Travis
Atkinson
Therapy designed to change patterns
About Travis
Travis Atkinson, LCSW
The couples therapist other therapists train with for their most challenging couples.
The couples who reach Travis tend to be physicians, attorneys, founders after an exit, and retirees adjusting to a quieter house. Some have tried therapy before. They can name their attachment styles and quote the last therapist, and the same argument still follows them home. Others are starting for the first time, sure only that something keeps going wrong. Either way, understanding the problem has not been enough to stop it.
Travis learned these models from their creators. He began training with Dr. Jeffrey Young in 1994 and went on to help co-develop Schema Therapy for Couples with him. In 2006 he became a Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist, one of the first in New York City, after eight years training with The Gottman Institute. That same year he began training directly with Dr. Sue Johnson in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples. Together they made the first EFT training video for same-sex couples.
Today he trains the therapists. An Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, he is also a Certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist and Supervisor. He is a co-founder of the International Society of Schema Therapy, which named him an Honorary Lifetime Member in 2020.
The Schema Therapy Training Center, which he founded and directs, draws couples therapists from across Latin America and Europe, including Ukraine, as well as from the U.S. Travis recruits them on purpose. He scales tuition to what a clinician can afford where they practice, so a gifted therapist is not priced out by an exchange rate. Anyone who has quietly funded a scholarship will recognize the instinct.
In sessions, none of this arrives as a lecture. Gottman’s research on conflict, the attachment work of EFT, schema therapy’s map of a pattern’s origins, and experiential methods that help couples change it in the moment work as one approach. Couples feel it as something simpler. The old argument starts, and this time it goes somewhere new.
All sessions are online, from home, the boat, or the apartment in the city. There is no waiting room, and no moment where someone you know from the club looks up from a magazine. Licensed in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, Travis keeps working with couples who split the year. The work goes north with them in May.
Schedule with Travis →
About Travis
Travis Atkinson, LCSW, LICSW
Thirty years of helping capable couples change what keeps repeating.
Most therapists take a workshop in a model and call it expertise. Travis trained with the founders of the models he practices: eight years at The Gottman Institute, three decades with Dr. Jeffrey Young, and direct mentorship with Dr. Sue Johnson.
He holds the highest certifications in all three: Gottman Method Couples Therapist since 2006, Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, and Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor for couples. He co-developed Schema Therapy for Couples with Dr. Jeffrey Young and has trained therapists in it internationally since the early 2000s.
His clients are physicians, attorneys, founders, and executives: capable adults who have usually tried therapy before and found that insight alone did not change the pattern.
Licensed in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, he keeps working with couples who split the year: winter in Fort Lauderdale or Boca, summer in Manhattan, Fairfield County, or Vermont.
Schedule with Travis →Certifications
Thirty years of helping couples change what keeps repeating
Travis Atkinson, LCSW, LICSW, is a couples therapist for people whose lives run between South Florida and the Northeast. He is licensed in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, so a couple who winters in Fort Lauderdale or Boca and summers in Manhattan, Fairfield County, or Vermont keeps the same therapist all year. He is a Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist since 2006, an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, and a Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor for couples. He works with adults and couples by identifying the emotional and relational patterns that keep problems repeating. Rather than staying at the level of insight alone, therapy is active and structured, with attention to what actually shifts behavior, emotional responses, and connection over time.
The work is guided by ongoing feedback, so sessions stay focused and responsive as change begins to take hold in everyday life.
“A bandage approach covers the symptom and hopes it holds. I go far beneath the surface, to where the pattern started, and change it there. That is how change becomes dramatic instead of temporary.”
— Travis Atkinson
When insight alone isn’t enough
Many people come to therapy after already trying approaches like CBT, EFT, or other evidence-based models, yet still feel stuck. While each of these approaches can be effective, no single method addresses every layer of emotional and relational difficulty on its own. Meaningful change depends on clinical judgment. Knowing when to work with emotional experience, when to address long-standing patterns, and when to focus directly on behavior and interaction. My work integrates multiple evidence-based approaches based on what is most relevant at each stage, so therapy stays precise, responsive, and effective.
Why does this approach work?
Six things that make the work different.
When insight alone isn’t enough
Many people arrive after trying CBT, traditional talk therapy, or other evidence-based models and still feeling stuck. No single method addresses every layer of emotional and relational difficulty on its own.
Clinical judgment, not a manual
Meaningful change depends on knowing when to work with emotional experience, when to address long-standing patterns, and when to focus directly on behavior and interaction.
Active and structured
Therapy goes after the pattern itself: where it started, what keeps it running, and what shifts behavior, emotional responses, and connection over time.
The right layer, not a new manual
You already know a good model can still miss the layer where the problem lives. I decide which layer matters now rather than starting over. Nothing you learned before is wasted.
You always know what we’re working on
Couples begin with a four-session assessment, then we agree on priorities and check progress against them. When something important surfaces, we follow it.
Honest about fit, from the first hour
You’ll know within the hour whether the way I work fits you, and I’ll tell you plainly if I think it doesn’t. There’s no commitment beyond that session.
Shaped by leaders in the field
I’ve had the opportunity to train extensively and collaborate closely with leaders who shaped modern psychotherapy, including Jeffrey Young, the founder of Schema Therapy, and Sue Johnson, the developer of Emotionally Focused Therapy. That depth of mentorship shaped how I think clinically and how I guide the work, emphasizing structure, emotional depth, and evidence-based change rather than allegiance to a single model. This background allows me to draw from multiple evidence-based traditions with precision, applying the right interventions at the right time instead of forcing every client or couple into one framework.
Certifications and leadership
- Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist since 2006, with eight years at The Gottman Institute
- Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer in individual and couples schema therapy; co-developer of Schema Therapy for Couples with Dr. Jeffrey Young
- Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor for couples, trained directly with Dr. Sue Johnson
- Honorary Lifetime Member of the International Society of Schema Therapy, awarded in 2020
- Certified Group Psychotherapist
- Founder and Director, Schema Therapy Training Center of New York, training schema therapists internationally since the early 2000s, starting alongside Dr. Jeffrey Young, with cohorts in individual and couples schema therapy that regularly sell out
- Graduate degrees from New York University: MSW in Clinical Social Work and MS in Management
- VP of Media for the Jeffrey Young Schema Therapy Association (JYSTA)
- Author and contributor to leading clinical texts in schema therapy, and co-author of the Schema Mode Inventory
Certifications and leadership
Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist since 2006, with eight years at The Gottman Institute.
Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer in individual and couples schema therapy; co-developer of Schema Therapy for Couples with Dr. Jeffrey Young.
Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor for couples, trained directly with Dr. Sue Johnson.
Honorary Lifetime Member of the International Society of Schema Therapy, awarded in 2020.
Certified Group Psychotherapist.
Founder and Director, Schema Therapy Training Center of New York — training schema therapists internationally since the early 2000s, with cohorts in individual and couples schema therapy that regularly sell out.
Graduate degrees from New York University: MSW in Clinical Social Work and MS in Management.
VP of Media for the Jeffrey Young Schema Therapy Association (JYSTA).
Author and contributor to leading clinical texts in schema therapy, and co-author of the Schema Mode Inventory.
Jeffrey Young, PhD
Founder of Schema Therapy
John Gottman, PhD
Founder of Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Sue Johnson, EdD
Founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy
Daniel Siegel, MD
Founder of Mindsight (Interpersonal Neurobiology)
“Charm and intelligence help less than you’d think. Honesty helps more.”
— Travis Atkinson
Start focused. Move forward with clarity.
Work with an experienced clinician and engage in therapy that is focused, evidence-based, and designed to support meaningful, lasting change.
Start focused. Move forward with clarity.
You do not need a perfect explanation to begin. Bring the pattern you cannot seem to stop repeating, and we will find out in the first session whether this work fits you.
Booking takes a few minutes, followed by a short intake and a confirmation with your secure Zoom link.
Book Your First Session →Arrange a Brief Conversation
About Travis
Travis Atkinson, LCSW, LICSW
Thirty years of helping capable couples change what keeps repeating.
Most therapists take a workshop in a model and call it expertise. Travis trained with the founders of the models he practices: eight years at The Gottman Institute, three decades with Dr. Jeffrey Young, and direct mentorship with Dr. Sue Johnson.
He holds the highest certifications in all three: Gottman Method Couples Therapist since 2006, Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, and Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor for couples. He co-developed Schema Therapy for Couples with Dr. Jeffrey Young and has trained therapists in it internationally since the early 2000s.
His clients are physicians, attorneys, founders, and executives: capable adults who have usually tried therapy before and found that insight alone did not change the pattern.
Licensed in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, he keeps working with couples who split the year: winter in Fort Lauderdale or Boca, summer in Manhattan, Fairfield County, or Vermont.
Schedule with Travis →