Hi, I'm Jonathan Edwards, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Associate
If you've found your way here, something in your life or your relationships probably isn't working the way you want it to. Maybe you're stuck in the same argument, trying to rebuild trust, or just carrying more than you can keep carrying alone. I work with couples, families, and individuals who are tired of the same patterns and want something to actually change. You don't have to have everything figured out before you begin.
Why I became a therapist
Before I became a therapist, I spent years working with people in other helping professions: as a schoolteacher, a missionary, and for many years in ministry. Those years gave me a front-row seat to how complicated people are, and to how much of what hurts us happens in relationships. I watched families carry things for decades. I watched couples who loved each other and couldn't reach each other. I watched people change, slowly, once someone finally took them seriously. Becoming a therapist let me bring all of that together with formal clinical training, and I chose Marriage and Family Therapy specifically because it looks past one person's problem to the patterns between people. That's the work I still care most about.
Why relationships are the work
Relationships are where most of us get hurt. They're also where most of us heal. That's not a slogan. It's the reason I do this work.
Couples and families come to me because they're stuck in a pattern they can't see from the inside. One person pushes, the other pulls away. Someone brings up the problem for the hundredth time. Someone shuts down. Everybody walks away lonelier than they started.
What I love about this work is that those patterns are changeable. Not by deciding who's right and who's wrong, but by slowing things down enough to understand what's actually happening between you. When that happens, when two people finally hear each other, you can almost watch something shift in the room.
Sometimes only one person is in the room. A partner who won't come, a family member who isn't ready, or a pattern that followed you out of your family of origin and into everything since. That work matters just as much. The pattern is still the pattern, even when you're the only one looking at it.
I also know this work personally. I'm a husband and a father. I know what it feels like to be in the middle of a hard season and not have the words for it. That doesn't make me the expert on your relationships. It does mean I won't treat you like a case.
My training & credentials
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate in Texas, practicing under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Kendell, LMFT-S. Here's what that training looks like in practice.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate
Texas License #204892, practicing under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Kendell, LMFT-S, License #203322. I've practiced as an LMFTA since 2022.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
EFT is my primary clinical approach, and the one I've trained in most deeply. It helps us understand the emotional patterns that develop between people, especially the cycles of pursuing, withdrawing, criticizing, and shutting down that leave partners feeling increasingly disconnected.
A systems perspective
Marriage and Family Therapy training means I look at the patterns between people, not just the problem inside one person. It's a lens I bring to individual work as much as to couples and families.
Other approaches I draw from
Depending on what you need, I also use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the Gottman Method, Internal Family Systems, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. Each gives me a different tool for understanding what's happening and what might help.
Prepare/Enrich
This is the assessment I use in premarital counseling. It gives couples a structured way to explore strengths and growth areas before marriage, rather than waiting for problems to surface later.
What people often notice
I don't make promises about outcomes. Every relationship and every timeline is different, but these are the changes clients most often describe as the work takes hold.
Understanding
Fewer conversations that end in the same explosion or the same silence.
Clarity
Being able to say what's actually wrong instead of what's on the surface.
Repair
Fixing things after conflict instead of carrying them into the next week.
Connection
Feeling like partners again instead of opponents.
Outside my office
Outside of therapy, I enjoy running, gardening, and playing softball. Each of those has taught me something I also value in this work: real growth usually takes patience, attention, and time.
I'm a husband and a father. Family life has given me a personal appreciation for the complexity, joy, frustration, and growth that relationships bring.
My professional and personal life has included many years in education, ministry, and community relationships throughout the DFW area. That's given me a long-standing connection to the people and families who make up this community.
