If you or your children are not safe, contact your local emergency services or the police. The line listed below is a gender-based-violence line.
Crisis numbers in the United States of America
- National Domestic Violence Hotline, funded under the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act: Tel: 1-800-799-7233
What couples counseling is
Couples counselling is talking therapy for two people seen together, with the relationship itself as the work.
Titles you will see include Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
Approaches generally share similar features 1. The counsellor takes an active part and works on the patterns that keep a difficulty going. They build an alliance with both of you at once.
The counsellor does not take a side.
Marriage and family therapist is a state licence title, not a statement about marriage. Each state writes its own version of it. New York's covers couple, parent-child, pre-marital and other personal relationships 2.
Four names cover this work here: couples therapy, couples counseling, marriage counseling and relationship therapy. Relationship distress is an ordinary reason for adults to seek therapy 3.
Is couples counselling the right first step?
Joint sessions are not always the right first appointment. A careful practitioner screens before agreeing to see you together. The usual reasons are moderate to severe aggression between partners, active alcohol or other substance misuse, a continuing affair, and psychotic symptoms 1. Individual or specialist treatment comes first.
Couples sessions require safety. If one of you is afraid of the other, that is a safety question first. Going alone is a sensible beginning, not a sign you have given up on the relationship.
New York has 85 therapists listed on TherapyRoute who work with couples.
If the problem is safety rather than the relationship
Where there is violence or fear at home, these routes come before counselling.
The legal route is a protection order from a state, tribal or territorial court. The courts and the police of another state, tribe or territory must honour that order and enforce it 4. That holds if you leave the state you were living in.
Your state, territory or tribal coalition is the route to services near you. The federal Office on Violence Against Women runs no services of its own and points survivors to those coalitions, which connect them to local providers 5.
The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act funds shelters, those state coalitions and a national toll-free hotline 6.
Child protection is a state matter as well. The Child Welfare Information Gateway holds the reporting contact for each state's own agency 7.
Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, New York
The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York sees couples and families, in short-term and longer-term treatment 8. It sets your fee on a sliding scale against your income. To start, book an intake consultation online or by telephone.
Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York City
The Ackerman Institute for the Family offers couples and family therapy in New York City 9. It accepts most commercial insurance plans and Medicaid, and offers a sliding scale based on need. You can attend in person in New York City, or online if you live in New York State.
Most of the couples counselors listed in New York see couples both online and in person. Couples counselors here most often name psychodynamic therapy, psychoanalytic therapy and CBT as approaches. Couples counselors here list life transitions, family issues and LGBTQI+ relationships as focus areas.
Couples counselors in New York practice in areas including Manhattan and Brooklyn. Couples counselors here list payment options including direct payment, a sliding scale and health insurance.
As at November 2026, Droste Mental Health Services, in Midtown Manhattan, offers couples therapy on a sliding scale 10. In New York, only a licensed or otherwise authorised person may use the title psychologist 11.
Of the 85 who say how they work, 72 offer online sessions (85%) and 13 see clients in person (15%).
Couples work here is offered by psychologists, social workers and psychoanalysts.
Couples sessions here are offered in English, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish and Mandarin.
Nearby places and related listings
- Every therapist listed in New York (160)
- Couples therapy in Brooklyn
- Couples therapists by city, the couples therapists page, not tied to a place
- the United States: Couples therapy by city
References
[2] New York Education Law § 8403, Marriage and family therapy. New York State Senate.
[4] 18 U.S.C. § 2265, full faith and credit given to protection orders. US Government Publishing Office.
[5] Office on Violence Against Women, Resources for Victims and Survivors, US Department of Justice.
[8] Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, Treatment.
[9] Ackerman Institute for the Family, The Ackerman Clinic.
[10] Droste Mental Health Services.
[11] New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions (State Board for Psychology).
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)
