Couples Counselling
Couples & Relationship Therapy
Relationship counselling can assist you to gain insight into your present difficulties and provide you with the tools and foundation to manage the challenges ahead. Individual relationship counselling is also available and can help you understand why and how difficulties are arising and to develop skills that will assist them to foster a healthy and satisfying relationship. Our passion is to help individuals address relationship difficulties so that they can have a more joyful, fulfilling and healthy relationships which can increase their overall satisfaction in life.
Healthy relationships involve work, commitment and willingness to understand your partner
Our therapists will help you understand feelings and common conflicts, and help couples regain control of their relationships.
Positive, healthy and fulfilling relationships form the basis for a happy life. While our relationships can provide the deepest source of satisfaction and happiness, they can also result in anger, frustration, hurt and disappointment. When individuals are experiencing difficulties in their relationship, it makes life hard and significantly impacts on every facet of life, especially work! A neutral, safe space for the couple to discuss their concerns openly and respectfully
What to Expect
In sessions we delve into each partner’s personal history and relationship dynamics, aiming to uncover unconscious conflicts and motivations that shape present behaviours. By exploring transference, countertransference, and family-of-origin issues, we help couples understand recurring patterns and communication styles. Our therapists offer interpretations and support emotional expression, creating a safe space for couples to work through resistance and foster deeper insight and resolution. Ultimately, our goal is to facilitate healthier ways of relating, enhancing intimacy, communication, and satisfaction in relationships
At COPE CENTRE, we create
A neutral, safe space for the couple to discuss their concerns openly and respectfully
Couples therapy offers a vital lifeline to couples on the brink of relationship dissolution. Through guided exploration of underlying issues, improved communication, and the development of healthier relational patterns, therapy can help couples navigate challenges, strengthen their bond, and reignite intimacy. By addressing root causes of conflict and fostering mutual understanding, couples therapy provides the tools necessary to transform strained relationships and prevent their untimely demise.
DipCouns | BA Psych & Counselling
Deborah aims to aid clients in their understanding of each other, increase capacity for positive communication within the relationship and help facilitate open dialogue enabling couples to reconnect.
Prices: Face to face consult $165
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Couple counselling Q&A
By providing tools and strategies on how to communicate more positively, noticing negative and positive patterns of behaviour, including intergenerational influences, exploring expectations and learning about physiological responses and reactions, and where they come from.
Often in relationships, there is a feeling of not being heard or validated, due to differing opinions /values. Conflict usually occurs due to unresolved issues and/or an inability to get past a negative cycle that becomes ingrained over time. Being able to listen, validate, and communicate effectively is important for emotional safety. Recognising patterns of behaviour and intergenerational influences that we carry within, and physiological responses also play a key role in our behaviours and reactions within relationships. When conflict occurs, it can be used as a time for learning and growth within the relationship.
To attend booked appointments and be willing to learn about yourselves as individuals as well as a couple. Couples counselling can be difficult but rewarding if clients are willing to use the tools and skills provided in the sessions. I ask couples to try to be open to new possibilities because changing habits and behaviours be hard, and to allow us to work together as a team to find solutions.
We have a counselling room that we use with the door closed and this is your safe space to be heard without bias. Session notes are kept confidential within the organisation on our computer system with limited access. Sometimes cases are discussed within supervision sessions to provide clients with more help from a different perspective but there is no identification used in this process to ensure confidentiality.
If notes are subpoenaed by the courts, then they must be given.
The length of the counselling process varies from couple to couple depending on willingness to use the help provided, the difficulty of the issues that brough them to the counselling room, and how quickly new skills and learnings are integrated into everyday life. Initially sessions will be weekly or fortnightly and then reduced as and when clients and therapist agree depending on progress and need.
I do use some of the Gottman method in my counselling sessions and information regarding this can be found on the internet, but I also use psychoeducation. Understanding our behaviours, where they come from and how they impact us and others, aid in creating more effective communications with each other.
I provide tools to learn new skills such as active listening, validation, effective communication and also information on the responses in the body before, during and after confrontation and the push-pull in relationships.
I encounter a lot of resistance in counselling, which usually stems from fear of the unknown even though it may be subconscious or unconscious. Time will usually be spent exploring each other’s fears or why the person is angry as it sometimes manifests as anger or frustration.
Trust, intimacy and emotional connection are all intertwined to behaviours and communication. Once behaviours and communication are improved, trust usually increases which brings about more intimacy and emotional connection. This is of course simplified, and the process can be challenging. If issues persist and are of a sexual nature, a sexologist may be the next step on your journey of rediscovering each other.
If the session is cancelled before 48 hours, then the will be no fee to pay. Session cancellation that falls within the 48 hours timeframe will be charged full price as the slot is difficult to fill due to the short notice. Missed sessions/no shows will be charged full price due to the short notice.
Couples counselling is a joint venture between the therapist and clients. It is about working together to address issues, find compromise and set individual and couple goals. Collaboration, supporting each other and working from a positive perspective is encouraged and skills are provided to do this.
The key is to be aware of the many differences of individuals in the therapeutic process. If I am unsure, I ask the clients and explain that I am also learning from them, and that our lives are a continuous learning curve. I am a client lead therapist and I go where the client wants me to go in session. Because my sessions are not structured, it allows for flexibility and adaptation to work toward the client’s needs, incorporating culture, religion and diversity in to the sessions.