Certified Gottman Therapist
Licenses:
California LMFT #99008 | Texas LMFT #205614
Dr. Dana McNeil is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of The Relationship Place, a San Diego couples therapy practice specializing in high-acuity relationships, emotional disconnection, conflict repair, and intimacy concerns. She has achieved the highest level of training in the Gottman Method Couples Therapy and is known for her compassionate, direct, and practical approach to helping couples rebuild trust, communication, and closeness.
She is also the founder of Therapy Getaway, a structured couples intensive model designed for couples seeking deep, focused relationship repair. Dana has specialized expertise in midlife marriage challenges, empty nest transitions, and gray divorce, and provides training and professional education for therapists, including work connected to the Gottman Institute.
Her expertise has been featured in national publications including Oprah Daily, Martha Stewart Living, Men’s Health, Bustle, and SELF Magazine.
She is passionate about helping couples move from feeling like roommates to rebuilding emotional and physical connection.
Love maps, according to psychologist and relationship expert Dr. John M. Gottman, are outlines of everything you know about your partner: hobbies, dreams, frustrations, and everything there is to know about them. Gottman says that couples with detailed love maps are most likely to enjoy marital closeness and satisfaction.
In an article by Pure Wow, The Relationship Place Founder, Dr. Dana McNeil, also a Gottman-trained Relationship Therapist, shared her expert insights on it. She laid out interesting points about the matter, one of which is that “the information swap has to be a two-way street.” She believes that reciprocating once a partner shares information about him/her is vital to avoid communication mismatch.
Dr. Dana McNeil also warns that if love mapping isn’t present at the beginning of the relationship, couples might struggle with it later. She explains:
“We project a lot at the beginning. We have endorphins and are not asking difficult questions because we don’t want to be abandoned and we want to stay in the happy place, but we’re not doing the work,”
The article was originally written by Dana Dickey. You can read more of it here.