and they feel like reality rather than culture — until you meet someone whose rules are different and equally invisible to them.
Practice
Naming your own. What did your family never have to say out loud?
Home
Ask about one of theirs.
Week
2

Fighting in a second language

When one partner argues in their native tongue and the other doesn’t, the fight is never fair — and the fluent partner rarely knows it. Precision, tone, and the words that don’t exist in the other language.
Practice
What gets lost — and the ways you can be understood anyway.
Home
Teach your partner one word that doesn’t translate.
Week
3

Whose family wins

Obligation, distance, involvement, and the question of what you owe your parents. Cultures answer this very differently, neither of you is wrong — and there’s room for a way that’s yours.
Practice
Mapping where the expectations collide.
Home
One conversation about a boundary you’ve never named.
Week
4

Holidays, food, and the small daily negotiations

This is where intercultural couples actually live. Whose holidays, whose food, whose Sunday, whose silence.
Practice
The negotiations you’ve been avoiding by defaulting.
Home
Choose one thing on purpose instead of by default.
Week
5

What we pass on

Language, faith, identity, and the specific grief of a child who doesn’t speak your mother tongue — and the traditions you can still choose to keep alive.
Practice
What do you hope your children will hold onto?
Home
Say the thing you’ve been afraid to say about this.
Week
6

A third culture

Not their way, not yours. The one you build.
Practice
Naming what your home is, deliberately.
Home
Yours to keep.
How payment works
$95 per couple, per session
Paid in full at enrollment

Groups run out-of-network and privately. Paying in full at enrollment holds your place for the whole series — and lets the group form as a stable, closed circle: the same people, from beginning to end.

Refunds

A full refund if you withdraw before the first session. In the first two weeks, a prorated refund or a credit toward a future group. Once the group has formed, the remaining sessions aren’t refundable — the circle was built around your place in it — but if something serious comes up, talk to me and we’ll find a fair way through.

Superbill

A superbill is available for possible partial reimbursement through your out-of-network benefits. Whether a group qualifies depends on its nature, so it’s best to check with your insurance company.

Reserve your spot

Seats are limited to keep the group small and safe. Reach out — we’ll find out together whether this is the right next step for you both.

Contact to reserve
alesia@ivycounselinggroup.com (609) 688-8300
Where we meet 182 Tamarack Circle, Skillman, NJ 08558