Many relationships have stressful times. Couples therapy creates a safe and confidential space for you both to explore what is happening in your relationship, reflect on your thoughts and feelings, and find new ways forward.
Couples therapy can be known as relationship therapy, couples counselling or marriage counselling.
Couples counselling can help you become more aware of the patterns that influence your relationship. Through this, partners can begin to:
Couples often seek counselling because of issues such as:
Whether you feel that your relationship has reached a crisis point, or you just need some guidance, North East Counselling Services can help you to work through your problems together, and focus on the issues that matter to you as a couple.
Recognising you and your partner as individuals, who might have different ways of seeing the world, the counsellor will explore with you the ways your relationship works and what might not be working. Every relationship is unique and your couple counsellor will work with you for the best possible outcome.
Sessions with your counsellor would take place at our main office in Blaydon, or at our counselling rooms in Pelaw.
We offer counselling appointments Monday to Friday (including evenings) and on Saturdays. If you require changes or flexibility, we will find times that work for you.
Our face-to-face counselling, telephone counselling and online counselling sessions each last 50 minutes.
Counselling for couples, both in-person and online, costs £75 per session.
To get the best out of couples counselling sessions, we ask both partners to communicate openly and honestly. Couples often feel nervous or apprehensive about coming to counselling. It might also feel a little uncomfortable to open up and discuss your experiences and feelings. Our counsellors understand this and will try to empower you to share any difficult thoughts or feelings.
We also appreciate that sometimes, if one partner has hurt the other, especially when there has been an affair, that you may want the counsellor to see it from your point of view. Your counsellor won’t ‘pick a side’ but will help you to process your feelings and to work towards a resolution.
Sometimes, couples also feel a little unsure about what they need from counselling. Your couples counsellor will:
To be effective, couples counselling requires commitment to the process. This means that both members of the couple choose to come to counselling sessions, and agree to try and find a way forward.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone can feel vulnerable, but reconnecting as partners may require this. At North East Counselling Services you can start from where you are now in your relationship – working with an experienced counsellor, at your own pace.
Still got a question? Find out everything you need to know about our Couples Therapy below, from taking the first step, to pricing and how we handle your data. Alternatively, please contact us if you would like more information.
Our face-to-face counselling, telephone counselling and online counselling sessions each last 50 minutes.
Sessions can be face to face, over the telephone, and online.
Face to face sessions with your counsellor would take place at our main office in Blaydon, or at our counselling rooms in Pelaw.
Our online therapy is via Microsoft Teams video calls. If you opt for online counselling, then before each session your counsellor will send the Teams link for your session to the email address that you have provided to us. You will need access to a Microsoft Teams account in order to obtain your counselling in this way. If you don’t currently have access to Teams, then you will be able to download the Teams app, using the information that we send to you before your counselling session.
The number of sessions will vary depending upon your needs as a couple – so you don’t need to commit to a particular ‘course’ of counselling. Couples usually attend weekly at first, but might space out their sessions as the counselling progresses. Each session normally lasts around 50 minutes.
At intervals, your counsellor will review how you feel things are going. If further appointments would be helpful, your counsellor will explore this with you.
You can also discuss with your counsellor the number and focus of your sessions at any time and you can choose to pause or end the counselling whenever you wish.
Couples counselling for individuals costs £75 per session.
When you complete our online referral form or call us to ask for counselling, we will need to collect some basic information from you. The information we ask for will include your name, contact details, address, date of birth and GP Practice.
We will ask for this information from yourself, but we will also ask you to provide your partner’s basic details. That’s why it’s important that you first get permission from them to share this information with us. We will also ask you to tell us about any children you have – separately or together – or any caring responsibilities.
So that we can get in touch with you and arrange counselling, we will ask:
This will also be an opportunity to share with us any other important information that you would like us to know. If you’re filling in our online referral form, therefore, you might find it easiest to do this together.
So that we can explore whether couple counselling may be right for you, it’s important that you let us know:
The information you share will help us assess if we are the right service for you, and also allow us to find a counsellor that matches your needs.
North East Counselling Services provides safe, confidential and ethical counselling – giving you the space to talk openly and freely.
The content of your counselling sessions will be kept private and we would only breach confidentiality in the following situations:
We are committed to keeping safe the data you share with us. As a North East Counselling Services client, you can expect that we store your data securely and we process your personal information in ways that are lawful, fair and transparent.
Before you attend your first counselling session you will be sent some documents to read. One of those will be our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy explains:
After you’ve read the Privacy Policy, we’ll ask for your agreement to storing your data in the way we’ve outlined. If you have any questions about data privacy at North East Counselling Services, please contact us. please contact us.
So that you know what to expect at your first couples counselling sessions, we have prepared this brief summary.
At the first appointment, your counsellor will ask each of you for some background information and will begin to understand what has brought you to counselling. (We call this appointment the ‘Initial Assessment’). The counsellor will also explain a little about the next two sessions – where each person in the couple will sit with the counsellor separately.
You will each be invited to take part in one individual counselling session. This is to allow each of you to discuss what you need to work on, individually and as a couple, and take time to focus on your own thoughts and feelings, with the counsellor.
The counsellor will keep confidential what you each say in these individual sessions and won’t share this with your partner. If the counsellor feels that something that one of you has shared cannot remain confidential, this will be because of safeguarding, which we explain. We will discuss this with you if a safeguarding concern arises.
At the fourth session, we will again see you together as a couple – and this will be the same for any further sessions.
During this appointment, a couple will usually discuss with their counsellor how many sessions they feel are needed, to help them make the changes they are seeking in their relationship.
Couples can enter into counselling at North East Counselling Services if you are 18 years old and above.
Sometimes couples and individuals who request counselling have issues that need a different type of therapist or a different service. Issues that may require other, specialist support could be:
To enquire about couples counselling at North East Counselling Services, please follow these steps:
We won’t be able to work with a couple if one person does not want to take part in the sessions, so it’s important that you have both agreed that you would like to try some counselling sessions together.
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