Find Couples Psychotherapists in Ottawa, Canada

Couples counselling works with two people, and with what happens between them. It does not treat one of them.

Both partners usually attend ¹. Couples counselling works on repeated arguments, an affair, sex, money, parenting, or a decision about separating.

It does not rule on who is right. It is not for married couples alone. Ask a practitioner which approach they use.

Everyone on this page describes their work as psychotherapy. A psychotherapist works through talking with you about your thoughts, feelings and behaviours ².

Psychotherapy usually runs longer than counselling and aims for clinical change. It works on patterns that repeat rather than on one current problem.

A psychotherapist trains in psychological treatment rather than in medicine. What that training covers, and which approach a practitioner uses, differ between practitioners. Ask which approach a psychotherapist trained in, and how long they usually work.

Usually. Partners are almost always seen together¹.

Some practitioners will see one partner alone where the other will not attend. A practitioner should still see you if you have no partner or cannot bring them³. Ask what a practitioner does when one person is unwilling.

No. Couples counselling is for people in a relationship, married or not, of any gender, living together or not. The same practitioners work with couples deciding whether to separate, and with couples who have already separated and are parenting together. Say which of those describes you at first contact.

No. The work is with what happens between two people rather than with a verdict on either of them. Effective work with couples needs its own theories and methods, drawn from research on relationships. Ask a practitioner how they handle it when you disagree in the room.

Yes, and many practitioners offer it. Couples therapy by video shows few significant differences from face-to-face sessions⁴. Symptom reduction, engagement and the therapeutic alliance are comparable.

Sitting in the same room at home suits some couples and not others. Ask what a practitioner offers.

Each practitioner sets their own fee; no published tariff applies. Our guide to what therapy costs in Canada sets out the usual ranges; ask each practitioner what a couples session costs.

Four things move a fee. The practitioner's registration category, their experience, the session length, and whether you meet in a room or online.

The Canada Health Act defines insured health services as hospital services, physician services and surgical-dental services⁵. Counselling outside a hospital, from someone who is not a physician, is not one of them.

Lower-fee routes exist. The federal government lists mental health services by province and territory, and affordable counselling appears among them⁶. University psychology clinics attached to a graduate programme see couples under supervision, some at a reduced fee⁷.

Where a practitioner states a fee on their listing, that figure is their own. Ask before the first session, and ask whether the fee runs per session or per person in the room.

Couple therapy is an effective treatment for relationship distress, and the main models reach broadly similar results⁸.

Behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, emotionally focused and integrative behavioural couple therapy meet the criteria researchers use for a well-established treatment⁹.

Those findings describe groups of couples in studies. They are not a forecast about any one relationship, and nobody listed here can promise you an outcome.

Canada's national psychology association names the questions to put to a practitioner, among them which approach they use and how it works¹⁰. Ask that, and what they do when the two of you want different things.

Both partners usually attend together.

Practice differs on what comes first. Some approaches open with a formal assessment that combines joint and individual meetings. Others use no set assessment stage¹.

Canada's national psychology association calls a first visit information gathering, on the problem and on each person's history, and says that phase can run past one session¹⁰.

Ask before you start whether the practitioner sees each partner alone. Ask what they do with what one partner tells them in private. Ask how you will know the work is done.

There is no threshold you have to cross first. Relationship distress is one of the commonest reasons adults seek psychotherapy⁸.

Distress between partners travels. It is associated with mood, anxiety and substance-use difficulties in the partners themselves, and with difficulties for children in the household¹.

Canada's national psychology association says you can refer yourself to a psychologist in private practice, though a hospital psychologist may need a physician's referral¹¹.

Couples come with a repeating argument, with an affair, with a decision about staying together, and with none of those. You do not have to agree on the problem before you make contact.

Titles you will see include Registered Psychotherapist and psychothérapeute. The protected title is Registered Psychotherapist.

In Canada there is no national register: each province and territory licenses under its own law. See the Canada page.