Immediate Availability - Open 7 days a week - day, evening and weekend appointments
Immediate Availability - Open 7 days a week - day, evening and weekend appointments
Couples counselling is a type of therapy specifically focused on helping partners navigate and resolve conflicts, fostering stronger, healthier relationships. It’s a valuable service for those who have not yet learned the best tools to maintain a healthy relationship and are dealing with a strong disconnect with their partners. At One Life, we approach couples counselling in Calgary as a way to teach our clients the skills they need to have the best relationship possible. Our aim is to bridge gaps, facilitate understanding, and strengthen bonds, empowering each couple to achieve a fulfilling relationship.
When you attend couples counselling, it is meant to be a transformative experience for both you and your partner. Our process begins with a thorough assessment of each couple’s unique needs, allowing us to tailor our approach. We then introduce a structured framework of exercises, interventions, and communication tools, all carefully designed to address specific challenges. Our goal is to provide a transparent roadmap, giving each couple clarity on the journey ahead and instilling confidence in the tools they’ll gain for long-term relationship success.
Selecting a relationship counsellor in Calgary can be a challenging decision, especially as many couples opt to keep their own experiences with counselling private. When you choose One Life, we aim to help you both start on the right foot, whether you’re new to dating or have been together for many years. For those balancing hectic schedules, we also provide online sessions, ensuring access to care remains convenient.
Marriage counselling, sometimes called couples therapy, is a type of psychotherapy. It centres around various techniques and methods designed to help couples understand and resolve conflicts, improve their relationship, and rebuild their emotional connection. While each couple is unique and will require a tailored approach to marriage counselling, many sessions involve some combination of guided discussions, exercises, and tools. At One Life, these are all provided by a licensed therapist to address important issues specifically.
Whatever brings you to our Calgary office for marriage counselling, know that our therapists have experience with various relationship concerns. Whether it’s an argument that has seeped into other aspects of your life or multiple issues leaving you frustrated and distant, we’re here to help support your journey to a healthier relationship.
The Gottman Method focuses on building a strong marital friendship, managing conflict effectively, and creating shared meaning. Developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, this approach is based on over four decades of research with thousands of couples. The method emphasizes the importance of building a deep friendship, maintaining a positive perspective, and developing effective conflict management strategies.
The Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT) focuses on attachment and neuroscience to help couples develop secure, loving relationships through effective communication and trust-building. PACT combines cutting-edge research from neuroscience, attachment theory, and arousal regulation to help partners understand and respond to each other’s emotional needs.
By emphasizing the importance of secure attachment and understanding the brain’s role in emotional regulation, PACT therapists guide couples in creating deeper emotional bonds and fostering a safe, supportive relationship environment.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) helps couples explore their emotional responses and develop stronger, more secure attachments. EFT is grounded in attachment theory and focuses on the emotional bond between partners. With this approach, your marriage counsellor will work with you to identify and address negative interaction patterns and unmet emotional needs. Our EFT therapists guide couples in creating new, positive interaction cycles that foster emotional safety and connection.
Relational Life Therapy (RLT) helps couples understand and break destructive patterns, fostering a more resilient and satisfying relationship. RLT focuses on the dynamics of power in relationships, helping partners identify and change their relational habits that undermine intimacy. By addressing underlying issues and teaching new skills for emotional honesty and connection, RLT aims to restore balance and mutual respect in the relationship.
IMAGO Relationship Therapy helps couples transform conflict into healing and growth by understanding each other’s childhood wounds and unconscious dynamics. The term "imago" comes from the Latin word for "image" and refers to the unconscious image of familiar love developed in childhood. IMAGO therapy posits that individuals are drawn to partners who reflect their unresolved childhood issues.
Through structured dialogues and exercises, IMAGO therapists help couples become more aware of these dynamics and learn to communicate with empathy and compassion. Should your therapist choose this path of marriage counselling for you, you’ll find the process allows partners to heal past wounds, reduce conflict, and build a more conscious and connected relationship.
When you begin couples therapy with One Life, we teach you that counselling is a major benefit to your overall well-being. That’s because we know that happy and successful relationships translate to great overall satisfaction in our lives.
Couples counselling is highly effective in enhancing communication skills between partners, which is often at the root of many relationship challenges. Through guided exercises and structured dialogue, our counselling sessions help partners articulate their thoughts and emotions clearly and respectfully, fostering understanding and empathy.
Conflict is a natural part of any relationship, but how couples handle it can make a significant difference. Our couples counselling sessions in Calgary provide tools and techniques to resolve conflicts constructively, empowering couples to handle conflicts in ways that reinforce rather than undermine their bond.
Trust is the foundation of any strong relationship, and when it’s damaged, rebuilding it can be a challenge. With targeted strategies for restoring trust, particularly following issues like infidelity, our counsellors ensure open and honest conversations to better understand gaps and where bridges to trust need to be built.
One Life counsellors provide a valuable space for partners to give and receive emotional support. With expert guidance, we help strengthen this essential facet of the relationship, allowing partners to feel heard, valued, and emotionally secure.
Couples sessions are $330 + GST and last for 90 minutes. We recommend these sessions for at least your first 4 to 6 appointments to get to the deep and meaningful needs of your relationship. We also offer maintenance sessions at $220 + GST for 60 minutes. For a full overview of fees for couples counselling in Calgary, please explore our rates and insurance page.
Couples counselling offers valuable support for a broad range of relationship challenges. Our sessions provide tools and guidance for enhancing communication, resolving conflicts, and rebuilding trust. Whether dealing with intimacy concerns, communication breakdowns, or trust issues, our counsellors can help you and your partner foster a stronger, more fulfilling connection.
There is no one answer to how long couples counselling can take. While we believe all our counsellors have the tools to help your situation, your relationship needs time to build trust and learn critical skills together. As a result, we recommend between 8-12 appointments for deeper and lasting change. Those numbers are not based on anything specific to your relationship, as each couple is unique. We notice that couples who spend more time initially investing in marriage guidance counselling in Calgary have better results. However, over time, we continue to see progress for those who come for monthly maintenance sessions and skill leveling up.
Yes, couples counselling has been shown to significantly enhance communication, deepen connection, and reinforce the bond between partners. It provides a structured approach to understanding and addressing underlying issues that can otherwise hinder a relationship’s growth.
Your journey with One Life begins by contacting our intake coordinator, who will help you select a counsellor suited to your needs.
The counselling process starts with an initial session, after which each partner may have a one-on-one meeting with the counsellor before continuing together. This approach helps couples set relationship goals, develop healthy habits, and improve communication in a supportive, neutral environment.
All of our marriage counsellors and psychologists have specific training for effective couples therapy. We draw on the most well-researched and proven techniques of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and the Gottman Method.
Yes, for your convenience, we offer virtual counselling sessions via video conferencing, enabling you to connect from home or wherever you feel most comfortable. We understand the demands of a busy schedule, and our online sessions make counselling accessible and adaptable to your lifestyle.
Please note that couples must be located in Alberta to take part in online sessions, as this is the reach of our team’s registration.
Yes, we have counsellors who are specifically trained in affair recovery in relationships. Addressing infidelity requires a thoughtful, structured approach to rebuild trust. Our specialists welcome individuals, whether the partner who committed the betrayal or the partner who is hurt from the betrayal, and couples through the complex process of healing. Throughout this journey, we provide compassionate support to work through the trauma and begin the journey of reconnection.
This completely depends on your preferences. Upon intake, we discuss whether you would like or want to have homework as part of your sessions and what that looks like. We recommend you connect with your therapist to better understand if this option would be best for your situation.
If you choose homework, know that it is fully personalized. Our counsellors may assign readings, exercises, and meaningful rituals for couples to explore together.
Yes. Communication is foundational to relationship repair and growth. Our counsellors provide tools to enhance open, constructive dialogue, supporting couples in integrating these skills to foster understanding and emotional closeness.
Rebuilding trust is a core goal for many couples in counselling. Trust can be eroded through betrayal, dishonesty, or fractured communication patterns.
In counselling, we emphasize positive actions and behaviours that rebuild security and help partners work toward genuine, lasting trust.
Many couples find that one or both partners lose attraction over time, and this is certainly a reality that can be explored and improved in couples counselling. It is very common for couples to grow distant in their relationships at certain points, and loss of attraction and desire can sometimes be the result of that distance. The important piece is acknowledging this, taking steps, and applying effort to rejuvenate that attraction energy.
If you and your partner are committed to the couples counselling process, you can work on overcoming many stumbling blocks in your relationship, including roommate energy. Our counsellors offer a range of exercises to foster engagement and help couples replace avoidance with an active, intentional connection.
Infidelity is a complex issue with varied underlying causes, from unmet needs to the allure of new attention. Each relationship is unique, and our counselling sessions help couples explore the “why” behind infidelity, shedding light on the underlying dynamics and providing tools to address these challenges constructively.
Yes, all sessions and information discussed in marriage counselling are kept strictly confidential. This ensures a safe and private space for you to work on your relationship.
The frequency of counselling sessions depends on the couple's needs, and we typically recommend weekly or bi-weekly sessions to gain momentum on your goals. As progress is made, sessions may be spaced out for longer periods.
It’s possible. Many insurance plans cover marriage counselling, and we recommend checking with your insurer prior to booking to understand the specifics of your coverage.
The first session can be nerve-wracking, especially as you bring current issues to the surface in front of a professional. In the first session, you'll discuss your relationship history, current issues, and goals for counselling. This session helps the therapist understand your dynamics and develop an initial plan for your therapy.
The length of the process varies based on the couple's needs and the complexity of their issues. Some couples see significant improvements in a few months, while others may continue for a year or more.
While it's ideal for both partners to participate, counselling can still be beneficial if only one partner is initially willing to attend. Individual therapy can also support relationship improvement.
It's common for one partner to be hesitant. Openly discussing the benefits and addressing concerns can help. Sometimes, starting with a few individual sessions can ease the transition into joint counselling.
If separation or divorce is the chosen path, your therapist can help facilitate a respectful and amicable process, focusing on effective communication and, if applicable, co-parenting strategies.
"*" indicates required fields
