Best Online Couples Therapy and Counseling Services of 2024
Guide to Choosing the Best Online Couples Therapy
There is a lot to think about when choosing the right online couples counseling or therapy for yourself and your partner. Here are some factors we recommend you consider:
- Price: Therapy and counseling for couples is often slightly more expensive for couples, with monthly costs ranging from less than $50 to over $500. Consider whether the strain on your budget will add stress to your relationship, and whether choosing a service that accepts insurance can help minimize expenses.
- Specialties: Are you and your partner looking to improve your overall communication and relationship, or are you more specifically looking for help with parenting or intimacy? Choosing a service tailored to your needs can improve your experience.
- Scheduling: Online counseling offers more schedule flexibility in general, because you can attend sessions from anywhere. But some services offer weekend or evening appointments, which may be a huge help for parents of young kids or those with demanding or unusual work schedules.
- Communication method: Services that offer texting may give you added flexibility if scheduling is difficult but, for others, the dedicated face-time of live counseling may be a higher priority.
- Switching therapists: You should get to work with a therapist you feel comfortable with, so be sure to look into how easily you can switch if you’re not happy with the person you’re initially paired with.
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or others, please seek support immediately. You can text the Crisis Textline at 741741, call 988 to get connected to emergency mental health resources, or dial 911 for emergency services—though with the latter two options, be aware that police might be the first responders.
Frequently Asked Questions
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How Is Couples Therapy Different From Other Types of Therapy?
Couples therapy is a form of therapy that provides clinical support to you and your partner, helping with anything from infidelity to parenting issues, or even just to make sure the relationship stays healthy. This differs from individual therapy, where only one person meets with the therapist, and family therapy, where it’s a family unit that is working with a therapist to understand and change their family dynamics.
Group therapy involves a set number of participants who share a similar experience or condition with a licensed therapist leading the sessions, whereas support groups do not require participants to attend regularly every week and might be run by a person with lived experience rather than a professional.
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How Does Couples Therapy Work?
Most couples therapy sessions range from 30 to 90 minutes and take place either online (via a video call or phone call) or in-person every week. Your therapist will be likely be a marriage and family therapist, a psychologist, a licensed mental health counselor, or a licensed social worker and will have training in treating couples.
During your session, your therapist will ask you and your partner questions and guide you through conversations in order to develop goals and ways to enhance your relationship and reduce conflict. Some online therapy platforms also offer an opportunity to message your therapist and complete homework assignments in between sessions.
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Is Couples Therapy Effective?
There is much empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of couples therapy, both by itself and in conjunction with other types of mental health treatment, as outlined by a 2022 study. Another study from 2016 found that psychodynamic couples therapy (focusing more on deeper personal and emotional issues rather than problem-solving) resulted in improvement in both the relationship and how each partner felt individually. Emotionally focused therapy in particular has been proven to be especially effective with couples, as outlined in a 2022 meta-analysis (a study of many studies).
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Is Online Couples Therapy Right for You?
Online couples counseling is great for people who want to address issues like communication and trust in their relationship; it can even be a good resource for people whose relationship is already strong but who want to prevent problems or concerns that might come up down the road. However, if one or both of you has a diagnosis of a severe mood disorder or schizophrenia, online therapy platforms may not provide the level of support needed when working with both relationship issues and serious mental health concerns.
Similarly, online couples counseling isn’t suitable for relationships where domestic violence is occurring. This is because some conversations in couples therapy can end up escalating the violence. Instead, it is imperative that each partner seeks out therapy separately.
How We Tested and Reviewed Online Couples Counseling
We evaluated 55 online therapy companies and 25 therapist directories in order to compile this list.
Firsthand Experience
As part of our research, we signed up for talk therapy at all 55 online therapy companies we reviewed. We tested each company’s therapy services, and if the company offered other services (such as couples therapy and kid or teen therapy) we tested those too. Our testers are located all across the United States and abroad, meaning we have extensive information about each company’s services in a variety of areas.
User and Brand Surveys
In addition, we surveyed more than 10,000 therapy users: 100 at each of the 55 online therapy companies and 180 at each of the 25 therapist directories. We collected over 100 different data points in which we asked users to evaluate each company’s services, from their therapist’s qualifications to whether they found a therapist who met all their needs to how they’d rate the company overall. We also sent questionnaires to each company we considered, asking for their perspectives on the services they provide, and we interviewed former patients and therapists at the companies where possible.
Research
In addition to the extensive research we performed on each of the 55 online therapy companies we reviewed, we also researched dozens of therapy directories. We tested each by searching for appropriate therapists for 37 hypothetical scenarios that might lead someone to search for a mental health provider across 18 ZIP codes. We then rated the results by how well the therapists we found in each directory could address each scenario, looking into whether it had competent, licensed therapists that were qualified to treat these issues.
Expert Recommendations
Once we completed this testing and these surveys, we evaluated our findings with the help of three licensed therapists—Amy Marschall, PsyD; Nic Hardy, PhD, LCSW; and Hannah Owens, LMSW—in order to make our recommendations. These therapists provided extensive insight into the ethics and efficacy of online therapy as well as information about relevant therapeutic modalities and approaches.
Read our full online therapy methodology to see how we evaluated each service
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