Gottman-informed Couples & Relationship Therapy draws on decades of research by Drs John and Julie Gottman into how couples build connection and navigate difficulties. It focuses on three closely connected areas: friendship, managing conflict and creating shared meaning. Therapy explores the strengths you already have alongside the patterns that leave you feeling unheard or disconnected.
One key concept is developing “Love Maps”: understanding your partner’s inner world, including their worries, hopes and changing needs. Another is noticing and responding to everyday attempts to connect, whether that is sharing a story, asking for support or reaching for affection. These small moments, together with expressing appreciation, help nurture friendship and emotional closeness.
The Gottman Approach recognises that some disagreements reflect lasting differences in personality, needs or values. Therapy helps couples distinguish problems they can solve from differences they need to manage with understanding, so recurring issues become easier to discuss.
Practical work may include expressing concerns without blame, listening with curiosity and recognising when a conversation needs a pause. Couples also practise repairing difficult interactions and exploring the needs beneath recurring arguments.
Gottman-informed therapy uses these principles flexibly within care tailored to your relationship. It offers a framework for understanding each other and practising more supportive ways of relating in everyday life.
Learn more by visiting the Gottman Institute.