What is the Couples Therapy Starter Pack?

At Olympic Psychology Services, we have bundled some of the Gottman Institute's latest assessment advancements with targeted therapy sessions. This option allows couples to pay one fee, and get a full slate of advanced relationship diagnostic services, combined with joint and individual therapy sessions with one of our psychologists. The Starter Pack offers a “Gold Standard” assessment of a couple’s strengths and challenges, as well as recommendations for moving forward:

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• We begin with joint and individual interviews with one of our well-trained psychologists. (For a brief introduction to the Gottman Couples Therapy Method used by our therapists, watch this video). 

• Additionally, we incorporate the Gottman Love Lab Assessment. The Love Lab Assessment includes comprehensive questionnaires utilizing research-based algorithms to generate summary results, as well as a video evaluation process to obtain further information regarding a couple’s interactions. Your data is compared with data gathered from tens of thousands of other couples, generating a profile that can help us to see the strengths and weaknesses of your relationship.

• Following the assessment, your psychologist will meet with you to review the results of your data analysis, as well as to contextualize the results into the framework of your personal relationship.

• Finally, after getting to know you on a more personal level, reviewing the data, and watching you interact with one another in a clinical setting, your therapist will be able to present recommendations for moving forward. This may mean providing you with exercises and readings to try on your own as a couple - this approach is often successful, and the couple can make significant progress on their own. Or, we may recommend that you continue regular therapy sessions with one of our relationship experts. In either case, the decisions for moving forward will be entirely up to you, but you will be able to do so from a much better-informed position.

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The Starter Pack is ideal for:

• Couples who are in mild distress but are making it through for the time being… who are interested in getting some feedback on the state of their relationship and what, specifically, they can do on their own to help their relationship grow and flourish.

• Couples who are struggling and want to participate in couples therapy, but would like to get the ball rolling sooner versus later! For these couples the Starter Pack allows them to get started; the assessment offered in the Starter Pack is the same as the initial phase of couples therapy, and the work would not need to be repeated if the couple transitions into ongoing couples therapy at OPS. The Starter Pack also would offer some recommendations regarding what they can do to work on the relationship while they are waiting for a space to open up for ongoing therapy.

• The Starter Pack is not recommended for couples who have experienced a recent relationship trauma, such as infidelity, or situations in which substance abuse or relational abuse (physical or emotional) are part of the picture.

 

 

How do we get started?

To get started, please fill out this form, and be sure to indicate that you are interested in the "Couples Therapy Starter Pack."

 

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How much does it cost?

The Starter Pack is an all-inclusive fee of $1,650, which includes:

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• An initial joint interview appointment with your psychologist

• Two individual appointments (one for each partner)

• A joint feedback/recommendations appointment

• The Love Lab Assessment, including research-based questionnaires and video interaction analysis

• The psychologist's time in distilling all assessment results and generating recommendations unique to each couple’s needs

• Resource handouts/materials/books/activities based on the couple’s needs

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We do understand that the initial $1,650 fee may incur some “sticker shock” at first. However, we hear from numerous couples who come to us after floundering through months of expensive therapy sessions using a less scientific approach. Those expensive months of atrophy - not to mention the potential cost of divorce - are exactly what we are trying to help couples avoid. Of course no therapy is guaranteed to succeed, but we believe our approach offers the greatest potential for a satisfying outcome.

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Additionally, the work done in the Starter Pack incorporates some of the same work done in the initial phases of regular couples therapy sessions, and the activities would not need to be repeated if the couple transitions into ongoing couples therapy sessions at OPS.

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In the rare case where a couple begins their Starter Pack sessions, but then chooses to opt out after the first session, a refund for the remaining sessions is provided.