Less miscommunication, more understanding.

I’m Bethany Bedford, M.S., MFT-C, a psychotherapist, relational specialist, and founder of Modern Relationship Therapy.

With a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northwestern University and extensive training in evidence-based, systemic therapy, I don’t see people as problems to fix. I see people in the context of their lives, and how they’re shaped by relationships, culture, history, nervous systems, and the environments they’ve learned to navigate.

I help people reshape and relearn to create a culture of understanding for themselves and within their relationships.

The therapy I offer is active, never passive. We will work in tandem, collaboratively creating a deeply personalized therapy experience that is far from the standard “tell me how that makes you feel” approach you see echoed in pop culture.

In our sessions, we address root emotional patterns while also helping with new skills and behaviors in the here and now, in tandem to move towards secure, resilient, and fulfilling relationships.

It takes thoughtful conversation, practical tools, and meaningful exploration through an involved systemic and integrative therapy approach to create change that feels long-lasting and sustainable.

This means we’re not just understanding your patterns — we’re actively changing them.

Who I Work With

I support:

Individuals who feel overwhelmed, stretched thin, and burned out.
Couples and partners at any stage who are rebuilding trust, navigating transitions, deepening intimacy, or strengthening secure connection after infidelity or relational apathy.
Adult families and chosen families who are seeking healing, clarity, or new relational patterns.
Professional partners and collaborators working through boundaries, communication, organizational growth, and shared leadership.

How Therapy Works

Reach Out

Fill out the contact form or send an email. Share your experience and what you hope to change. Pressure-free and supportive.

Complimentary Consultation

We schedule a brief call to discuss your goals and answer questions. You’ll know if we’re a good fit before moving forward.

Begin the Work

Once it feels like a good fit, we start sessions focused on reshaping communication and building sustainable, meaningful relational patterns

Book Your Complimentary Consultation

Additional Questions? Reach out!

if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation.

✳︎

if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation.

✳︎

if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation.

✳︎

if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation. ✳︎ if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation. ✳︎ if you’re ready to take your first step schedule your complimentary 20-minute consultation. ✳︎

My Approach

My practice is affirming to the LGBTQIA+ community, and to individuals across a myriad of political and socio-economic backgrounds.

No matter who finds themselves on my couch, our work together is rooted in respect, cultural humility, and genuine curiosity. I believe the stories, identities, values, and lived experiences of all of my clients matter, and I create a space where no one has to perform, defend, or prove themselves.

This is a space where you don’t have to perform, defend, or prove yourself; it’s a space where you feel welcome and supported for long-term growth from exactly where you are. It’s a space to understand, grow, and build relationships with yourself and others that feel steady, authentic, and aligned.

Models & Theory Focus

Explores how early relationships shape connection and emotional patterns.
Focuses on family systems and Intergenerational patterns.
Strengthens emotional bonds and improves connection.
Looks at roles, boundaries, and family structure.
Combines multiple approaches to understand complex systems.
Explores inner emotional “parts” and self-awareness.
Helps reshape personal stories and meaning.
Focuses on fairness, trust, and relational ethics.
Research-based approach for communication and trust.
Focuses on solutions instead of problems.
Explores early relational experiences and emotional patterns.
Connects brain science with relationships.
Considers cultural and social influences on relationships.
Explores unconscious patterns and past experiences.
Therapist and client work together as partners.
Supports healthy, open conversations about intimacy and sexuality.

What our clients are saying

This is the first time I have felt truly understood by a therapist.
Therapy with Bethany feels like a deeply personalized experience, and has led to actual meaningful change.
I was always used to a therapist just sitting and nodding — Bethany showed up to every session in an active way that helped us to actually change.
The fights that used to tear us apart now are the times where we feel the closest.
Bethany makes attachment styles and neuroscience feel easy, make sense, and feel super applicable to everyday life.
We walked away with knowledge and tools that we can actually use, and we would actually get excited to come to therapy to learn more.

Not sure where to start?

Take a short, guided quiz to better understand your relationship patterns and get personalized recommendations.

Attachment Style Quiz

Discover your relational patterns

Attachment styles are shaped over time through our early experiences and the ways we learned to adapt to connection.

This quiz is designed to help you better understand these patterns.
It draws from attachment research to explore how you tend to relate to others, how you respond to intimacy and distance, and what might be happening beneath the surface in your relationships.

This quiz is designed to help you understand patterns in how you experience closeness, independence, and emotional safety in relationships.

It is grounded in attachment science, including foundational work by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, as well as adult attachment research by Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver.

Please Read This quiz is for educational and self-reflection purposes only.
It is not therapy, a diagnosis, or a clinical assessment. While it draws from validated frameworks such as the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, it is not itself a validated instrument.
Attachment styles exist on a spectrum. Your results reflect tendencies, not fixed categories.

Your Journey 1 of 22

Reflecting on your responses…

Summary

A Note to Hold

There is no one attachment style that is "better" than another. These patterns are ways you learned to adapt in early life in order to feel safe, connected, or protected.

They may still be shaping how you move through your life, relationships, your work, and even how you see yourself — but they are not fixed.

Therapy can help you rewire your nervous system to learn new experiences of safety and connection, and your brain can absolutely form new patterns over time. These patterns were learned, and they can be reshaped. With awareness and support, it is possible to move toward a more secure way of relating.