Past therapy, still stuck
You've done couples therapy and it helped, but something in the pattern still isn't moving the way you'd hoped.
Couples Coaching · West Hollywood
Couples coaching in West Hollywood: partnership that feels safe at a body level
You know each other well and still feel lonely next to each other, stuck in a pattern you can name but can't seem to break, bracing before the same conversation you've had a hundred times. Couples coaching at Word of Mouth is one-on-one work with Jaime or Yonatan, using somatic work, conscious communication and breathwork, so change reaches both partners' nervous systems and not only the story about the fight. Most of the work happens with each of you separately, with joint sessions when they help.
Complimentary hour-long discovery call · In-person & virtual · Private Melrose studio
One Practitioner, Both Partners
Jaime & Yonatan Elkayam · Six years in LA
The Approach
What's the difference between couples coaching and couples therapy?
Couples therapy is licensed clinical treatment for relationship pathology: diagnosing and treating trauma, mental-health conditions, or serious dysfunction, the kind of psychotherapy the American Psychological Association describes in detail. Couples coaching is skill-building and embodied practice for couples who are fundamentally functional and want to grow closer, communicate better, or move through a pattern that conversation alone hasn't shifted.
Jaime and Yonatan Elkayam are Certified Reiki Master Teachers, Certified Breathwork Facilitators and coaches, not licensed marriage or family therapists. They bring their own marriage into the room as coaches, a relational lens rather than a clinical one. If you are in active crisis involving ongoing deception, abuse, or untreated severe mental illness, a licensed therapist is the right first step.
Is This For You
When couples coaching is the right next step
Couples coaching works best when both partners are willing to show up. It tends to fit situations like these.
A major life transition
Engagement, a first child, or relocation ahead. You want tools in place before the stress test arrives.
The same fight, on repeat
You both know it's coming and can name it, but neither of you can stop it once it starts.
Intimacy has drifted
You want to find your way back to each other before distance quietly becomes the norm.
One partner's ahead
One of you has done a lot of individual work, and the relationship hasn't fully caught up yet.
You want to get stronger
Nothing is on fire. You're solid and want a proactive tool, not a rescue.
Your Session
What a couples coaching session looks like
1
Somatic check-in
We start by naming what each of you is carrying into the room, not a formal intake, but a way of noticing where your nervous system is before we talk. This usually reveals more than the presenting problem.
2
Coaching conversation
We work with what's alive between you right now. Your coach tracks body cues and tone shifts, and the pattern underneath the words, as much as the words themselves.
3
An optional breathwork or energy pause
When a conversation reaches a stuck point, we can pause and use a short breathwork sequence or couples energy healing to help both nervous systems regulate before continuing. The body often unlocks what the mind couldn't.
4
Integration and practice
We close with one concrete thing each of you is taking home: a communication practice, a somatic tool, or a commitment specific enough to actually use before the next session.
Most couples begin with a 3-month arc of sessions. Frequency and format depend on where you are, and we talk through fit on the discovery call before any commitment.
Why It Works
Why the body matters in couples work
Words about the pattern only go so far. Both partners can usually name it. What's harder is interrupting it in the moment, because by the time the familiar script starts, the nervous system has already taken over the conversation. We track what happens in the body when things turn hard, a tightening chest, shallow breath, one partner withdrawing while the other pursues, and practice a new response while it's actually happening.
Coaches who are married
Jaime and Yonatan practice conscious communication in their own marriage and bring that into the work. Couples recognize something different here because it isn't performed.
Somatic, not just verbal
Naming the body's pattern in real time, and practicing a new response while it's happening, changes it at the level where it actually lives.
Language you can practice
We combine conscious communication coaching with somatic practice and optional energy work in one session, so both partners leave with tools already practiced, not just concepts they've heard.
In Their Words
What couples say
★★★★★
It's not therapy and it's not your typical relationship coaching. It gets to the source of everything, helping guide you to the conversations that really matter, the connection that really is there underneath everything.
Austin McDonald
★★★★★
I've been through a lot of coaching programs, but Jaime and Yonatan's unique combination of movement, energy work and heart-opened feedback had a profound impact on me.
Melissa Muller
★★★★★
Between Yonatan and Jaime you're getting energy magicians, body mechanics, and musical healers all-at-once.
Yossef Sagi
Good Questions
Couples coaching in Los Angeles, answered
Honest answers about cost, commitment, and what couples coaching can and cannot do.
Couples coaching is priced on the free discovery call, once we know what the work needs to look like. Coaching is not a licensed mental-health service, so insurance does not reimburse it.
That's common. One partner often does the research first. If your partner isn't sure, a 1:1 session with either of us can be a good first step. You work on your side of the dynamic, and sometimes that shifts enough for the other partner to want to join.
Yes. Individual sessions are available and can focus on relationship dynamics even without your partner present. Some of the most useful couples work happens with one person at a time.
Yes. Pre-marital couples often get the most out of coaching because they're building patterns before the stress tests arrive. It's a different kind of engagement than repair work, more proactive and often more fun.
Yes, fully. We work with couples across all orientations, gender identities, and relationship structures. The somatic and coaching work doesn't depend on any particular form the relationship takes.
It depends where the affair is in the arc. If there's ongoing deception or active crisis, a licensed therapist is the right first step. If things have stabilized and both partners want to rebuild, coaching can work well alongside or after therapy.
Most couples start with a 3-month arc of sessions. Frequency and format depend on where you are and what you're working on, and we talk through fit on the discovery call before any commitment.
The 7-7-7 rule suggests 7 minutes of daily talk, 7 hours of weekly quality time, and 7 days of annual vacation together. It's a useful starting structure. In sessions, we focus less on clock time and more on the quality of presence: ten regulated, attuned minutes beats an hour of parallel distraction.
Ready When You Are
Ready to work on this together?
Couples coaching at Word of Mouth is available at our private West Hollywood studio on Highland Ave near Melrose and virtually. The discovery call is about an hour, no charge, no commitment.
More Ways In
Other ways to work with us
Couples Energy Healing
Reiki and energy work for two, clearing tension held between you as much as within each of you.
Couples energy healing →Conscious Communication
The language layer of couples work, taught through somatic awareness and practiced presence.
Conscious communication →Holistic Coaching
Our full coaching practice for individuals, therapists, creatives, and couples across Los Angeles.
Holistic coaching →Book a Discovery Call
Free, no-obligation, about an hour. We'll map what a couples coaching program could look like for you.
Book now →