Reconnect & Grow Together
Couples Therapy in San Francisco, CA
Work with expert San Francisco couples therapists — in person at our Franklin Street office or through online couples therapy anywhere in California. Our evidence-based approach integrates schema therapy, ACT, and somatic therapy to help you break stuck patterns and rebuild real connection.
- In-Person in SF
- Online Across California
- Retreats & Workshops
20+ years of expertise
- HuffPost
- Forbes
- The New York Times
- Verywell Mind
- PsychCentral
- Bloomberg
- Business Insider
- Dr. Drew
Specialized Couples Therapists for Every Relationship
Are you and your partner having the same arguments over and over? Feeling stuck, unheard, or disconnected? Our couples therapists in San Francisco, California specialize in helping partners get unstuck. Whether you are navigating constant conflict, rebuilding after betrayal, or simply want a deeper bond, couples therapy can help you understand the patterns driving disconnection and replace them with skills that actually work.
Unlike passive talk therapy, our San Francisco couples therapists take an active, directive approach — intervening in real time, teaching concrete skills, and tailoring every session to your relationship. Meet in person at our SF office, or choose online couples therapy in San Francisco and across California from the comfort of home.
Many Couples Struggle — How You Repair Matters Most
Every relationship hits rough patches. What determines whether a couple thrives isn't the absence of problems — it's how partners respond to them. In couples therapy at our San Francisco center, you'll learn to recognize the cycle you get trapped in, slow it down, and respond to each other in ways that build trust instead of eroding it.
It's never too late to repair your relationship. Whether you're working through broken trust, jealousy, or infidelity, our couples therapy integrates mindfulness, nonviolent communication, and conflict-resolution skills to help you reconnect.
Start Healing with Evidence-Based Couples Therapy
Couples therapy is crucial for relationship resilience — and it isn't only for relationships in crisis. Many partners come to us for premarital counseling, sex therapy, or discernment counseling to strengthen a bond that's already good.
Our couples counselors don't just listen — they intervene in real time. Sessions are structured and skills-based: you'll practice new ways of communicating in the room, get direct feedback, and leave each session with tools you can use immediately at home in San Francisco or anywhere in California.
Our Unique Approach to Couples Therapy in San Francisco
Most couples counseling stops at communication tips. Ours goes deeper. Our specialized approach maps each partner's relationship schemas — the core patterns formed early in life — then uses acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and somatic techniques to change how those patterns play out between you. Curious about your own patterns? Take our relationship schema quiz or read about schema chemistry.
Holistic & Integrative
We weave somatic (body-based), cognitive, and behavioral methods into one coherent treatment — addressing how relationship distress lives in your thoughts, your habits, and your nervous system.
Specialized & Original
We literally wrote the book on it. Our founder co-authored ACT for Couples, and our therapists developed our signature approach to couples therapy integrating schema therapy, ACT, and somatic work.
Customized to Your Relationship
No one-size-fits-all protocols. After a thorough assessment, your San Francisco couples therapist builds a tailored plan around your specific patterns, history, values, and goals.
Books by Our San Francisco Couples Therapists
Our approach isn't borrowed — it's published. These books, co-authored by our founder Dr. Avigail Lev with Dr. Matthew McKay, form the foundation of the schema-informed ACT method we use with every couple.
Six Evidence-Based Modalities, One Integrated Method
Every San Francisco couples therapist on our team is trained across modalities, so your therapy draws on whichever tools your relationship needs — in person in SF or through online couples therapy across California.
Modality
ACT for Couples
Acceptance and commitment therapy helps you unhook from blame and reactivity, clarify shared values, and take committed action toward the relationship you want — the approach at the heart of our co-authored book, ACT for Couples.
Modality
Schema Therapy
Identify the deep relational patterns — abandonment, mistrust, self-sacrifice, entitlement — that fuel your conflicts, and learn how your schemas interlock so you can finally step out of the loop.
Modality
Somatic Couples Therapy
Conflict lives in the body. Somatic therapy teaches you and your partner to track activation, ground yourselves, and co-regulate — so hard conversations stay connected instead of escalating.
Modality
Integrative CBT
Evidence-based cognitive behavioral tools target the thoughts and behaviors that keep couples stuck — from mind-reading and catastrophizing to withdrawal and criticism cycles.
Modality
Mindfulness (MBCT)
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy builds the capacity to notice reactive urges before acting on them — creating the pause where new, kinder responses become possible.
Modality
Nonviolent Communication
NVC gives you a concrete language for feelings and needs, transforming criticism and defensiveness into requests your partner can actually hear and respond to.
Attachment-Focused, Body-Aware Couples Work
Secure attachment isn't just an idea — it's a felt experience. Our couples therapists use attachment-based and somatic interventions to help you and your partner practice co-regulation: calming each other's nervous systems, staying present through discomfort, and rebuilding the physical sense of safety that intimacy depends on.
All couples welcome
Our San Francisco Couples Counselors Specialize in It All
We welcome married and unmarried partners, LGBTQ+ couples, polyamorous and open relationships, and couples of every culture and configuration. Whatever brings you in, there's a couples therapist in San Francisco, California on our team with the right specialty.
- ✓ Conflict-resolution coaching
- ✓ Online couples therapy in San Francisco & across California
- ✓ Couples therapy retreats & intensives
- ✓ Couples therapy workshops & group workshops
- ✓ Infidelity & betrayal recovery
- ✓ Premarital counseling
- ✓ Discernment counseling
- ✓ Parenting & co-parenting support
- ✓ Blended-family counseling
- ✓ Codependency counseling
- ✓ Intimacy enhancement
- ✓ Trauma-informed sex therapy
- ✓ Financial conflict counseling
- ✓ Postpartum couples support
- ✓ Values exploration & alignment
- ✓ Communication-skills training
- ✓ Intercultural relationship counseling
- ✓ Gender & identity exploration
- ✓ LGBTQ+ affirming couples therapy
- ✓ Polyamorous & open-relationship counseling
Weekend Intensives
Couples Therapy Retreats & Workshops in San Francisco
Sometimes weekly sessions aren't enough — or aren't fast enough. Our specialized couples therapy retreats condense months of progress into immersive weekend intensives. Guided by senior couples therapists, you'll map your schema dynamics, practice somatic co-regulation, and rebuild connection in a private, restorative setting.
Prefer learning alongside others? Our couples therapy workshops and group workshops in San Francisco teach communication, conflict resolution, and intimacy skills in a supportive small-group format — a powerful, affordable complement to individual couples work.
- → Private couples retreats: 2–3 day intensives, in person or virtual
- → Group workshops: skills-based series held at our SF center
- → Built on our schema + ACT + somatic method
Online Couples Therapy in San Francisco & Across California
Busy schedules, long commutes, or partners in different cities shouldn't keep you from getting help. Our secure online couples therapy brings the same active, evidence-based sessions to your living room — with the same San Francisco couples therapists you'd see in our office.
Research shows online couples counseling is just as effective as in-person care. Many couples find it easier to open up from home — and it means you can keep momentum going even when life gets hectic.
Available Statewide
Telehealth · All of California
Master Key Skills to Unlock Deeper Connection
Transform Relational Patterns
Spot your schema-driven cycle and interrupt it before it spirals.
Deepen Emotional & Physical Intimacy
Rebuild desire, affection, and the felt sense of closeness.
Communicate So You're Heard
Replace criticism and defensiveness with clear, connecting language.
Practice Co-Regulation
Learn to calm each other's nervous systems during conflict.
Cultivate Secure Attachment
Build the day-to-day habits that make love feel safe and reliable.
Rebuild & Protect Trust
Repair past ruptures and create agreements that hold.
Couples Therapy in San Francisco — FAQs
How do we know what kind of couples therapy we need?
You don't have to figure that out alone. During your first session, your San Francisco couples therapist assesses your patterns, history, and goals, then recommends the right blend of schema therapy, ACT, somatic work, CBT, mindfulness, or NVC. You can also take our therapy matching quiz to get a personalized recommendation before you book.
What if we don't like our couples therapist?
Fit matters enormously in couples work. If your therapist isn't the right match, we offer a free rematch — we'll connect you with another of our couples therapists in San Francisco at no cost, and your progress notes transfer so you don't start from scratch.
Do you take insurance for couples therapy?
We are out-of-network providers. If you have a PPO plan, insurance typically reimburses 50–80% of the session fee. We provide a monthly superbill you can submit directly to your insurer for reimbursement.
Will the counselor take sides?
No. Your couples counselor's client is the relationship itself. Sessions are structured so both partners feel heard, and interventions target the cycle between you — not a "guilty" partner.
Can couples therapy fix real issues like infidelity or constant fighting?
Yes — that's exactly what evidence-based couples therapy is built for. Our integrative method addresses the root patterns beneath infidelity, gridlocked conflict, and disconnection, not just the surface arguments. Many couples see meaningful shifts within the first few sessions.
How soon will we feel the effects?
Because our approach is active and skills-based, most couples leave the very first session with concrete tools. Deeper pattern change — shifting schemas and attachment dynamics — typically unfolds over a few months of weekly sessions, or faster through our couples therapy retreats and intensives.
Your relationship is worth it
Begin Couples Therapy in San Francisco Today
Meet with a specialized San Francisco couples therapist this week — in person or online anywhere in California. Learn, grow, and heal together.
Connected care across California
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Therapy in other locations
We also offer customized support groups and mental health retreat programs to help you go deeper, faster.