Marriage
Counseling
That Works
Marriage
Counseling
That Works
Here's the heart of the matter.
You get that a thriving marriage means putting in the work.
And yet you, like many, have come to Empathi because you and your spouse are struggling together despite your efforts. The relationship podcasts, the married life blog posts, the books—all the tricks, tools, and exercises in the world are at your fingertips. And yet, you can’t seem to escape those same negative patterns. Not on your own.
It’s not your fault.
As one of the two people creating the relationship dynamic you are stuck in, you aren't in a position to see the whole system.
You can’t see the forest for the trees when you’re right in the thick of it. But until you can see the system you create together and understand the pain in your marriage as an “us” problem—never a “me” or a “you” problem—you’ll never move past treating symptoms to healing the system.
You and your spouse are doing everything you can to dig yourselves out of suffering, but the path to repair lies deeper in.
This is the paradox of marriage counseling, and it’s why it’s important to have an expert therapist guide you. Only by skillfully navigating the muck of difficult feelings together can you reach that place of healing connection and unity in your marriage.
Get to understand the ways both of your wounds prompt cycles of maladaptive self-defensiveness, blaming, and painful disconnection.
Your Empathi therapist is prepared to address your unique needs with a series of face-to-face sessions designed to pull you out of conflict and back into loving connection. These sessions are once weekly and last 60 minutes long. If circumstances are warranted, your therapist can set up longer or more frequent sessions.
Our goal is to get you to a place where you can graduate therapy as soon as possible. Our therapy practice flourishes when we help couples so successfully that they no longer need us and want to share their success with others who need help, by not keeping them in therapy any longer than necessary.
Clinical research shows that 86% of couples improve after a brief period of EFT guidance, and 73% have maintained their improvements when we check back two years later.
Empathi's Methods
are proven to help
Clinical research shows that 86% of couples improve after a brief period of EFT guidance, and 73% have maintained their improvements when we check back two years later.
With Empathi Marriage Counseling You Will…
- Get back to experiencing joy, laughter, and fun together
- Connect in a deeper and more authentic way
- Recognize the negative cycles you create together
- Stop being so disappointed in each other
- Navigate sex life changes
- Empathize with each other around stressful conflicts
- Weather difficult times together
So do the work; attend to your marriage’s emotional bond. But do it as a team, facing the truth of what you have together and the pain you’re both feeling, recognizing that your true enemy isn’t a fairytale villain or the lack of a fairytale partner, but the negative cycle that you create together.
The hardest part is getting started.
Stop struggling. Book your call now.
Now is the best time to strengthen your relationship
Empathi's Marriage Counseling Process
Your expert counselor is here to guide you back to connection using Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy and the Empathi Method.
Acceptance The hardest part is just
getting started.
getting started.
Healing starts with accepting you need help, booking a free consult, and showing up as you are. Everything that comes next will be easier as you're held by an Empathi therapist and a proven process. From now on, you're not alone in this.
Alliance Feel like you're on the
same team again.
same team again.
Explore your process and discover a unified narrative where neither of you are wrong or right, “the good one,” or “the bad one.” Learn to approach suffering and conflicts as an “us” problem instead of a “them” problem or a “me” problem.
Empathy See the hurt and love behind their reactivity.
Strengthen your new narrative by accessing empathy to recognize the root of each other’s reactivity, how much you matter to each other, and what love is. Understand the cycles you get into with the help of your expert Empathi counselor.
Vulnerability Share the hurt and love behind your reactivity.
Get to know, live in, and share your vulnerable feelings. Then, learn to let in the ways that those feelings are understood and accepted by your partner through the power of the Empathi method and Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy.
Connection Feel deeply and securely bonded to one another.
Mend your relationship and your wounds through the understanding that you matter to each other. Learn to grieve, show up for, heal, and accept the most vulnerable parts inside of each other without sacrificing those parts in yourselves.
Resilience Rely on your bond to get out of stuck moments.
Having proved your ability to resolve long-standing issues, heated conflicts, and negative cycles, face your future together with a certainty that you will not only survive those moments, but grow stronger and more connected because of them.
Acceptance
The hardest part is just getting started.
Healing starts with accepting you need help, booking a free consult, and showing up as you are. Everything that comes next will be easier as you’re held by an Empathi therapist and a proven process. From now on, you’re not alone in this.
Alliance
Feel like you're on the same team again.
Explore your process and discover a unified narrative where neither of you are wrong or right, “the good one,” or “the bad one.” Learn to approach suffering and conflicts as an “us” problem instead of a “them” problem or a “me” problem.
Empathy
See the hurt and love behind their reactivity.
Strengthen your new narrative by accessing empathy to recognize the root of each other’s reactivity, how much you matter to each other, and what love is. Understand the cycles you get into with the help of your expert Empathi counselor.
Vulnerability
Share the hurt and love behind your reactivity.
Get to know, live in, and share your vulnerable feelings. Then, learn to let in the ways that those feelings are understood and accepted by your partner through the power of the Empathi method and Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy.
Connection
Feel deeply and securely bonded to one another.
Mend your relationship and your wounds through the understanding that you matter to each other. Learn to grieve, show up for, heal, and accept the most vulnerable parts inside of each other without sacrificing those parts in yourselves.
Resilience
Rely on your bond to get out of stuck moments.
Having proved your ability to resolve long-standing issues, heated conflicts, and negative cycles, face your future together with a certainty that you will not only survive those moments, but grow stronger and more connected because of them.
Your Marriage Counseling Questions, Answered
Opening up to a stranger about marriage difficulties isn’t easy. Why don’t we go first?
Yes! With expertise built on significant research, valued insights, and first-hand experience, Empathi has come to understand that most couples do have the capacity to improve their relationships with each other, their friends, and even themselves with the help of a caring and qualified counselor.
This is just as true for low and high-conflict spouses and across a variety of relationship arrangements and struggles.
Not all starting points are the same. Whether you want to communicate better, suffer less, or are unsure if you want to stay together, your Empathi therapist will meet you where you are and build a roadmap that suits your needs.
- The “spark” in the marriage is missing
- Loss of affection and emotional closeness
- Changes in sexual and/or emotional intimacy
- Can’t stop having the same arguments
- Don’t know how to move forward after infidelity
- Relationship strain due to long distance
- Addictive behaviors in one or both partners
- Struggling with co-parenting effectively
- Struggles and disagreements around money
If your partner doesn’t seem open to therapy, we also offer individual relationship counseling. (But first, check out “How to get my partner to couples counseling.“)
The path your marriage will take isn’t set. There’s no way to be certain where you and your spouse will be when you’ve ended your time with Empathi. But we do know that healing is possible. Our counselors have seen it in married couples time and time again.
You’ve already taken the first big step in admitting that you’re struggling and looking for help. Try, now, to let in a little hope. It will help you take the next one.
If our research-based Empathi Method, selective hiring process, and stellar yelp reviews don’t clear away your doubts, give us a call at (416) 967-3447 or schedule a consult for free. The best way to know if a therapist is the right fit for you is to start talking to them!
Empathi therapists, in addition to being licensed counselors, undergo the Emotionally-Focused Therapy certification process and participate in weekly training sessions with expert counselors and founders of Empathi, Figs O’Sullivan and Teale Taxis.
To learn more about our therapists, their qualifications, and areas of expertise, check out Our Counselors.
Depending on a married couple’s needs, the length of marriage counseling can vary wildly from one problem-solving session to years of guidance and relationship enrichment. Empathi therapists, however, immediately work on a roadmap to self-sustaining happiness so that you can walk out of therapy and enjoy your relationship again as soon as possible.
What matters most is getting started.
Marriages don’t thrive because the couples in them never experience hurt with each other and manage to avoid conflict. Not only is that impossible, it’s unhealthy! Suppression and denial are never as powerful as open, honest, and eventually empathetic expression, messy as they can be.
Empathi knows that success in marriage counseling means fostering your ability to bounce back from pain, conflict, and hardship more bonded with one another than before. “The magic is in the repair.“
If you’re struggling with your partner, Empathi can help you love more deeply, trust each other more, and become stronger than you were before.
Still have questions? Find the answers you need on our policies and fees page or schedule a free consult, our therapists are waiting to answer your questions directly!
We are passionate about healing relationships.
- Feel safe to be your true self in life and love.
- Heal from recent or past grief and loss.
- Connect in a deeper and more authentic way.
- Stop having the same argument(s) over and over again.
- Avoid being disappointed in each other so much.
- Recover from infidelity or other breach of trust.
- Get back to more joy, laughter, and fun together.
- Work on your relationship even though your partner doesn't seem available.
We’re 5 Stars On Yelp!
Why Yelp Chooses Empathi Marriage Counseling
Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) provides our team at Empathi with an understanding of the emotional bonds between partners so that we can identify and work toward moments that strengthen and harmonize that emotional connection.
We use attachment-based frameworks to understand the ways very early bonds inform our adult behavior and choice of partner, as well as the ways our relationship with our partners inform how we understand those early bonds today. Being in a committed partnership then becomes more than just an agreement between two lovers – it is a healing art, a restorative power in the lives of both individuals.
Seeking the safety and containment of professional psychotherapy is a monumental first step on the road to turning painful patterns into a productive partnership. Committed exploration and a willingness to be curious and vulnerable about what is motivating one’s own behavior, reactivity, patterns, and choices can bring about positive change for your relationship – whether it’s steering a particular issue, transitioning toward compromise, or simply bringing about a newly deepened sense of passion and commitment.
"With Empathi, Figs has created a fun and creative way to help people feel more connected in their relationship and to become acquainted with the transformational power of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy."
Dr. Sue Johnson
Creator of Emotionally-Focused Therapy for Couples
It's quick, easy, and free to get started!
Between the emotional hurdle of accepting you need help and the logistical nightmare of finding a therapist you trust, actually starting couples therapy is the hardest part…
That’s why we keep it simple:
- Pick a date & time for your free consult with an Empathi counselor.
- Show up for the call. Explain your circumstances and needs.
- Book a first session with the right therapist for your price point and situation.
- Show up for your first session.
- Start feeling better!
Don’t Waste Time Feeling Stuck
Empathi Marriage Counseling Near You
Find your city or schedule your free consult now and we’ll find the right therapist for you!
Empathi's
Therapy Services
Find the right counseling services for your situation.
Marriage Counseling
- Recognize the negative cycles you create together.
- Stop being so disappointed in each other.
- Connect in a deeper and more authentic way.
- Get back to experiencing joy, laughter, and fun together.
- Empathize with each other around stressful conflicts
- Learn to weather difficult times together.
Couples Therapy
- Stop having the same argument(s) over and over again.
- Recover from infidelity or other breaches of trust.
- Return to a deeper level of intimacy.
- Work on your relationship even though your partner doesn't seem available.
- Navigate life transitions from a place of connection and understanding of each other.
Couples Therapy
for Parents
- Learn to navigate parenting style differences.
- Get "unstuck" from disconnected routines and repetitive arguments.
- Get back in touch with a genuine appreciation for each other.
- Feel like you're on the same team again.
- Build a secure foundation your kid(s) will come to for support and look to as a model.
Individual Relationship
Therapy Services
- Break out of cyclical relation.ship issues through individual exploration
- Work through the unresolved trauma that's holding you back.
- Discover effective treatments for depression with the right ally and guide.
- Heal stubborn and pervasive self-esteem wounds.
- Become all you can be through a process of self-reclamation.