Couples
Every relationship has its ups and downs, but if things continuously feel hard, it might be time to consider the benefits of couples counselling. Couples counselling can help you and your partner improve communication skills, increase emotional and physical intimacy, and strengthen your overall relationship satisfaction. This dynamic treatment can benefit couples of all ages.
Couples counselling sessions are dedicated to both you and your partner's wellness. Your therapist isn't here to take sides - their job is to help you both understand the roles you play in the relationship dynamic. Your therapist will aim to help you cultivate the positive aspects of your relationship and develop a newfound connection with one another.
For couple’s counselling, book with:
Dayirai Kapfunde (virtual only)
Kenneth Guye (virtual only)
Samantha LeBlanc
Signs You and Your Partner May Benefit From Couples Therapy
You feel like you can't resolve issues well: Conflict happens in even the healthiest relationships, but the inability to appropriately address conflict can cause problems between you and your partner. Unresolved conflict may result in poor communication, resentment, and emotional distance. This isn't necessarily one person's fault - communication is tricky, and you simply may not know how to resolve tension effectively. Therapy will help you redefine boundaries and learn healthy strategies for communicating well.
You're reeling from infidelity: Infidelity can be devastating for couples, affecting everything from trust to sexual desire to self-esteem to parenting. Couples counselling can help partners recover from infidelity and rebuild a sense of connection with one another. It gives you both space to process your feelings and assert what you need in the relationship to move forward.
You are struggling with a significant life transition: Marriage, kids, blending families, career changes - these milestones may feel exciting, but they can increase relationship difficulties. Couples counselling helps you identify how these stressors are affecting you.
You're struggling with your mental health: Individual therapy can help address both the internal and external stressors affecting your emotional well-being. However, when these issues affect the relationship, couples counselling offers a safe space to focus on coming together to provide deeper support and connectivity.
You're on the fence about staying together: Maybe you don't know if you want to stay in the relationship anymore. Perhaps you're debating separating or divorcing, but you have concerns about whether that’s what you really want. Maybe you just need to give things a "last chance" to see if there's hope for change. This is where couples counselling comes in. Your counselling sessions can help you move past feelings of stuckness.
You're struggling with parenting: Raising children can be an enormous challenge, particularly if you and your partner don't always see eye-to-eye on everything. Disagreements with parenting can affect everything from your intimacy to the connections you have with your kids. At times, couples counselling may be recommended if your child is in therapy or if you’re all participating in family therapy. This can also be a meaningful way to help co-parent if you have decided to separate.
What Happens During Couples Counselling?
Your couples counsellor will first want to learn more about you and your partner's history together. This is important for establishing your goals for therapy. At the beginning of treatment, you'll spend time talking about what's bringing you to therapy and what you hope to see change in the relationship. Your therapist will also share their own observations about what they think might most be helpful for you both to work on together.
From there, the treatment may focus on the following :
identifying triggers that cause or exacerbate relationship issues
learning new ways to effectively communicate with one another
reestablishing boundaries within the relationship
learning how to come together to navigate life stressors
discovering new ways to strengthen intimacy, joy, and connection
coming together to enhance problem-solving skills in daily life
Each therapeutic process is uniquely its own, as your relationship isn't the same as other people's relationships. But in couples counselling, you'll better understand your own feelings and needs and your partner's feelings and needs. With that, you'll also gain more awareness of what's maintaining your relationship distress, and you'll leave with more action-based skills to move through stuckness.
Couple’s Counselling in Fort McMurray
How to Start Couple’s Counselling
Beginning couples counselling with Boreal Therapy Collective is easy and requires no referral. You can book your initial assessment here.
Understanding Length of Counselling and Treatment
Your first appointment will be 90-minutes long. For all future appointments, you can choose to book for 1 hour or 90-minutes. During your first appointment, the counsellor will ask your partner questions to better understand your areas of struggle. This is known as an assessment. Depending on how much you and your partner share, the assessment phase can last anywhere from one to three appointments. The assessment is critical. It helps you, your partner, and the counsellor understand your shared goals, and it helps your counsellor develop a treatment plan to support you and your partner in achieving these goals.
After the assessment is complete, treatment begins! In the treatment phase, you and your partner will be introduced to a variety of skills to improve communication, strengthen boundaries, and increase emotional intimacy. Most couples will have a therapy session every two weeks, and we recommend this for optimal treatment. Effective couples counselling typically takes somewhere between six to twelve appointments (for some more, others less). Many couples choose to continue therapy once formal treatment is complete. This is referred to as maintenance. Couples that do this typically have an appointment once every six to eight weeks. This is not a requirement and is a matter of personal choice.
Couples Counselling at Boreal Therapy Collective
Where We Are Located
We’re located at 8530 Manning Avenue, Unit 104. You’ll find us in the Service Canada building (on the side of the building that faces the Clearwater River). To check out our space, click here.
Parking is located at the front and back of the building. The front parking lot is closer to us but tends to fill up quickly. There is also an empty dirt lot adjacent to our office that many use for parking. If you park at the back (where Service Canada is located), you can walk around the building to reach our office. To learn more about parking, click here.
Importantly, you do not need to be in town for treatment. We offer in-person and virtual therapy and our therapists are happy to provide whatever option works best for you!
Rates & Benefit Coverage
Initial assessments are billed at a rate of $330.00 for a 90-minute appointment. Follow-up sessions are billed at a rate of $220.00/hour or $330.00/90-minutes (you can choose your preferred appointment length when booking).
Our social workers offer direct billing to 25+ benefit providers. Many benefit providers will cover a portion or the whole amount of your therapy session. With your consent, we will always direct bill your benefit provider first. Please note that our Registered Psychiatric Nurses are typically ineligible for direct billing.
If we are unable to direct bill, you can pay via email money transfer or credit card. You will be given a receipt once payment has been collected. For more information on benefit coverage, click here.
