Frequently Asked Questions | Sound Life Counseling

Do you take insurance?

Sound Life Counseling is a private-pay practice with an equitable scale for services. I don't bill insurance directly, but in some situations can provide a superbill after each session so you can seek out-of-network reimbursement if your plan offers it. Many clients find this arrangement gives us more room to work at the depth and pace the relationship actually needs, without a diagnosis or session limit driving the process.

What is a relationship intensive, and how is it different from weekly sessions?

An intensive is extended, focused time together — a half-day or multi-day container instead of a weekly hour — built for couples and partnerships who feel stuck in entrenched patterns, disconnection, or the aftermath of a rupture. We slow down enough to really focus on deepening connection and repair with the parts driving and impacted by the conflict, rather than managing it week to week. Intensives run as 1-Day (3 hours, $1,000), 2-Day (3 hours/day, $2,000), or 3-Day (3 hours/day, $3,000), and every tier includes an intake — a 30-minute conjoint session plus two 45-minute individual sessions — and a follow-up integration session two weeks later. The 2-Day and 3-Day intensives also include a 1-hour IFS-based and somatic preparation session before we begin, and a second integration session after.

What is IFS (Internal Family Systems), and how does it help couples?

IFS is a compassionate, parts-based way of understanding why we do what we do in relationship — the idea that we all carry different "parts" that step in to protect us, often at the cost of the connection we actually want. A part that shuts down during conflict, a part that pursues and pushes, a part that keeps score — none of these are flaws to fix. They're protectors doing their job. When those parts feel safe enough to soften, something shifts. Emotional intimacy grows when protection no longer has to work so hard.

Do you work with neurodivergent or mixed-neurotype couples?

Yes. Many of the couples I work with are navigating a mixed-neurotype relationship — one or both partners might have been formally diagnosed autistic, ADHD or otherwise identify as neurodivergent — and the communication and connection patterns that come with it. Care here isn't about making either partner more "normal." It's about understanding the natural gifts of your wiring and how your parts can build a deeper connection together that works with that instead of against it.

Do you offer virtual counseling, and where are you licensed?

All of my work is offered virtually, with expansion of in-person services planned for Switzerland in 2027. I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas, so I can work with individuals and couples living in any of those states. I also work with expats and couples navigating international relocation — including clients in Switzerland, where I offer psychosocial counseling — and with couples who've relocated within the U.S. and are rebuilding a sense of home together. My background and work with IFS has led me away from pathologizing labels and the constraints of traditional healthcare models, and instead offers care tailored to the whole human experience and our relationships with systems inside and out.

We keep having the same fight, over and over — can counseling actually help with that?

That repeating fight is almost never really about the dishes, being "on the phone again," or whatever sparked it this time. It's usually two protective parts locking horns — one pursuing, one retreating, or some other well-worn pattern that both of you learned a long time ago, for good reason. Rather than teaching another communication script, we go underneath the argument to what each part is actually protecting, so the pattern has room to change instead of just repeating.

Are you licensed? What's your background?

I'm Christina Gerteis, LPC, LAC, NCC, MAC, and Level 2 IFS and EMDR Certified. I'm a US Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas, a Licensed Addiction Counselor in Colorado, and a National Certified Counselor and Master Addiction Counselor. I hold an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacific University and a B.A. in Psychology from Louisiana Tech University, and I founded Sound Life Counseling in 2016. With decades of community-based, residential, and outpatient experience, I started the first 10 years of my journey in non-profits serving children and adolescents at the intersection of challenging family, social service, and justice system experiences. Before bringing my focus and passion to couples work, I spent another decade at UCHealth's Mountain Crest Behavioral Health Hospital, supporting families with grief, trauma, chronic pain and illness, and addiction, and supervising other clinicians — and I have volunteered actively, providing pro bono EMDR for those impacted by natural disasters and community crisis events, with the Northern Colorado and Louisiana Trauma Recovery Network since 2019.

Do you work with non-monogamous, queer, or spiritually diverse couples?

Yes — Sound Life Counseling is Poly/ENM/CNM conscious, queer allied, and spiritually open. Whatever shape your relationship takes, the path of relational work is clear: helping the parts that feel stuck and hopeless find enough safety to soften is the direction that helps.