ABOUT DR. JENNIFER FINLAYSON-FIFE

I’ve helped couples create stronger, more passionate relationships for decades. 

When I started my private practice in 2007, it quickly became evident that there was more demand for my relationship advice than I could reasonably sustain. So, in an effort to reach and support a larger audience, I drew upon my training as a mental health counselor, along with my dissertation research, and created five impactful online courses to help couples improve their emotional and sexual relationships. 

Each course is founded upon the effective life and marriage-changing principles that my clients have found most beneficial. This instructional format gives couples immediate access to my input, for a fraction of the cost of private coaching. The powerful principles taught in my courses are further solidified in Room for Two, where you can listen in on my coaching with other anonymous couples. 

The perspectives I offer and the paradigm upon which they are based empower couples to create richer, happier intimate relationships.

In the course of my doctoral study, I focused my training on marriage and family relationships and wrote my dissertation on the topic of LDS women and sexual agency.  

My post-doctorate training is in systems theory, differentiation theory, and sex therapy. I have eighteen years of clinical and coaching experience.

Education & Training

2002

Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, Boston College. Included year-long supervised internships at Stoney Brook Counseling Center, Massachusetts General Hospital’s Boston Evening Medical Center, and the University of Maine College Counseling Center.

1995

Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, Boston College. Included a supervised practicum, completed at Wheaton College Guidance Services in Norton, Massachusetts.




Specialties & Approach

Relationship Coaching

Do you long to feel more loved and appreciated by your partner? Are you tired of unproductive fights? Is the friction causing the two of you to drift apart? People often respond to relationship stress in ways that are instinctive and self-protective, but ultimately undermine intimacy and openness in their relationships.  

Whether you are suffering from long-standing distrust, chronic sexual dissatisfaction, fighting about money, kids, or religious differences, you can receive direct input from Dr. Finlayson-Fife on what is happening in your marriage and what your role is in those self-defeating or destructive patterns.  By seeing and understanding your own contributions to your marital unhappiness, you can change how you react, and effectively change the patterns that are keeping you and your partner from a joyful, honest, and resilient relationship. Dr. Finlayson-Fife uses a differentiation-based approach in helping you see your role in frustrating dynamics. In your work with her, you will learn to:

  • identify the unproductive, if not destructive, behaviors that undermine your relational peace.

  • calm your own reactivity and better tolerate seeing yourself and your partner more honestly.

  • learn to better collaborate around differences.

  • achieve greater authenticity and mutual respect.

  • increase your capacity for intimacy so that you are more capable of being known by and knowing your spouse.

Sexuality Coaching

Almost all couples deal with sexual issues at some point in a long-term relationship. Because sexual problems affect how people feel about themselves and each other, their existence can profoundly undermine the happiness of the relationship. This reality also makes it challenging for couples to turn sexual problems around on their own. Dr. Finlayson-Fife helps couples

  • address sexual inhibition and anxiety

  • understand and shift sexual behavior that undermines the relationship.

  • increase sexual passion and authenticity. 

  • create a mutually desirable sexual relationship. 


The solution lies not just in getting your body to respond, but also in having a relationship that supports healthy sexual functioning.

I wrote my dissertation on sexuality and desire, looking specifically at the obstacles to LDS women's desire, eroticism and pleasure in long-term relationships. I can help you addressing sexual developmental issues (for both men and women) as well as address relational obstacles that interfere with a sense of playfulness and intimate freedom. Through your own sexual and relational development, you can find greater embodied pleasure and the deeply-felt satisfaction that comes through a passionate, monogamous relationship.

Spirituality & Identity Issues

As we experience life and grow into adulthood, often the religious or spiritual anchors we inherited as children need refining. Spirituality is about finding an inner compass that guides you and gives you strength. Identifying and trusting this source of wisdom is an important part of personal growth, psychological adulthood, and the capacity for intimacy and personal peace.

Developing spiritual capacity comes in part through the process of looking honestly at your life and relationships, clarifying your beliefs and values, and having the courage to live by them. It usually includes sorting through traditions and inherited beliefs and discerning what you believe is true about the world and who you are.  This process is inherently connected to knowing and accepting ourselves as well as the increased ability to see and act wisely, and live with integrity.