One of you spends the day holding other people’s worst moments together. Then the shift ends, the car pulls into the driveway, and the two of you are supposed to pick up where you left off.
I work with couples where one or both partners are physicians, nurses, paramedics, firefighters, or police officers. Sometimes the person reading this is the one in scrubs or uniform. More often, it’s the partner at home, noticing the distance and wondering whether anyone understands what this life asks of a relationship.
Couples therapy here is built on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and shaped by ten years in a hospital emergency department. I offer in-person couples therapy and intensives in Bellingham, Washington, and virtual sessions for couples in states where I'm licensed.
available to all, with Specialized Support for Physicians, Nurses, and First Responders
Couples Therapy & Couples Intensives in Bellingham, Washington
The details change: the dishes, the missed call, the weekend that fell through. The fight doesn’t. It starts with good intentions and ends in the same place, one of you pushing and the other pulling away. You’re both capable of solving hard problems. This one keeps repeating because it isn’t really about the dishes.
You keep having the same fight
Night shifts, call schedules, overtime, missed holidays. You’ve become remarkably good at running a household around a schedule that won’t hold still, and you function well as a team. But by the time you’re both home and awake at the same time, there isn’t much left for each other. Closeness has quietly become one more thing that can wait.
Your relationship gets what’s left
You can see it when they walk in the door. They’re here, but part of them is still on the unit or at the scene. They need quiet. You need them. They might be irritable, flat, or somewhere else entirely, and reaching for them can feel like reaching for someone behind glass. The vigilance that makes them good at the job doesn’t switch off at the front door.
They come home, but not all the way.
Does this Sound Familiar?
- An individual session with each partner first, so I understand what each of you brings before we sit down together.
- Typically two to three days, in half-day (3 hours) or full-day (6 hours) of dedicated couples work.
- Emotionally Focused Therapy, with structured trauma processing when appropriate.
- Scheduled around shift rotations and call.
- In person in Bellingham, Washington, or virtual when both partners are located in a state where I’m licensed.
How it works
When you can’t reliably protect the same hour every week, an intensive gives you something weekly sessions often can’t: enough uninterrupted time to slow down, get underneath the pattern, and stay with it instead of stopping just as something important surfaces.
Focused time, built around schedules that rarely cooperate.
Couples Intensives
Ready to discuss the details of your intensive?
Referrals for individual therapy when one of you would benefit from your own support
The option to continue with weekly sessions and build on the work at home
A follow-up session to check in on what’s shifted and what still feels stuck
ongoing care
Structured trauma processing when past experiences are shaping the relationship
Emotionally Focused Therapy, aimed at the cycle between you, not the latest argument
Typically two to three days, in half-day (3 hours) or full-day (6 hours) sessions, tailored to your needs and schedule.
DURING THE INTENSIVE
An individual session with each partner, so I understand what you each carry
A clear recommendation on whether an intensive or weekly sessions fits best
Before We Start:
You’re not coming in to decide who’s right or to replay last week’s argument. An intensive gives us time to understand the cycle you get stuck in, what each of you brings to it, and how to reach for each other differently.
What a Couples Intensive Looks Like
Not sure which pace is right? We’ll talk it through during your consultation.
- Weekly or bi-weekly sessions focused on the relationship
- Emotionally Focused Therapy, with attention to how stress and hard experiences show up between you
- In person in Bellingham or virtual where both partners are located in a licensed state
- Can follow an intensive or stand on its own
Some couples do best with steady work over time. Ongoing sessions give you a consistent place to slow the pattern down, understand what each of you brings to it, and practice something different at home.
Ongoing Couples Therapy
Becoming parents changes every couple. For physicians, nurses, and first responders, it often comes later, after training, after years of waiting for the right time, or after a harder road to pregnancy than either of you expected. Then come short parental leave, a return to nights or call with a newborn at home, and a household that suddenly has no slack left in it.
Sometimes it’s harder still: a frightening birth, time in the NICU, or a loss that one of you is expected to work through while the other carries it at home. For clinicians, being the patient or the parent in a hospital you know too well can bring its own weight.
My specialized training includes Advanced Perinatal Mental Health Psychotherapy Training through Postpartum Support International, Bringing Light to Motherhood through Maternal Mental Health NOW, and Basic Infertility and Treatment Interventions training for mental health professionals through the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
When the Two of You Become Three
Becoming Parents
Nothing is billed to insurance on your behalf. If you'd like to seek out-of-network reimbursement for ongoing couples therapy, I can provide a superbill for you to submit directly.
Superbills are not available for couples intensives. Because relationship-focused couples therapy does not include an individual diagnosis, reimbursement is not guaranteed.
YOU DECIDE WHAT INSURANCE SEES
Seeking couples therapy does not automatically trigger a report to your licensing board. Because sessions are private pay, there is no insurance claim or diagnosis submitted on your behalf. Any disclosure obligations specific to your profession or license are yours to review.
YOUR LICENSE, YOUR PRIVACY
Your hospital, department, or agency won't hear from me through workplace channels. Nothing is shared without your consent, except in the limited circumstances required by law. We'll review those exceptions together at the start so you know exactly what to expect.
NOTHING GOES TO YOUR EMPLOYER
Private by Design
Many physicians, nurses, and first responders hesitate to seek help because of what it might mean for their careers. My practice is private pay and out of network, which means:
Confidentiality follows standard legal limits, which I’ll review with you before we begin.
I’m Vickery Rendall, LICSW. Before focusing my practice on healthcare workers, first responders, and their relationships, I spent ten years working in a hospital emergency department. I know the handoffs, the overnights, the cases that follow you home, and the way people in this work learn to stay composed long after composure stops helping. I also know personally what it takes to build a relationship alongside a demanding career.
In couples work, I use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), an approach that helps partners understand the patterns they get caught in and find new ways to reach each other. I've completed the EFT Externship and am currently participating in Core Skills training, building on my clinical experience working with trauma, relationships, and the ways our experiences shape how we connect.
I hold a master’s degree from Boston University and have more than fourteen years of clinical experience.
Couples Therapy Grounded in Real Clinical Experience
ABOUT YOUR THERAPIST
