Couples Psychotherapists in London, UK

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.

If you are afraid of your partner, say so to the practitioner before any joint session is booked. Ask to be seen on your own first. The support numbers at the top of this page are for that situation.

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Lambeth Talking Therapies. Phone +44 20 3228 6747. Talking Therapies care is free under the NHS. Adults aged 18 and older can refer themselves. You must live in Lambeth or have a Lambeth GP.

Usually. Partners are almost always seen together¹. Couples sessions require safety.

Some practitioners will see one partner alone where the other will not attend. 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 sessions³. 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.

Some counselling is free. The NHS names treatment at another NHS service, an employer, a school or university, and a charity as the routes⁴.

In England, couple therapy for depression is one of the talking therapies NHS services deliver. Those services are free to patients, and a couple can refer themselves⁵. The NHS offers counselling for certain conditions rather than for relationship difficulty in general.

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

Couple therapy is an effective treatment for relationship distress, and the main models reach broadly similar results⁶.

In England the NHS commissions couple therapy for depression, on the strength of a NICE recommendation⁵.

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.

What the research does not settle is which approach suits you. Ask a practitioner how they work with two people, and what they do when the two of you want different things.

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.

Which route you take changes what you meet. Through an NHS talking therapies service in England the therapy comes from a set list, couple therapy for depression among it⁵. A practitioner you approach privately sets the shape of the work themselves.

Ask before you start whether the practitioner sees each partner alone. Ask what they do with what one partner tells them in private.

NHS talking therapies for anxiety and depression include couples therapy, where you and your partner talk to a therapist about problems in your relationship⁷.

You can refer yourself without seeing a GP, as long as a GP practice lists you and you meet the service's age rule. What you are offered depends on what you need it for and what your area provides.

There is no threshold you have to cross first. Relationship distress is one of the commonest reasons adults seek psychotherapy at all⁶.

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.

Nobody has to send you. You can refer yourself to an NHS talking therapies service without speaking to a GP, and a practitioner you pay privately needs no referral either⁴.

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

In the United Kingdom the practitioner psychologist titles are protected and held on a statutory register; counsellor and psychotherapist are not.

See the United Kingdom page.