Couples Therapy in Texas | Rubber Duck Therapy

Why Rubber Duck?

What if the goal isn't calmer water—but becoming stronger in the water you're already in?

There is something remarkably fitting about a duck as a metaphor for therapy.

A duck lives in the water without having to absorb all of it. Its feathers are built to shed what would otherwise weigh it down. Beneath those feathers is insulation that helps preserve warmth when the water turns cold. And when conditions become difficult, ducks adapt—finding shelter, conserving energy, staying connected, and continuing to move.

People need some of those same abilities.

Therapy is not about becoming untouched by difficult experiences or pretending that painful things do not matter. It is about understanding what affects you, recognizing the patterns that keep causing pain, strengthening the resources that help you respond, and learning that not everything you encounter has to become something you carry.

Sometimes that means repairing a relationship instead of abandoning it. Sometimes it means communicating what has gone unsaid. It may mean changing a long-standing pattern, establishing a boundary, grieving something that cannot be changed, rebuilding trust, rediscovering intimacy, or simply learning to respond differently when life gets cold.

Resilience isn't about never getting wet.It's learning what keeps you warm, what keeps you afloat, and how to keep moving when the water gets rough.

And sometimes the first step is simply saying it out loud.

Talk it through. See it differently. Choose what happens next.

“Not everything that reaches you has to become something you carry.”

Services

Where the work can begin.

Couples therapy is the primary focus of the practice, with individual and sex/intimacy-focused therapy available for adults whose concerns call for a different setting.

01 • Primary Focus

Couples Therapy

Relationships rarely unravel because of one conversation. More often, couples become caught in patterns—pursuing and withdrawing, defending and criticizing, avoiding difficult subjects, losing intimacy, or repeatedly reopening old injuries.

Therapy can help slow the pattern down, understand what each person is protecting or asking for, and practice a different way of relating.

Communication and recurring conflict
Emotional disconnection and resentment
Trust, betrayal and infidelity
Intimacy and desire differences
Life transitions and relationship decisions
Repairing patterns that keep repeating

Individual Therapy

A private place to examine what keeps showing up—in relationships, work, self-talk, stress responses and major transitions.

Anxiety and persistent worry
Depressive symptoms
Burnout and chronic stress
Grief and loss
Boundaries and self-worth
Relationship patterns

Sex, Intimacy & Relationship Concerns

A professional, nonjudgmental setting for conversations that may have become tense, avoided or painful.

Desire discrepancies
Sexual communication
Intimacy after relationship injury
Shame and avoidance
Changing sexual connection
Relationship expectations

What we can work through

Life does not have to be falling apart for therapy to be useful.

Sometimes the issue is obvious. Sometimes it is a quiet sense that something important is no longer working. The work is to understand what is happening well enough to make deliberate change possible.

Relationship conflictBurnoutAnxietyDepressive symptomsGriefInfidelity & trustIntimacyBoundariesLife transitionsCommunicationStressFeeling stuck

A framework for couples

Where is the relationship strong—and where is it carrying too much weight?

Six foundational areas can help organize the first conversation: honesty, trust, respect, communication, shared values, and friendship.

Explore the Six Pillars

How I work

Understand the pattern, not just the symptom.

Therapy can address what you are feeling now while also asking what keeps the same difficulty returning.

Relational, practical & evidence-informed

My work draws from a systemic marriage and family therapy perspective, CBT-informed strategies, and extensive training in Gottman Method concepts and interventions. That means looking beyond a symptom in isolation and paying attention to the relationships, learned roles, attachment patterns, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, communication, and life context that may be keeping a problem in place.

In couples therapy, Gottman Method-informed work can help us examine friendship and connection, recurring conflict patterns, criticism and defensiveness, repair attempts, communication, trust, intimacy, and shared meaning. I am not a Gottman Certified Therapist; “Gottman Method-informed” describes the training and concepts I may draw upon when they fit the couple and the work.

CBT-informed strategies can also help identify connections among thoughts, emotions, and behavior and create practical opportunities to test more useful responses. The goal is not simply to tell you what to do or attach a label to what is happening. We work collaboratively to understand the patterns keeping you stuck, talk honestly about difficult material, and develop changes that make sense in your actual life.

About the therapist

Dr. James D. Grisham

My clinical background is grounded in marriage and family therapy, psychology, and the study of relationships and human behavior.

Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy (DMFT)
Master of Arts, Marriage and Family Therapy
Master of Science, Psychology
Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (Texas)
Certified Sex Therapy Informed Professional (CSTIP) training
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology studies in progress

I also bring decades of professional leadership experience to the therapy room. That perspective can be particularly useful when work pressure, responsibility, burnout, identity, relationships and the rest of life collide.

Supervision disclosure: Dr. James D. Grisham practices as a Texas LPC Associate under the supervision of Dr. Jessica Erickson, DMFT, LPC-S, LCDC. LPC Associates do not engage in independent practice.

Explore

Start where the concern feels clearest.

Couples TherapyConflict, trust, resentment, communication and intimacy. Individual TherapyStress, burnout, boundaries, transitions and recurring patterns. Six PillarsA framework for understanding relationship strengths and injuries. High-Stress ProfessionalsBurnout, chronic responsibility, leadership pressure and politics fatigue.

A guiding therapeutic goal

Better than when we started.

My therapeutic goal is always to help ensure that, when our work concludes, you are in a better place than when we started—better able to understand what is happening, communicate what matters, recognize the patterns that keep you stuck, and make choices with greater clarity and intention. Therapy cannot promise a particular outcome, but our work should have direction, purpose, and a meaningful reason for the time you invest in it.

Start here

Some things become clearer once you say them out loud.

To schedule an introductory discussion, use the scheduling link above. For general administrative questions, you may also call or email the practice. Please do not include medical, mental-health, sexual-health, relationship details, diagnoses, or other sensitive information in ordinary email.

This website and email are not monitored for emergencies. For an immediate emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. For suicide or mental-health crisis support, call or text 988.

Rubber Duck Therapy, Inc.

Mailing address
729 Grapevine Hwy, Suite 155
Hurst, Texas 76054

Phone
(510) 214-2673

Email

MAILING ADDRESS ONLY
This is not a therapy office or treatment location. Therapy services are not provided at this address.

Client records, licensing & complaint information

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