128: The Intimacy Shift: How One Therapist’s Hardest Lessons Became His Greatest Tools with Dr. Dan Sneider

A Simple Therapy Podcast:

Honest Conversations on Therapy, Mental Health, Healing and Self-Growth.

In this episode of A Simple Therapy Podcast, Sindee Gozansky welcomes Dr. Dan Sneider—EDD, LCSW, couples therapist, educator, and founder of Growth and Gratitude Therapy. With over 15 years of clinical experience and training in emotionally focused therapy and the Gottman method, Dan has created his signature program, the Intimacy Shift, a blueprint for helping couples move from conflict and emotional distance to deeper, lasting connection.

Together, Sindee and Dan explore what it truly means to be a wounded healer—how Dan’s own avoidant attachment style, shaped by childhood emotional abuse, followed him into his marriage, his divorce, and ultimately into his clinical work. Dan opens up about infidelity, the collapse of emotional intimacy, and how those hard-won lessons became the foundation for the tools he now teaches couples every day. Drawing on Gottman research and EFT, Dan shares the skills he uses with his couples alongside the deeper relational work that creates real and lasting change.

This conversation is packed with wisdom for therapists and couples alike—from the power of scheduled check-ins and the 5-to-1 positivity ratio, to navigating blocks in the therapy room, addressing physical intimacy directly, and maintaining a growth mindset when sessions don’t land the way you hoped. Dan reminds us that showing up, even imperfectly, is an act of bravery—and that small steps toward connection matter more than we think.

00:49 – Meet Dr. Dan Sneider

03:18 – The Wounded Healer: Dan’s Origin Story

08:23 – Tools Influenced by His Experience

12:07 – Looking Outside the Relationship

15:53 – The Power of I Language

17:33 – Bridging Emotional and Physical Intimacy

18:47 – Getting Unstuck with EFT

22:45 – Working Through Blocks in the Room

32:12 – Blind Spots Couples Therapists Miss

35:17 – Staying Regulated When It Gets Heated

38:37 – The Growth Mindset Every Therapist Needs

40:30 – Connect With Dan at intimacyshift.com