Couples Therapy in Ottawa
Relationships are intricate, and modern life - with its constant demands - can strain even the strongest bonds. Whether you’re grappling with resentment over household responsibilities, fraught communication, a decline in emotional or physical intimacy, or the stress of balancing family and work, couples therapy can help you rediscover connection and create meaningful, lasting change.
What Do You Do in Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy is a collaborative process designed to support you and your partner to navigate the challenges of your relationship with greater skillfulness. At our west Ottawa centre, we help couples of all types—whether you're in a long-term marriage or a newer partnership—to understand your patterns of communication, address underlying issues, and rebuild emotional trust and meaningful connection.
Ignore what TV depicts - marriage or couples counselling is not supervised arguing. Therapists are not there as referees or judges - they are guides to help you understand yourselves and your patterns as two individuals choosing to be in partnership. Couples therapy can foster a deeper understanding of each other, empathy and compassion for yourself and partner, and strengthen the foundation of your relationship by helping you overcome unhelpful patterns. While every couple has unique needs and backgrounds, therapy works on issues related to communication, intimacy, agreements, and navigating major life transitions. Therapy offers the space for both partners to express themselves and work toward shared goals with the support of a professional who will be both cheerleader and counsellor for your marriage or partnership.
Is couples therapy necessary even if we love each other and we’re (mostly) content?
Does that mean my marriage is beyond hope?
In a 2023 study on relational well-being, over 40% of Canadian couples in committed relationships reported experiencing chronic dissatisfaction due to communication breakdowns, division of household labor, and emotional disconnection. No one comes to this process because of a lack of love or effort. It’s really not about that - the speed at which modern life moves and the upbringing/education we receive do not provide the wisdom and experiential learning we need to do emotional intimacy well. (Please write this down somewhere and refer back to it often!)
Yes, many couples come to therapy to address immediate concerns with longer histories, like family conflict or a lack of intimacy. However, couples therapy is also a valuable preventative tool for partners looking to strengthen their bond before issues escalate. You and your partner developed your habits of communication and intimacy in a past relationship era - your life has changed and the demands on you have changed. But no matter where you are in your partnership, research shows that couples who engage in therapy early on are more likely to sustain long-term relationship satisfaction, and therapy helps more than 70% of couples achieve their goals.
How Couples Therapy Works and Who It Can Help
Often, conflict or dissatisfaction arises from communication breakdowns, misaligned expectations, or unspoken emotional needs. We begin by getting to know you as an individual and understanding how you experience your relationship. Couples therapy then focuses on helping you and your partner understand the dynamics that shape your relationship, the patterns that can magnify hurt or avoidance, and support you to overcome them by approaching communication compassionately and collaboratively. In therapy, you will learn tools and strategies tailored to your needs to support emotional processing, rebuild trust, and foster emotional intimacy.
Sessions may focus on:
- Improving Communication: Learn to express yourself clearly and listen with empathy. Couples therapy offers strategies that set you and your partner up for successfully navigating difficult conversations, resolving misunderstandings, and moving past surface-level conflicts.
- Creating Agreements and Addressing Conflict: Every relationship experiences conflict or ruptures, whether it’s voiced or not. Couples therapy teaches you how to approach disagreements with less blame or avoidance and move forward with clear agreements.
- Rebuilding Trust and Intimacy: Whether you're experiencing a disconnection in your sex life or struggling with emotional intimacy, therapy can help you reconnect. Couples counselling offers space to explore intimacy in all its forms.
- Navigating Transitions: Life events - having children, job changes, shifting family responsibilities - can create strain in any marriage or partnership. Therapy supports couples to collaborate on a new strategy for the era you’re in.
Do both partners attend every couples therapy session?
Our therapists have different toolkits and each couple is different, so the process is one you agree on with your therapist. (How the process works is a great question during your free consultation.) Typically, your therapist meets with you and your partner separately (at least once) before working together. Some clients choose to do their individual sessions virtually or in person, and some couples only meet with their therapist for virtual sessions or in person - how you meet is up to you and your therapist.
What types of couples does each therapist work with?
At The Wren Centre, we offer couples therapy to partners of all backgrounds and relationship structures. We specialize in working with:
Couples balancing the demands of parenting and work
High-performing individuals dealing with work-related stress
Couples who became parents through adoption
Partners raising children with high needs or teenagers
Couples where one or both partners have experienced trauma (including CPTSD and PTSD)
Military families and veterans
LGBTQ2IA+ couples
Couples navigating polyamory or consensual non-monogamy
Our inclusive, affirming approach ensures that all partners feel safe and supported, no matter their situation. (Feel free to book a Therapist Matching Consultation to find out which of our couples therapists could be best for you.)
How our therapists can help
We’ve worked with couples at various stages from those just starting out to those navigating long-term partnership struggles. Our therapists are trained in a variety of therapeutic modalities, including Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and attachment theory. We know that no two couples are the same, so we tailor our approach to the needs of your relationship or marriage..
Explore our resources for couples
Next Steps
If you’re ready to start couples therapy and strengthen your relationship, we invite you to book a free consultation with one of our experienced therapists.
Thriving adult partnerships are built on a foundation of shared emotional investment, clearly communicated agreements, and cultivating rewarding experiences alongside skills for the tougher stuff. In this post, I’m “cutting to the chase” and cruising past my couples therapy philosophy to share two practical strategies specifically designed to strengthen your partnership.