If you or your children are not safe, get help now. Visit a nearby emergency service, hospital, or police station immediately. The line listed below is a gender-based-violence line.
Crisis numbers in Indonesia
- SAPA 129, for women and children affected by violence: Tel: 129 | WhatsApp: 08-111-129-129
- All crisis lines in Indonesia
What couples counselling is, and what it is not
Couples counselling is talking therapy for two people seen together, with the relationship as the subject of the work.
The approaches have common ground 1. A relational frame. An active style of working. Attention to the patterns that keep a difficulty repeating.
The practitioner does not rule on who is right.
It is not the same as marriage advisory or guidance given through a religious office. That exists here separately and serves a different purpose. Couples come at any stage. Relationship distress is an ordinary reason adults seek therapy 2.
How does a session with two people work?
Both partners attend, and rules for any separate contact with one partner should be set out in advance 1. Ask about them before you start.
A session is commonly about an hour and often weekly, and many approaches expect a course of work over months. Expect history as well as the present difficulty in the first sessions.
The set of practitioners here is small and concentrated, so sessions online are often what makes couples work reachable. Different models produce broadly similar results for relationship distress 2, so fit and practicality are sound grounds for choosing.
Who is qualified to do this work?
Psychology here has a professional title and a practice permit, and both can be checked.
The Indonesian Psychological Association is the authority for the profession 3. Its find a psychologist portal confirms two things: that a practitioner holds the professional title certificate, and that the practice permit is current.
Counselling more broadly is not covered by the same route. Ask a practitioner what their title is, which permit they hold, and where their qualification was awarded. Our listings show the category each practitioner states, which is where the question starts.
Titles you will see include Psikolog, Psikolog Spesialis and Psikolog Subspesialis. Search the register by name at Himpunan Psikologi Indonesia (HIMPSI). A current entry is that body's own published record of the person.
How couples work is charged
We publish no national figure for Indonesia and we calculate nothing.
There is a TherapyRoute guide to what therapy costs in Jakarta 4. It sets out what people are quoted there and what moves it. Outside Jakarta the picture will differ and we have no guide for it.
Ask each practitioner what a session for two people costs and how long it lasts. A couples session is often longer than an individual one, and sessions online may be priced differently.
Is couples counselling the right first step?
Sometimes something else should come before a joint session.
Moderate to severe aggression between partners is one reason 1. Active alcohol or other substance misuse is another. So are an affair that is continuing and psychotic symptoms.
Individual or specialist treatment usually comes first.
Where one partner is afraid of the other, the national service named below deals with exactly that and operates at all hours. Going on your own to a first appointment is a normal beginning, not a decision about the marriage.
Couples counselling across Indonesia
Our own listings hold only a small number of couples-qualified practitioners 5. Nearly all are in the Jakarta area, working in Indonesian and English. At that size the page shows no counts, and the useful questions are availability, language and whether the practitioner works online.
Where nobody listed can see you, widen to the country page rather than to a neighbouring city.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we have to be in Jakarta?
Nearly all the couples-qualified practitioners on our own listings are in the Jakarta area5.
Practitioners working by video say so on their listing. That is the usual route from elsewhere. Psychotherapy delivered live by video reaches outcomes close to in-person work, across therapies in general6.
Widen to the country page rather than to a neighbouring city.
What does marriage counselling cost in Indonesia?
Four things move a fee. The practitioner's registration category, their experience, the session length, and whether you meet in a room or online.
Where a practitioner states a fee on their listing, that figure is their own. Ask before the first session. Ask too whether the fee runs per session or per person in the room.
What happens in a marriage counselling session?
The practitioner works with what happens between you, not with one person's account of it.
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.
A first meeting normally covers three things. Why you are coming now, how each of you sees the problem, and what each of you wants changed.
Ask before you start whether the practitioner sees each partner alone. Ask how you will know the work is done.
Will BPJS Kesehatan pay for marriage counselling?
BPJS Kesehatan runs the national health insurance programme7. We hold no source showing that a counselling session for a couple sits inside its benefits, and we will not guess.
Private policies and employer plans set their own outpatient benefits.
Ask your provider whether outpatient consultations with your practitioner's category are covered, and ask the practitioner what they are able to invoice.
When should we go for marriage counselling?
There is no threshold you have to cross first. Relationship distress is one of the commonest reasons adults seek psychotherapy at all2.
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.
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.
If the problem is safety rather than the relationship
Where someone at home is being hurt, this is the route, and it is not couples counselling.
The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection runs a national complaint and case-handling service 8. Its own page names domestic violence as a reason to contact it. It operates at all hours, by telephone and by messaging.
It provides psychological accompaniment, medical examination, safe placement and legal support. The same service points people to their local women's and children's service units, which are where the in-person help sits.
The law behind it is the Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence of 2004 9. The government's own legal database records it as in force. It covers victims' rights, protection, recovery and criminal penalties.
Separately, the Ministry of Religious Affairs provides free marriage advisory and guidance through its local offices 10. It is a different thing from therapy. It sits within Islamic marriage administration, so it does not serve every couple.
Nearby places and related listings
- Marriage counseling in Jakarta
- Marriage counsellors by city, the marriage counsellors page, not tied to a place
- Marriage counseling in every Indonesia city listed
References
[3] Himpunan Psikologi Indonesia, find a psychologist.
[4] TherapyRoute, How much does therapy cost in Jakarta.
[5] TherapyRoute's own records.
[7] BPJS Kesehatan.
[8] Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, SAPA service.
[9] Law No. 23 of 2004 on the Elimination of Domestic Violence, national legal database.
[10] Ministry of Religious Affairs office, marriage advisory and guidance service (BP4).
Real choice. Authentic, independent, clinician-led care.
TherapyRoute is a clinician-led directory that champions independent practitioners who answer to you and their professional ethics. We don't take commissions, sell your data, or assign therapists by algorithm. You browse, compare, and choose.
Vincenzo (Enzo) Sinisi, Clinical Psychologist (HPCSA), Psychoanalyst (IPA/SAPA), Group Analyst (IGA)


