Relationship Counselling Calgary

Couple's Counselling
Services

Welcome! Sana Psychological is a collective of therapists with different personal and professional backgrounds and areas of expertise. Relationship improvement is something that is part of all counselling, to a certain extent, as people do not exist in isolation and are impacted by the relationships around them. However, sometimes people are looking for support that is concentrated in the relationship realm. Thankfully, we can help with that!

Sana Psychological Provides Relationship Support For:

The Couple

For those who are interested in meeting with your clinician along with your partner, we can support you in working on the following relationship areas:

Communication
Conflict
Parenting
Boundaries
Sex & Intimacy
Addiction issues
Mental health
Life transitions

Our clinicians use evidence-based modalities to support you and your relationship, including:

Gottman Method
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy

We are currently accepting new clients for couple’s counselling. Please see our online scheduling portal for clinician availability

The Individual

You are interested in improving the quality of your relationships at potentially many levels. We can support you with the following areas of healthy connection:

Communication
Boundaries
Sex & Intimacy
Attachment
Addiction & Mental Health recovery
Dating
Family of Origin issues
Codependency

Our clinicians use evidence-based modalities to support your healthy relationship quest, including:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Narrative & Solution-Focused Therapies

We are currently accepting new clients for individual counselling. Please see our online scheduling portal for clinician availability

How Do You Know if You Would Benefit from Relationship Counselling?

Challenges with relationships can present themselves in a variety of different ways. Below is an informal self-test to assist you in starting to gauge whether relationship counselling would be recommended. Have you struggled with any of the following:

Difficulty expressing yourself
Not feeling heard
Relationship conflict
Frequent difficulties in relationships, whether that be with colleagues, friends, family, or romantic partners
Questions and confusion about sexuality and orientation
Being relationship avoidant
Bingeing on relationships, not feeling comfortable being alone
Using relationships for escape and relief
Codependency
Sexual anorexia and/or bingeing/compulsion
Insecurity
Jealousy
Infidelity

Lying, manipulating, sneaking around (dishonesty)
Low self-esteem
Serial monogamy
High conflict and drama in relationships
Divorce
Challenges integrating into a new relationship
Feeling relationally challenged
Difficulty ‘moving on’ after a relationship ends
Lots of fantasy/daydreaming
On again, off again relationships
Being told you have relational issues

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it might be a good time to start to explore Couple’s and/or Individual relationship counselling and seeking out the help of a trained professional. These symptoms tend to appear as relationship challenges progress. While they may still be minimal and mild for you, it would be best to get proper support and problem solving to prevent the progression of these challenges and ensure the health and well-being of you and your relationships.

Ready to Improve Your Relationship?

We are here to help!

Get Started

Treatment Approach

Relationship counselling can be a short-term process, particularly if you already have good self-awareness, support network, and self-care resources. Even those with these coping tools appreciate the opportunity to check in every few months or even once or twice per year to ensure they are staying diligent and accountable to their relational health plan.

For those who are new(er) to relationship counselling, those who may have spent limited time self-developing and reflecting, those who are experiencing more severe mental health issues, and/or have multiple challenges they are dealing with, mental health counselling may be a longer, more intensive process. This will always be tailored to you and discussed with your clinician as you navigate the therapeutic process.

Sessions are generally recommended every 1-3 weeks initially. There is always lots to learn about at the beginning of the counselling process and, the more we know, the better able we can support you in helping yourself. After a few sessions at this frequency, it may be appropriate to expand the time frame to sessions every 2-6 weeks. This will be collaboratively decided between you and your clinician. The availability of in person vs. virtual counselling depends on the clinician. This information is available in the online scheduling portal.

Longer sessions may be recommended and/or requested by you. This will get scheduled by your therapist. To begin with, sessions are booked within the standard 50-minute therapeutic hour.

The first sessions will involve gathering as much background information as possible about you and your partner, if they are present, including strengths, available coping network and tools, and challenges. Information is gathered to know about all parts of you, not just the challenges. Relationship counselling is about much more than just your symptoms and will involve exploration and development of other relationships, self-care, communication, conflict resolution, boundaries, and more.

Our clinicians have been trained in a variety of therapeutic modalities, including: Gottman Method, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI). A combination of these approaches will be employed depending on your needs and the clinician’s discretion.

Follow-up appointments generally involve a check-in to see presenting issues and immediate things that have come up that you may want to process, follow-up on any suggestions provided in past appointments to get an idea of progress as well as roadblocks that are coming up, followed by a more in-depth exploration of relationship problems, patterns, and coping. Sessions are active and engaged as our therapists like to ask lots of questions and provide reflections, challenges, and psychoeducation along the way. At any point, if the therapeutic approach or goals need to be changed, please speak up and this will be processed. Sessions come from a non-judgmental, compassionate, empathetic place. We are here to support you in making positive changes in a way that makes sense for you.

Logistics

Sessions may be available in person or virtually depending on the clinician and issue you are looking for support for.

For information about fees, please see here.

Sana Psychological’s clinicians all have the ability to support those in Alberta at the time of appointment and some may be able to support you outside of province, depending on the clinician’s credentials. For more information on this, please see the clinician bios and scheduling options in the online scheduling portal.

Payment options may include cash, credit card, debit, e-transfer, and/or direct billing with a number of different insurance carriers. Availability of each payment modality depends on the clinician and whether you are seeing them in person or virtually.

Relationship counselling can be short or long-term, depending on your needs. Generally our clinicians prefer to meet with people over a longer period of time (6+ months) to ensure sustainability and maintenance of progress as relationship issues tend to ebb and flow and be long-term in nature. If this does not work for your needs, however, that is okay too. We will do as much work as we can in the available sessions to get you building a healthy plan that you can tailor as needed.

Appointments can be scheduled online at anytime.

If you have questions about the services offered, do not hesitate to reach out. Email will be the quickest way to get in touch. We aim to respond to emails and phone calls within 1 business day.

For loved ones

Relationship counselling may also involve concerned family members or partners who have been impacted. They may come in individually for their own support and/or join some sessions or parts of sessions. This will all depend on the specifics of the situation and is something that can be generally assessed over the phone prior to scheduling an appointment. Certainly, after an initial session, more certainty around recommendations and planning can be provided as more background information will have been established.

If you are one part of a relationship and reading this and hoping your loved one will change and come to counselling with you but you are not sure if they are ready, we would encourage you to come in for yourself to look at your own health and relationships. Change in any member of a relational unit creates change for the whole unit, so perhaps change can start with you. Even if you are feeling that your personal changes are not having an impact on your loved one, it will provide you the strength, resources, and ability to cope with the difficult, draining, and challenging situation that you are in.

A Face of Relationship Counselling: Phil’s Story

Phil presented for counselling as he had been in a few romantic relationships throughout his life and was currently single. He found himself having a difficult time moving forward from his last romantic relationship that had ended four years ago. He had tried dating a bit since that break-up but found he did not feel connected or engaged with the people he was seeing as his head and heart kept going back to his ex-partner. Phil had a strong history of fantasy, shyness, and social avoidance and was worried that he was never going to be able to have a healthy relationship with anyone. He did not believe that he had much to offer in a relationship and was worried that he had lost his only opportunity for love.

Through counselling that explored self-esteem, relationship with self, boundaries, family of origin relationship patterns, and current action steps, Phil was able to start coming to accept the end of his previous relationship, appreciating that it ended for a reason and was not as perfect as his mind had convinced him it was. As he established this acceptance, he felt open to exploring new relationships and was willing to take steps to meet new people. Counselling support continued as he worked on social skills, communication, and how to be himself in relationships. Change was possible for Phil and is for you too!