Online Couples Therapy in Ottawa
Support for couples longing to reconnect.
Virtual therapy based in Ottawa with online sessions available in Ontario.
Where did the love go?
Your relationship has become a to-do list. Duties. Schedules. Somewhere between the demands of life, the warmth disappeared, and now you’re wondering if this is just what a relationship becomes after a while.
Online couples therapy helps you and your partner sort through the noise, relationship anxiety, burnout and find your way back to something truly meaningful.
Online Couples Therapy | Ontario
What is Couples Therapy?
Couples therapy is support for partners who want to stop the conflict cycles, friction, struggles, and broken trust. We help you rebuild safety, and feel like a team again. Instead of guessing your way through friction, you will have a clear plan, tools, and a haven to do the real work together.
At Open Haven Counselling and Therapy, our eclectic approach blends the Gottman Method with Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and other evidence-informed methods. We tailor every plan to your unique story, your specific struggles, and the pace that feels right for you. For some couples, that means working through infidelity and broken trust. For others, it means rediscovering the friendship and passion that brought them together in the first place.
You don’t need to have it all figured out to begin. You just need to be willing to show up, and we’ll help you from there onward.
Online Therapy for Couples | Ontario
What Can Couples Therapy Help With?
Anxiety and Overwhelm in the Relationship
When anxiety takes over, it can create distance, misunderstandings, and constant tension. Couples therapy helps you both understand what is happening beneath the surface and find steadier ground together.
Communication Breakdowns
If you do not feel heard, understood, or valued, therapy can help you communicate more honestly and reconnect emotionally without the conversation turning into a fight.
Infidelity and Broken Trust
When trust has been shattered, healing requires care, structure, and real support. We guide couples through infidelity recovery with honesty, accountability, and a clear path toward rebuilding, without rushing or minimizing what happened.
Loss of Connection and Intimacy
When the closeness fades, and your relationship starts to feel like a business arrangement, couples therapy helps you rebuild emotional and physical intimacy and feel like partners again.
Postpartum Depression and Anxiety in Your Relationship
The arrival of a baby changes everything. When postpartum depression or anxiety enters the picture, it can leave one or both partners feeling lost and disconnected. We help you navigate this season with tools to support each other through it.
Parenting Stress and Relationship Strain
The demands of raising children can quietly erode a relationship. We help couples navigate parenting challenges together, so your partnership does not get lost in the process.
Low Self-Esteem and Feeling Unseen
When one or both partners feel unappreciated, overlooked, or unworthy, it can quietly poison even the most loving relationship. We help you both feel seen, valued, and genuinely understood.
Breaking Generational Cycles
Old patterns from our own families of origin often show up in our closest relationships. We help couples identify inherited cycles and build something new and healthier together.
Virtual Couples Therapy | Ontario
Approaches We Use in Couples Therapy
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Grounded in over 40 years of research, the Gottman Method focuses on what actually helps relationships heal and grow. We use practical tools, structured exercises, and strategies to strengthen friendship, manage conflict, and rebuild trust. Couples often receive tailored worksheets to practice between sessions, reinforcing what is learned and creating real momentum.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples
For couples who feel deeply wounded, disconnected, or overwhelmed by emotion, we integrate EFT to help slow reactive cycles, deepen emotional safety, and create space for genuine repair. This approach helps both partners understand the feelings driving their behaviour beneath the anger, the silence, and the distance.
Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy
When past trauma, whether personal or relational, is showing up in your partnership, we bring a trauma-informed lens to the work. This means moving with care, building emotional safety first, and never rushing the process.
The door to your relationship's next chapter is open.
All you have to do is walk through it.
Book a free 20-minute consultation or your first virtual couples therapy session today.
Nathalie Girgis, RP, MA
Owner, Registered Psychotherapist
This haven was built for you, by someone who understands
At Open Haven Counselling and Therapy, care begins with safety, warmth, and the freedom to simply be yourself. We offer genuine, evidence-informed care that helps you feel heard, understood, and hopeful about what comes next, a space for people who are tired of holding everything together on their own. Discover the heart behind Open Haven Counselling and Therapy and how Nathalie’s story, values, and trusted eclectic therapeutic approaches create a real haven for lasting change.
Meet Our Team
Match With a Couples Therapist in Ontario
How Couples Therapy Works
Your Couples Therapy Journey at Open Haven
We Start Together
We begin by meeting with you as a couple. This is your space to share what has brought you in, tell the story of your relationship, and begin to feel heard by someone who is there to understand you holistically.
We Meet One-on-One
We then meet with each partner individually. This gives each of you the space to speak freely, so we can fully understand both perspectives and tailor the work ahead with care and accuracy.
You Transform & Grow
We come back together as a couple with a personalized plan. With the right tools and ongoing support, you’ll begin to rebuild trust, reconnect, and move toward a relationship that feels meaningful again.
Online Couples Therapy | Ontario
Questions About Couples Therapy
Do we attend couples therapy together?
We begin with a joint session so we can hear your story as a couple and understand what has brought you both in. From there, we meet with each partner individually, giving each of you a private, honest space to speak freely. After that, the rest of your couples therapy sessions continue together. This process is rooted in the Gottman Method and ensures that both partners feel genuinely heard before the deeper work begins.
Does couples therapy help?
It does. When there is a safe, trusting environment, something shifts. The brain feels seen, understood, and connected, and that changes how we show up for each other. For couples, online relationship therapy helps you understand what is really happening beneath the arguments, the silence, and the distance. The real emotions, the unmet needs, the fears that never get said out loud. Many couples move from real distress to genuine recovery once they have the right tools and a clearer picture of each other’s inner world. Virtual couples therapy at Open Haven Counselling and Therapy makes this support accessible no matter where you are in Ontario, Québec, or British Columbia.
How long does couples therapy last?
Every couple’s journey is different, and the length of therapy depends on the problems identified. Your therapist will regularly assess progress, adjust the treatment plan, and make sure the approach, whether that includes Gottman worksheets or relationship exercises, continues to fit your needs and goals.
Is it okay if one of us wants therapy more than the other?
Yes, absolutely. It’s more common than you might think. Partners rarely arrive at the same level of readiness, and that’s okay. Marital therapy and adult couples therapy are designed to gently build understanding, alignment, and commitment over time, even if one partner is more motivated at first.
Will the couple's therapist tell us if it is too late to get help?
Couples therapy doesn’t label or work from a place of “too late.” What we do instead is help you get honest and clear about what’s working, what’s not, and what rebuilding trust and connection could genuinely look like for the two of you. Sometimes that clarity is the turning point. Relationship recovery is possible in many situations, and our role is to help you understand your options, not to make that decision for you. The door is open. What happens next is yours to choose. Book a free 15-minute consultation to learn more about how we can help you.
Online Couples Therapy | Ontario
What Your Relationship Can Feel Like After Couples Therapy
Many couples begin to feel a sense of relief early in the process, simply because they have support and, for the first time in a long time, a clear path forward.
Over time, you may notice:
- The courage to work through conflict instead of shutting down
- Sleeping better because you trust the person beside you again
- Feeling more connected and present as a parent and as a partner
- Relief from overthinking because your relationship feels secure
- Thinking about the future again and looking forward to it
Open Haven Counselling and Therapy
How To Get Started
Schedule your free 20-minute consultation or your first therapy appointment.
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Online from anywhere in Ontario.
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