Couples & Relationships
Support for couples experiencing repeated conflict, disconnection, broken trust or uncertainty about their future together.
It is common for one person to feel ready for counselling before the other does. You will not be expected to arrive with the same understanding of the problem. Counselling provides an emotionally safe place to share how you feel and experience the relationship, identify goals and define practical steps forward.
Relationship difficulties rarely sit neatly in one part of life. Communication, parenting, work, neurodivergence, past experiences and accumulated hurt can all affect what happens between you.
For couples, partners and people navigating relationship strain.
Conversations become defensive, critical or overwhelming, or one person shuts down while the other pushes to resolve things.
You revisit the same issue without reaching understanding, and both people leave feeling unheard or blamed.
Secrecy, betrayal, infidelity, repeated hurt or broken agreements have changed how safe the relationship feels.
Affection, intimacy, friendship or emotional connection has faded beneath work, parenting and daily responsibilities.
ADHD, autism, sensory needs, executive functioning or different communication styles contribute to misunderstanding, resentment or uneven responsibilities.
Rosters, travel, exhaustion and different routines make it difficult to stay connected or adjust when the working partner returns home.
What if one of us is not sure about counselling?
It is common for one person to make the booking while the other feels uncertain, sceptical or worried that counselling will become a place where they are blamed.
You do not need to agree about who caused the problem before attending. Your counsellor will help both people explain their experience, understand the repeated pattern between you and identify what each person is willing to work towards.
The counsellor's role is not to choose a side or decide who wins. It is to support a fair and emotionally safe process while remaining attentive to responsibility, harmful behaviour and the wellbeing of everyone involved.
Slow difficult conversations down so each person can share their experience without immediately returning to the usual argument.
Look beneath individual incidents to recognise what keeps happening between you and how each response affects what happens next.
Clarify what each person wants from counselling, where your goals overlap and where important differences remain.
Define steps to achieve those goals and practise new ways of communicating, responding, reconnecting and making decisions together.
Senior Counsellor
Works with: Adults, couples and families.
Counsellor · ACA, Member: 20240
Works with: Adults, couples, parents and adult family members.
Appointments are available at our South Perth clinic (close to Como, Applecross, Victoria Park and Mount Pleasant) and online across Australia, including for FIFO couples and partners living or working apart.
One person can complete the online booking. We will collect the information needed for both participants before the appointment.
Your counsellor will help each person explain what has been happening, what the relationship has been like for them and what they hope will change.
Together, you will identify goals and define steps to achieve them. Progress is reviewed so counselling remains connected to what matters to both of you.
At times, it can help to slow things down and begin individual counselling to process unresolved trauma, alcohol-related concerns or behaviours that are making joint sessions unsafe or unproductive. Your counsellor will discuss this with you and support an appropriate pathway before considering a return to the couples counselling space.
You can begin with individual relationship counselling. This can help you understand the patterns, manage your own responses and decide what you want to do next. If your partner later agrees to attend, let your counsellor know so the appointment can be changed to the appropriate session type.
The counsellor's role is not to declare one person right and the other wrong. Both people will have an opportunity to explain their experience. The counsellor will also address responsibility and harmful behaviour rather than treating every difficulty as equally shared.
Yes. You do not need to have decided whether to stay together before beginning counselling. Sessions can help you understand the relationship, consider what would need to change and make less reactive decisions.
Yes. Counselling can account for different communication styles, sensory needs, executive functioning, emotional regulation and ways of processing information. Neurodivergence is not treated as a character flaw or automatically assumed to be the cause of every relationship difficulty.
Yes. Counselling can address communication across a roster, disconnection during time apart, resentment, changes in household roles and the difficult transition between being away and returning home.
No. Counselling focuses on the relationship, emotional experiences, communication and recurring patterns. It does not provide legal advice or make decisions about property, finances or parenting arrangements. Counselling can support separated parents to communicate and reduce conflict, but it does not replace family dispute resolution.
Joint counselling is not always appropriate when one person cannot speak freely, there is fear, coercive control, current family violence or an immediate safety concern. Individual assessment or specialist support can be recommended before any joint work.
No. You can book directly online without a GP referral.
An individual appointment is $169.40. A couple or family appointment is $193.60. Relationship counselling is privately billed without Medicare or private health rebates.
Self-managed and plan-managed participants can use eligible NDIS funding. Discovery Family Therapy is not a registered NDIS provider.
Yes. Appointments are available in person in South Perth and online across Australia by secure video.
You do not need to agree about everything before booking. You only need enough willingness to begin a conversation about what is happening and what each of you wants to work towards.
Book directly if couples counselling feels like the right starting point, or tell us a little about what is happening and we will help you choose.
Not sure where to start? Tell us who support is for and what is happening, and we will help you find the right first step. Submitting this form does not confirm an appointment.
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Men's CounsellingIndividual support for men navigating relationship strain, separation, fatherhood, stress or loss of direction.
Counselling for FathersSupport with parenting, separation, co-parenting and relationships with children.
Divorce and Separation CounsellingSupport when a relationship is ending or family life has already changed.
Family CounsellingSupport when conflict, disconnection or change affects several members of the family.
Neurodivergent SupportSupport for individuals, couples and families navigating ADHD, autism and different ways of communicating or functioning.
Trauma CounsellingSupport when past or current trauma continues to influence safety, trust and relationships.
