How Online Marriage Counseling Works, In Case You’re Curious

Depending on which program you try and who the therapist is, online marriage counseling can have some variety. In most cases, you’ll be one-on-one with the therapist. Therapists will make an effort to personalize your sessions, offering specific feedback, questions to reflect on, and sometimes “homework” to work on between sessions.

“A majority of therapists who do online counseling conduct the sessions ‘live’ via Zoom or another platform,” psychologist and relationship expert Karin Abrell, M.A., Ph.D., explains. She notes that the online counseling process “moves a bit more slowly, and therapists have fewer ‘readability’ moments,” as far as body language and visual cues. Nevertheless, “the depth of the counseling can still exist.”

There are also options that are more akin to workshops or group therapy, in which multiple couples can attend and learn together. That one-on-one feedback isn’t there in quite the same way, but there’s the benefit of learning in a group instead of feeling all the attention and spotlight on your relationship.

“I offer classes online, and those are also fabulous. Many people like learning in a class but not having to be in a room with other people,” licensed marriage and family therapist Linda Carroll, M.S., LMFT, tells mbg.