Getting Affordable Marriage Counseling: What It Could Mean For You

Marriage counseling can be a very valuable resource for many spouses. It can help them tackle communication problems, deepen their connection, address intimacy issues or infidelity, gain more appreciation for one another, or navigate parenting differences. 

While marriage counseling can be extremely beneficial, it can be costly. In some cases, couples delay trying therapy or can’t access it because of the financial hardship. Services like online marriage therapy, free local and national resources, and income-based discounts can help couples access valuable therapy services at a price they can afford.

Do you need couples therapy?

Do you find yourself wondering if you and your partner would benefit from couple’s therapy? 

While any committed couple can probably benefit from couples therapy, the following signs may indicate that it’s time to reach out to a professional: 

• Repetitive arguments or bickering 
• Mismatched libido or other physical intimacy issues 
• Irritability
• Resentment 
• Viewing one another as enemies rather than teammates
• Infidelity
• Boredom, growing apart, or emotional distance
• Loneliness 
• Controlling behaviors 
• Excessive jealousy
• Getting stuck in unhealthy dynamics

Most couples fight from time-to-time or experience occasional periods of disconnect or poor communication. However, when your relationship is overall leaving you feelings poorly or harming your wellbeing, it’s a good sign to try couple’s therapy. 

Dr. John Gottman, a well-known relationship psychologist and researcher, notes that people often mistakenly worry about going to therapy too soon. Instead, Gottman noticed that couples usually wait too long in an unhappy relationship (six years on average) before seeking professional help. 

No marriage is perfect. If you are in a committed relationship and want to improve your partnership, therapy can be a great choice. By working together proactively, you and your partner can likely address minor issues before they escalate and develop into major relationship challenges. 

How can couples therapy help you?

Couples therapy often helps partners change negative patterns, improve communication, and repair broken trust. Here’s a more extensive list of what couple’s therapy can help you do: 

• Improve communication: Many relationship problems can be successfully addressed with healthier communication strategies. Couples’ therapists often teach their clients how to express their feelings without assigning blame, actively listen to their partner, use “I” language, and utilize de-escalatory techniques. 
• Parenting issues: Are you navigating challenges regarding different parenting styles or how to raise your kids? Marriage and family therapists often help clients learn to navigate and respect different types of parenting.
• Finances: One of the largest predictors of divorce is financial conflict. Many couples have challenges with financial intimacy and discussing values, budgets, and other financial issues. Therapists can help facilitate these discussions. 
• Infidelity: When addressed with couple’s therapy, couples can often recover from the breach of trust that comes with infidelity. In fact, for some couples, working together to heal from infidelity can strengthen the relationship and build a deeper level of emotional intimacy. 
• Repeated arguments: Do you and your partner continually argue about a seemingly insignificant issue? When you’re having repeated arguments that never seem to get resolved, it might be an indicator that there’s something else happening beneath the service. For example, if you’re arguing about an unequal divide of household duties, you might be feeling unappreciated or resentful. Therapists can help you and your partner investigate your arguments and get to a deeper understanding of each other. 

Couple’s therapy can provide you and your partner with the opportunity to gain deeper insight about your relationship from a licensed professional. According to some surveys, around 70% of people who try couples therapy find that it positively benefits their relationship.

Getting affordable marriage counseling

The cost of marriage counseling can vary considerably based on factors like: 

• Your geographic location
• The type of license your therapist has
• The type of therapy they practice
• The duration of sessions 
• Whether your sessions are covered by health insurance 
• How many years of experience your therapist has

It’s estimated that couples counseling costs anywhere from $75-250+, with the average cost of marriage counseling closer to $100. While many couples say that therapy is worth it, this price point can be inaccessible for many people. 

There are some things that can significantly reduce the cost of couple’s therapy: 

• Discounts

Many therapists offer sliding scale pricing that helps a wider range of client’s access therapy services. Oftentimes, therapists will notate whether they offer sliding scale pricing on their website and/or bio, but if you don’t see any mention of it, you can always ask if they offer income-based discounts. 

• Health insurance 

If you have health insurance, it’s a good idea to check your plan and see if couples therapy is covered by your plan. While many insurance providers cover individual therapy, they often do not cover couples therapy, so don’t assume couples therapy will be covered just because individual therapy is. 

If your plan does cover couples therapy, you can often use their provider list on your insurance companies’ website to find a provider in your areas who’s covered by your plan.

• Online therapy

Unlike in-person therapy, online therapists often don’t have the overhead that comes with renting office space and commuting. For this reason (and others), online therapy tends to be offered at lower rates than in-person therapy. Platforms like Regain offer online couple’s therapy from licensed therapists that typically costs about as much as you’d expect to pay for an insurance co-pay. These prices can make online therapy a much more accessible option for couples interested in improving their relationship.

While online therapy can be more convenient and affordable, some people worry that online therapy sacrifices quality. This concern is understandable, but it’s been de-bunked by many peer-reviewed studies. For example, one 2021 study published in Frontiers in Psychology compared the outcomes of people attending in-person vs online couple’s therapy. The researchers found that online and in-person couple’s therapy are equally effective at improving relationship satisfaction and mental health. 

Takeaway 

Couples therapy has been shown to help many couples improve their relationship satisfaction and quality of life. If you want to improve your bond with your partner but can’t afford traditional in-person therapy, you might want to consider steps to make licensed therapy more affordable. These include asking for discounts, using your insurance (if possible), or attending therapy sessions online.

Research shows that online couple’s therapy provided by a licensed professional can be just as effective as in-person therapy. And, despite not usually accepting health insurance, online therapy is typically a more affordable choice than in-person couple’s therapy.