Strengthen your relationship with productive communication.
Couples’ counselling is a type of psychotherapy for couples to understand their problems and resolve them effectively.
Strong, fulfilling relationships are essential for our overall well-being as they provide love, comfort, and pleasure. However, conflict is unavoidable as communication breakdowns, finances, stress or even infidelity may arise.
Couples therapy equips couples with the tools they need to understand and navigate their problems.
A licensed counsellor or psychotherapist provides a safe space for couples to improve communication, rebuild emotional connection, and develop effective problem-solving skills. The ultimate goal is to work together as a team and create a stronger, more fulfilling relationship.
Work with our certified psychotherapists to improve your relationship through productive communication today.
How Couples Therapy Can Help
Couples therapy offers a safe and guided space for partners to better understand each other, resolve conflicts, and strengthen their relationship. Whether you’re just starting out or have been together for years, therapy can help you navigate challenges and deepen your connection.
Here are some ways in which couples therapy may help:
- Improve Communication: Learn to express your needs and listen actively to one another, reducing misunderstanding and unproductive arguments
- Resolves Conflicts Constructively: Identify the root causes of disagreements and develop healthier ways to resolve them
- Builds Emotional & Physical Intimacy: Reconnect with your partner and rekindle closeness, both emotionally and physically
- Fosters Mutual Understanding: Recognise each other’s love language, strengths and areas for growth to create a more supportive bond
- Restores Trust & Reconnection: Address issues like dishonesty or infidelity with openness and accountability to rebuild trust
- Strengthen Long-Term Compatibility: Align core values, expectations, and lifestyle habits, especially helpful when you’re at the start of your relationship or before marriage
Types of Relationship Counselling
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy helps partners better understand each other, navigate conflicts, and build a stronger, healthier relationship. It’s suitable for couples at any stage, dating, cohabiting, or married, and can address issues like communication breakdowns, recurring arguments, or emotional disconnection.
Pre-Marriage Counselling
Pre-marriage counselling supports couples who are engaged or planning to get married. It focuses on aligning values, expectations, and lifestyle choices, while equipping partners with essential skills in communication, conflict resolution, and emotional support to build a strong foundation for marriage.
Marriage Counselling
Marriage counselling helps married couples strengthen their bond, address ongoing challenges, or reconnect emotionally and physically. It can be especially helpful during major life transitions, after betrayals, or when couples feel they’ve grown apart and want to rebuild their partnership.
Discernment Counselling
Discernment counselling is designed for couples who are uncertain about the future of their relationship, particularly when one partner is considering separation or divorce. It helps both individuals explore their feelings and options in a structured, short-term setting, offering clarity on whether to work on the relationship or part ways amicably.
Infidelity Counselling
Infidelity counselling provides a safe space to process betrayal, rebuild trust, and decide the future of your relationship with clarity and care.
Divorce Counselling
Divorce counselling offers support and guidance to help you process emotions, manage changes, and move forward with resilience during and after separation.
Our Couples Counsellors
Our counsellors are equipped with a Masters degree in counselling and they are each trained in different approaches to cater to different client profiles. Learn more about our couples therapists.
Sophia Goh
M.A. in Counselling and Guidance, Singapore
Sophia centres her practice around the basis of positive psychology. She strives to aid couples in rebuilding their relationship by bringing out the best in them.
Credentials
- Externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy
- Level 2 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Claire Leong
M.A. in Counselling, Australia
Claire believes that one can only thrive in all aspects of life when they are healthy. She seeks to help couples understand themselves better and to tap on their strengths.
Credentials
- Externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy
- Prepare/Enrich Certified Facilitator
Couples Therapy Fees in Singapore
Our couples counselling sessions can be held in person at our office or online for your convenience. Fees are as listed below:
| Consultation | Duration | Senior Counsellor | Counsellor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial session | 75min | $300 | $280 |
| Subsequent sessions | 75min | $280 | $250 |
| Out-of-session phone call or email | Per 10min blocks | $35 | $35 |
Approaches Used During Couples Therapy at Sofia Wellness Clinic
At Sofia Wellness Clinic, our psychotherapists use research-backed approaches to facilitate our couples counselling sessions. Here are some of the approaches we use for couples counselling.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
The objective of the Gottman Method is to
- disable contradictory verbal communication,
- improve mutual respect and affection,
- eliminate challenges that result in stagnancy, and
- elevate sense of empathy and understanding.
How it works:
The first session would involve understanding the couple, the history of the relationship and family background and influences. Next, individual sessions with each partner will be conducted.
Subsequently, the counsellor will provide feedback to the couple, lay out their strengths and weaknesses and propose an intervention plan.
Prepare/Enrich
Prepare/Enrich is an evidence-based, customised online assessment for couples to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. It requires the couple to complete the assessment prior to the first therapy session, which will generate a report.
How it works:
The first session involves setting goals and expectations and picking up communication skills to be actively practised during and outside of sessions.
Thereafter, based on the generated report, activity books with 24 exercises will be provided and assigned as homework or completed in the session together. Each activity takes 15 to 30 minutes to complete.
Thus far, this approach has strengthened over 4 million relationships.
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is a structured approach that is formulated to help couples manage conflicts. The key objectives are to:
- Help couples restructure their emotional response
- Unlearn habits that are detrimental to the relationship
- Identify negative patterns between couples
- Replace blame with empathy and compassion
- Improve interpersonal understanding
How it works:
During the first session, the couple will start with meeting the counsellor together, followed by individually. This helps the counsellor understand their relationship dynamics.
Next, the counsellor will then guide the couple through focused conversations, helping them uncover deeper issues and underlying feelings. This process can reveal the reasons behind certain behaviours, allowing couples to empathise with each other.
Why Choose Sofia Wellness Clinic for Couples Therapy?
9 Years of Accumulated Experience
Together, our psychotherapists have had 9 years of accumulated experience. We’ve observed various relationship dynamics and issues and effectively assisted to manage our clients’ unique challenges in marriage.
Commitment to Excellence
As part of our core values, we aim to deliver excellence in our work. We are committed to upgrading ourselves through professional learning and development. Additionally, we seek to offer tailored advice to our clients.
FAQs About Couples Counselling
When should couples consider going for therapy?
Couples therapy can be helpful at various stages of a relationship, whether you’re just starting out or have been together for a while.
For new couples, therapy can provide a safe space to align core values and beliefs, understand each other’s expectations and lifestyle habits, and learn to recognise and appreciate one another’s love languages.
For those already in a relationship, therapy may be useful in working through recurring issues or conflicts, improving communication skills to engage more effectively, and discovering each other’s strengths while learning to embrace weaknesses.
How to prepare for the first couples therapy session?
Generally, during the first session, the psychotherapist will understand the couple, find out about the history of the relationship and family background and influences. Before the session, it would be helpful to think about the goals of attending therapy, i.e. what you would like to see out of the sessions.
Do note that the process may vary for different couples as your therapist will propose an approach that best suits your goals and dynamics. Thus, the preparation for the first session may vary. For example, Prepare/Enrich programs would require couples to complete an online assessment beforehand.
Does couples therapy really help relationships?
Couples counselling can help to bring about positive change in your relationship. It is more likely to work if the couple recognises that there is something to work on and is committed to putting in effort even outside of therapy sessions.
What is the success rate of couples counselling?
Sophia, Founder of Sofia Wellness Clinic, says:
It depends on how you define success! “Success” is usually determined by whether a couple stays together after going for counselling. But I feel that sometimes success is also helping unhappy couples get out of the relationship successfully, or just simply having a second conversation that is better than the first.
What is the difference between couples or marriage counselling and relationship counselling?
Relationship counselling involves individual sessions addressing relationship issues. Examples include difficulties sustaining a romantic relationship, finding a partner or making a decision to stay or leave in a relationship.
On the other hand, couples and marriage counselling involves joint sessions for both partners to attend and work through issues together.
What if my partner does not wish to attend couples therapy with me?
Handling a situation where your partner is unwilling to attend couples therapy can be challenging, here are some steps you can take:
Calm communication: Approach your partner in a non-confrontational manner and express your feelings about the importance of therapy and how it could benefit both of you.
Seek understanding: There may be underlying concerns or fears holding your partner back from seeking counselling. Try to encourage open communication to find common ground.
Individual counselling: If your partner remains resistant, consider seeking individual counselling. This can offer you support, guidance, and tools to navigate your emotions and relationship challenges. As your partner witnesses the positive changes in your interactions, they may feel inspired to join therapy with you.
What are some signs that a couple might need counselling?
It’s not always easy to know when to seek relationship help, but certain signs may indicate that couples counselling could be beneficial. Here are some common indicators:
- Negative Communication and Frequent Arguments
- Having The Same Argument Repeatedly
- Lying or Keeping Secrets
- Unfaithfulness and Infidelity
- Lack of Physical or Emotional Intimacy
- Emotional Disengagement