Couples therapy
Your relationship deserves more than guesswork
- Medicare Rebates Available
- In-person & telehealth
Gottman Method Couples Therapy begins with understanding your relationship — not simply the problem that brought you through the door.
or call us 07 5520 7705
A structured, evidence-informed approach to couples therapy
Our psychologists use principles and interventions from the Gottman Method to help couples understand the patterns shaping their relationship and build practical skills to create meaningful change.
Therapy goes beyond simply talking about problems. Couples learn strategies to communicate more effectively, manage conflict, strengthen friendship and intimacy, work through relationship injuries and build a stronger sense of partnership.
Communication & repair
Learn healthier ways to express needs, listen, navigate difficult conversations and repair when things go wrong.
Managing conflict
Trust & commitment
Helping couples to strengthen emotional safety and commitment, or work through relationship injuries where trust has been damaged.
Friendship & connection
Strengthen friendship, fondness, appreciation and the everyday moments that build emotional intimacy.
Shared meaning
Build a stronger sense of “we” through shared values, rituals, goals and dreams for the future.
Skills for lasting change
Develop practical, research-informed skills that can be used in everyday life and beyond the therapy room.
First, we understand your relationship
Your assessment helps us understand:
- Your relationship strengths
- Friendship and emotional connection
- Communication and conflict patterns
- Trust and commitment
- Intimacy and affection
- Shared values, goals and meaning
Understanding the patterns that keep you stuck
Even strong relationships can become caught in patterns that are difficult to change without support.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy helps couples recognise the interaction patterns that can damage connection, including criticism, defensiveness, contempt and shutting down, and learn healthier ways to communicate, repair and reconnect.
The goal isn’t to eliminate disagreement. Conflict is a normal part of relationships. Instead, therapy helps couples understand what sits beneath recurring disagreements and develop more constructive ways of navigating them together.
You may learn to:
- Start difficult conversations more gently
- Listen without immediately becoming defensive
- Recognise when conflict is escalating
- Take effective breaks and return to conversations
- Make and respond to repair attempts
- Understand the deeper needs beneath recurring conflict
or call us 07 5520 7705
Support through change, conflict and growth
Relationships naturally change through different stages of life. Whether you’re preparing for a baby, adjusting to parenthood, navigating significant change or wanting to strengthen your relationship, therapy can help you stay connected while adapting together.
Alongside Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Drop of Life offers specialised support informed by the Gottman Bringing Baby Home® program, delivered by appropriately trained clinicians. This approach supports couples through the transition to parenthood, with a focus on protecting friendship and intimacy, managing conflict, strengthening communication and building a strong parenting partnership.
Support may include:
- Preparing for the transition to parenthood
- Staying connected after baby arrives
- Navigating conflict and changing roles
- Strengthening friendship and intimacy
- Building teamwork as parents
- Creating shared meaning as a family
or call us 07 5520 7705
Relationships at different stages
NEW & DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS
Build strong foundations from the beginning. Therapy can help couples deepen their understanding of one another, strengthen communication and connection, and develop healthy relationship patterns for the future.
LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships change over time. Therapy can help couples reconnect, navigate recurring challenges, strengthen friendship and intimacy, and adapt together through different stages of life.
BECOMING PARENTS & PARENTING TOGETHER
The transition to parenthood can bring enormous joy as well as significant change. Support can help couples stay connected, manage conflict, navigate changing roles and strengthen their partnership as parents. Where appropriate, support may incorporate the Gottman Bringing Baby Home® approach with a clinician trained in the program.
REBUILDING TRUST & CONNECTION
When trust or connection has been damaged, therapy provides a structured space to understand what has happened, address relationship injuries and work towards rebuilding emotional safety and connection where possible.
Understanding the Gottman Method
What is the Gottman Method?
The Gottman Method is a structured, research-informed approach to couples therapy developed from decades of research into couple relationships. It focuses on strengthening friendship and intimacy, managing conflict more effectively, building trust and commitment, and creating shared meaning.
OUR COUPLES ASSESSMENT
Couples therapy begins with a comprehensive assessment of your relationship. This may include joint and individual sessions, your relationship history and structured Gottman assessment tools. This helps your psychologist understand your strengths, challenges and recurring patterns before recommending a way forward.
YOUR PERSONALISED THERAPY PLAN
Following assessment, your psychologist will develop a therapy plan tailored to your relationship. Depending on your needs, therapy may focus on friendship and connection, communication and repair, managing conflict, rebuilding trust, intimacy or developing shared meaning and future goals.
COUPLES THERAPY & SKILL BUILDING
Therapy is active and collaborative. You’ll learn and practise practical strategies for navigating difficult conversations, understanding each other more deeply, repairing after conflict and strengthening connection—skills designed to be used both inside and outside the therapy room.
MARATHON WEEKEND INTENSIVE
For some couples, an intensive format provides greater time and continuity to work deeply on established relationship patterns. Our Marathon Weekend Intensive provides extended therapeutic time across two days to work on identified priorities and practise and consolidate new relationship skills.
Not every couple is suited to intensive therapy, and suitability is considered as part of the assessment process.
Getting started is easier than you think
Three small steps between you and the right support.
Reach out
Book online or call us. No referral needed, a GP Mental Health Care Plan gives you Medicare rebates.
We match you
Tell us a little about what’s going on and we’ll pair you with the psychologist best suited to you.
Begin at your pace
Your first session is about being heard. No pressure, no judgement, just a conversation.
Services - Couples Therapy - Couples at every stage
- Communication difficulties
- Strengthening emotional intimacy
- Feeling emotionally disconnected
- Building healthier relationship patterns
- Parenting challenges
- Life transitions
- Ongoing conflict
- Rebuilding trust
or call us 07 5520 7705
Frequently asked questions
Still have questions? We’d love to help.