Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
What if couples therapy isn’t a last resort but the skill-building shortcut your relationship needed all along?
If you’ve ever wondered whether couples therapy actually works—or worried it’s only for the brink—this conversation with Dr. Tasha Seiter offers a grounded, hopeful reset. We dig into why waiting six to seven years to get help is common, why it makes change harder, and how early, evidence-based counseling can quickly shift the patterns that keep partners stuck. Drawing from Emotionally Focused Therapy and Gottman research, Tasha shows how targeted tools reduce reactivity, increase trust, and create more moments of feeling seen and safe.
We share real-world examples of what “evidence-based” looks like in session: mapping the pursue–withdraw cycle, speaking from softer primary emotions, using gentle start-ups, recognizing bids for connection, and practicing fast repairs that actually stick. Tasha also explains why her Fort Collins group practice, Heart of the Matter Therapy, invests in advanced training and ongoing consultation—because couples deserve more than a vent session. The results are tangible: less escalation, clearer communication, and a bond that feels secure again.
Beyond the therapy room, we touch on how the pandemic reduced the stigma of mental health support and made it easier for people to seek help before crises. You’ll also hear about Tasha’s personal path, the role of resilience, and simple habits that keep love strong: daily check-ins, nightly appreciations, and small rituals of connection. If you’re in Fort Collins or nearby and you’re noticing the same fight on repeat, consider this your nudge to act early. Subscribe for more conversations with local experts, share this with someone who could use it, and leave a review to help neighbors find the show.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of marriage counseling in Fort Collins and the surrounding areas? One excellent option might be closer than you think. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Dr. Tasha Seder. Doctor, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01:It's going good. Yeah, thank you so much for having me here.
SPEAKER_02:Tell us, I was gonna say all the little things after your uh title there, but then I knew I was it was a tongue twister, so I just stopped. Tell us all about what you do.
SPEAKER_01:Um well I I do a lot of things. So I'm um couples counselor, it's my passion, is helping people on their relationships. Um, and I own a group practice um where we focus on relationship therapy here in Fort Collins. Um so we've got a brick and mortar location right over on Harmony uh near Harmony um in uh college. And uh yeah, we work on helping people build stronger bonds and work through trust and feel closer.
SPEAKER_02:How did you get into the business of bringing people back together?
SPEAKER_01:Such a good question. Um, I was always so interested in psychology, it has always just been my passion. Um, I'm an identical twin. And when yeah, so when I was 15, um my grandpa gave me this book about twins um and the nature versus nurture debate. So I read that that book, such an interesting topic. All these twins, especially from this one adoption agency in Minnesota, they were um born together, but they were reared apart at this adoption agency. They thought that raising twins together was was bad for them. Um, and so they separated them. But then there were all these twins that never knew that they they had a twin brother, twin sister, um, and met their twin as an adult, and they were describing in this book all these like uncanny differences or similarities and and little differences, but uncanny similarities that they had with their twin um that they had never been around or met before. And so I read that book and that made me realize I want to study psychology. This is what I'm so interested in. Um, and I wanted to learn how to help people. Voice thought relationships were so fascinating, like they're so interesting. How people interact and um learned a little bit about John Gottman, who was this researcher um who studies healthy communication, and um he studied newlyweds and he saw what were these communication techniques that predicted happy and healthy marriages years and years later. Um, so I read about that when I was I was really young, and I was just like, this is my life mission, this is what I want to learn about, this is what I want to help people with. So that's kind of how I got into business and started my private practice um five years ago and just expanded into group practice two and a half years ago, and um that's been fun, it's been a wild ride, it's been a lot of fun though.
SPEAKER_02:What are some myths and misconceptions in your industry?
SPEAKER_01:Hmm. I think one would be that in order to come to marriage counseling, you should need it, you should be really suffering, or you should wait until you're really suffering. And actually, the research says that the average couple waits six to seven years of struggling in their relationship before they seek any kind of treatment. Um, so that's definitely a big myth, is that going to therapy means that you are on the brink of divorce. Like, I have people ask me that all the time. They say, like, well, does that really work? Aren't people, when they come to you like past the point of repair, aren't they just like waiting to see if they can get divorced? And it's always so interesting to me that that's a lot of people the way that they see couples therapy, because that has not been even close to my experience. Um not even close. Like the couples that come in, they get better, they get their relationship gets a lot better. That being said, of course, there's gonna be exceptions. Some people come when it's too late and their pattern's way too ingrained, and they really are kind of just checking off the box, and um, they're headed towards divorce and splitting up, and that's the best thing for them. Um, but that's more of the exception. So I think that that's a huge misconception, is people always they always ask me that like, does it really work? Are people just like uh, isn't it too late? All of that. So um that being said, people should come early, they should come when they realize, hey, I think we're having trouble, we're kind of going round and round. I think we should go talk to somebody um before it gets super ingrained, so that you can learn those communication skills like as soon as possible.
SPEAKER_02:We know that uh that marketing is the heart of any practice or business. So who or when is your target market? I guess when marriage, I mean it you just said, I guess maybe you answered that question. You're targeting people before it gets that bad. Um, is there any other type of uh of area that you're trying to target mainly? Um, do you do it online? Is it how are you trying to reach out to your customers now digitally?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so many different ways. Um most of the time, people find us because they're searching. Um they're searching, they're getting to a place where they've realized, and especially after COVID, I think that's one positive thing about COVID is that it really did relieve a lot of the stigma on seeking mental health care. Um people are coming in in more of a preventative way than they were before, similar to healthcare. I would hope that people would maybe go to the doctor every year and get a checkup and say, How are things doing? How can I do better? Let's check and see how my cholesterol levels are and things like that. Um, I think people are approaching mental health in a more similar way since COVID, where they're thinking, oh, my friend went to therapy, it helped them. Um this other person I know went to therapy, it helped them. So I think that there's less of a stigma. People are reaching out, they're looking more, they're getting online and um finding us more. So a lot of our traffic comes from people who are actively searching and finding us. Um, other ways are just Instagram. Maybe people start following us for the little relationship tips and um science-backed kind of skills that we teach on the Instagram. But then when they start realizing, you know what, I think I could benefit from going and talking to somebody, they might reach out then. Um, so that question of when are when are we getting people? When it comes to marketing, there's all sorts of different strategies, like um long-term strategies, short-term strategies. The short-term strategies are more aimed at finding people who are looking for it now, they're ready. Long-term strategies are engaging people who um maybe one day they'll wake up and and say, like, I think I want some help too.
SPEAKER_02:So, do you have you ever thought about um charity charitably reaching out digitally through a podcast format to people to let them know what you do and and what separates you? Um it doesn't seem like it's your first time.
SPEAKER_01:Um charitably reaching out. Help me understand that one more time.
SPEAKER_02:Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast? Oh, oh, and and not getting paid for it to reach people. Um most people that do podcasts don't get paid for it, like like me. But um, have you ever thought about just uh trying to reach people that way through your social media, starting a format like that?
SPEAKER_01:That's a good idea. I have thought about it. Um it seems intimidating.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, I'm intimidated by accounting. So what do you do for fun?
SPEAKER_01:Accounting. Yes. What do I do for fun?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um so people can get to know you a little better. What what do you do when you're not helping marriages come back together?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like to see live music. Uh that's a big part of what I get a lot of joy out of. Music and live music and listening to music in my car, you know, singing in the shower. Um, but and also dancing. I go to dance classes. I actually recently broke my foot. I broke my foot the week before last, so I can't do that very much anymore. Um, but I really love doing active things, so it's been it's been rough being injured. Um, being outside, doing active things, walks, hikes, bikes, all that Colorado stuff, road trips. Yeah, that's what I like to do. What about you? What do you like to do for fun?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I I like to get up at like 4 30, 5 in the morning and and uh and either lift, um, or if I'm not doing a lifting day, then I'm I'm roping and hitting the bag. Um, or if it's a beautiful day and the sun's up and I'm up with the sun, then I go run like six or seven miles at my age is about as far as I can go. But I try to do one or the other every day or every other day, depending on how wrecked I am.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:But nobody's ever asked me that question. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Of course.
SPEAKER_02:So um the uh, you know, I don't always ask people this question, but because you're in marriage counseling and a lot of people um feel like their life has been not as a lot of people feel like practitioners in this realm haven't had the hard life that they've had. I am gonna ask you this tougher question Is there any hardships that have occurred in your life that make you that that made you stronger? What what are they and how did they make you stronger? Um, if if you're willing to talk about them or it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um just like anyone in life, I've had hardships. I don't think that anyone gets out of um life without hardships ever, right? Like the Buddha said, he said life is suffering, and it's not just suffering, but suffering is a part of life for every single human on the planet. We all life is hard for all of us, right? Um, so of course, I've been through my own uh series of of heartbreaks. I've been um just experienced the pressure of um intense academic environments and then building a business. Um I think that what is overcoming that look like? I think my dad always says, like when you're going through hell, keep going. I think that's great advice. Um, I think especially in our culture, we almost have this like rigid expectation that we should be happy all the time or not experience hardship. And not only is that not realistic, I think it's harmful because it can make us self-invalidate ourselves when we're feeling rough. Like we do have many things um to be grateful for in this country. Um and in this day and age, even though there are tough things also about this country in this day and age, but um for example, I never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from. Um but that doesn't mean that life isn't hard, and there are many pressures and expectations that I have to face every day, um, that sometimes are tough, and um I have to work really hard to be here and maintain that, maintain my business. So yeah, I think that's that's as far as I'll go with it.
SPEAKER_02:I'm sure it wasn't easy becoming a doctor. That's why most people don't do it. You don't have to tell us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thank you. No, it's not easy. It's not a walk in the park. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
SPEAKER_02:So, Dr. Tasha, what is the main takeaway that you would like for our listeners to to take away from our interview with you today about marriage counseling for Collins? What separates you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, what separates us, and this is why I built the business, is um there's a lot of therapy out there that is incredible. And there are also some therapists out there in terms of couples therapy that they might not specialize in couples therapy or have advanced training in it, but they think, oh, you know, it's therapy, right? So they have couples come in, and I've had some couples come to me and say that they're like, wow, this is so different than the therapy I've been to before. I think what it was before is was just like vent sessions. I was just venting about this, and then I'd get validated by the therapist or something like that. So, what I wanted to build for Fort Collins is a place where people could go and they could trust that they are getting most high-quality care. Like there's an ex there's a reason that people have spent decades of research creating these therapy methods that really do work and they've done research on them. Uh, like, for example, emotionally focused therapy, EFT, it's got a 90% success rate in improving relationships. And I believe that if those methods exist, we should use them. People have worked hard to create them, they've done like rigorous scientific study on them. Um, the training programs are rigorous and advanced. And so that is my goal with the practice. That is what I have done, is I've brought on people who have advanced training in those methods or that get advanced training after coming to the team. Um, and I consult with them regularly. Um, so that's what sets us apart is you know that you're coming and you're getting those high-quality methods that come from decades of research.
SPEAKER_02:Dr. Tasha, what are the best ways for people to find you online? Uh, your website, social media, uh, what do they put in the search bar and a phone number if you give that out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, our um our phone number is 970-33590. Um, our website is www.marriage counselingfortcollins.com. Um and email, our email is a little bit long and clunky, but it's heart of the matter at marriage counselingfortcollins.com. Our website is marriage counselingfortcollins.com, but our business is called Heart of the Matter Therapy, so that's why that might um be confusing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Dr. Tasha, I I really appreciate you being on our show, and we definitely wish you and Marriage Counseling Fort Collins the very best moving forward.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. I hope the same for you and your podcast, and what a fun thing that you're doing for local businesses.
SPEAKER_00:This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollins.com. That's gnpfortcollins.com or call 970.