Strengthen your relationship with productive communication.

Couples’ counselling is a type of psychotherapy for couples to understand their problems and resolve them effectively.

Speaking to a licensed counsellor or psychotherapist can provide a safe space to improve your communication and rebuild your emotional connection. 

The ultimate aim is to correct your collective problem-solving abilities and work together as a team successfully.

Couple having a chat

Work with our certified psychotherapists to improve your relationship through productive communication today.

How Couples Counselling Can Help

Speaking to a psychotherapist can help you understand the issues in your relationship better and see things from a different perspective.

Here are some ways in which couples counselling may help:

  • Highlighting and comprehending issues
  • Identifying reasons for conflict
  • Learning how to better work through existing issues and conflicts
  • Exploring your strengths and weaknesses that could strengthen your marriage
  • Communicating and reconnecting with each other
  • Improving communication skills to better understand each other
  • Rebuilding trust and acceptance
  • Increasing mutual support
  • Strengthening physical and emotional intimacy
  • Highlighting and comprehending issues
  • Identifying reasons for conflict
  • Learning how to better work through existing issues and conflicts
  • Exploring your strengths and weaknesses that could strengthen your marriage
  • Communicating and reconnecting with each other
  • Improving communication skills to better understand each other
  • Rebuilding trust and acceptance
  • Increasing mutual support
  • Strengthening physical and emotional intimacy

When Might a Couple Seek Couples Counselling?

There are certain situations when a couple may want to seek couples counselling. This may occur at the start or after getting into a relationship.

Just Starting a Relationship

  • Align core values and beliefs
  • Understand each other’s expectations and lifestyle habits
  • Recognise love languages

After Getting Into a Relationship

  • Work through issues and reasons for conflict
  • Improve communication skills to communicate more effectively and productively
  • Discover each other’s strengths and embrace weaknesses

Just Starting a Relationship

  • Align core values and beliefs
  • Understand each other’s expectations and lifestyle habits
  • Recognise love languages

After Getting Into a Relationship

  • Work through issues and reasons for conflict
  • Improve communication skills to communicate more effectively and productively
  • Discover each other’s strengths and embrace weaknesses

Navigate through the challenges with a psychotherapist to strengthen your relationship with your partner.

Signs That A Couple Needs Counselling

If you recognise any of the signs listed below, you may want to consider couples counselling to improve your relationship.

1. Negative Communication and Frequent Arguments

A sign of serious breakdown in communication is when almost every conversation results in an argument. This form of negative interaction hinders the possibility of any genuine connection. Thus, it would help if a psychotherapist comes in to facilitate the conversation.

2. Having The Same Argument Repeatedly

If you find that you and your partner are having the same argument again and again, there’s a possibility that it stems from emotional baggage, core values or personality.

Other reasons may be solvable with awareness and compromise from both ends. In such cases, seeking a counsellor would help you identify issues that can be solved and hone the necessary skills to do so.

3. Lying or Keeping Secrets

In a relationship, there should be total honesty to promote a healthy partnership. When couples lie to each other or keep secrets about important things, it suggests that

  • you are doing something that you should not be doing,
  • you do not trust your partner with certain information, or
  • you do not care to share things with them.

4. Unfaithfulness and Infidelity

Infidelity is a violation of an established emotional and/or physical exclusivity within a couple. This leads to feelings of anger, jealousy and betrayal, which creates a challenging obstacle to get over.

This is when a counsellor would aid couples in questioning the reason for one’s unfaithfulness. From there, the root of the issue can be identified and solutions can be proposed.

5. Lack of Physical Intimacy

It’s normal for the level of intimacy to differ from the first few years of the relationship. However, if there’s a lack of intimacy between you and your partner or if you do not care that you are not intimate, it may help to seek a counsellor.

6. Disinterest

If you notice that you or your partner are no longer interested in fighting or arguing, this indicates that you no longer care enough and counselling might be necessary.

Some signs include:

  • Looking past any problems rather than expressing your thoughts
  • Lack of desire to spend time with each other
  • Not caring about where your partner is or what they are doing
  • Not caring when your partner is upset
  • Not caring if your sex life is suffering
  • Going about your daily lives separately
  • Lack of interest in your partner’s life

Approaches Used During Couples Counselling at Sofia Wellness Clinic

At Sofia Wellness Clinic, our psychotherapists use research-backed approaches to facilitate our 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 15-30 minutes to complete. 

Thus far, this approach has strengthened over 4 million relationships.

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 counsellors.

Sophia Goh

M.A. in Counselling and Guidance, Singapore

Sophia Goh - principal counsellor of Sofia Wellness Clinic

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
• Level 2 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy

Claire Leong

M.A. in Counselling, Australia

Claire Leong - counsellor of Sofia Wellness Clinic

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
• Prepare/Enrich Certified Facilitator

Counselling Fees in Singapore

Our counselling sessions can be held in person at our office or online for your convenience. Fees are as listed below.

ConsultationDurationSenior CounsellorCounsellor
Initial session75min$300$280
Subsequent sessions75min$300$280
Out-of-session phone call or emailPer 10min blocks$35$35

Why Choose Sofia Wellness Clinic for Couples Counselling?

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

How to prepare for the first couples counselling 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 counselling 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.

Couples Counselling in Singapore

Embark on a journey to learn more about you and your partner through our couples counselling sessions. Chat with one of our psychotherapists to take charge of your relationship today!

Sophia Goh Profile Photo
Written by Sophia Goh, Senior Counsellor at Sofia Wellness Clinic

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