Reflective supervision for counsellors working with couples and relationships

Couple counselling can look simple from the outside. Two people come to therapy, they talk about the relationship, and the counsellor helps them communicate better. In practice, it is rarely that tidy.

Couple and relationship counselling asks the practitioner to hold more than one person, more than one story and more than one nervous system in the room. There may be distress, longing, anger, shutdown, blame, fear, shame, grief, betrayal or exhaustion. Sometimes both people want repair. Sometimes one person wants change and the other wants out. Sometimes the work is not safe enough to proceed.

Counsellors working with couples need to think clearly about alliance, safety, power, conflict, attachment, emotional regulation and the wider systems shaping the relationship. They also need to notice what happens in themselves when they are pulled toward one partner, frustrated by another, worried about risk or tempted to move too quickly toward solutions. This group offers space for noticing all that.

What we may explore

This group may include reflection on:

Holding the relationship system
How to work with the couple or relationship as the focus of therapy, rather than becoming the individual counsellor for one partner while the other watches on.

Alliance with more than one person
How to build trust with both partners, manage loyalty pulls and stay therapeutically balanced when stories, needs and levels of readiness differ.

Conflict, escalation and repair
How to understand cycles of pursuit, withdrawal, defensiveness, criticism, shutdown, protest, rupture and repair.

Attachment, intimacy and disconnection
How to think about longing, fear, dependency, avoidance, emotional injury, sexual concerns and the ways people protect themselves in close relationships.

Safety, power and coercion
How to assess for family violence, coercive control, intimidation, fear, sexual pressure and other dynamics that may make couple counselling unsafe or inappropriate.

Affairs, betrayal and breaches of trust
How to work with disclosure, secrecy, trauma responses, accountability, ambivalence, repair attempts and the emotional intensity that often follows betrayal.

Separation, parenting and family transitions
How to support clients navigating separation, co-parenting, blended families, grief, conflict and the impact of relationship distress on children.

The therapist’s use of self
How to notice countertransference, personal relationship history, assumptions about gender and family, the urge to rescue, the wish to fix, and the emotional load of sitting inside intimate distress.

Why group supervision?

Couple and relationship counsellors often carry highly charged work. The sessions can move quickly, the emotional temperature can rise suddenly, and the counsellor may be asked, directly or indirectly, to decide who is right, who is wrong, who should change or whether the relationship should continue.

A small supervision group gives you a place to think with others who understand the complexity of this work. It offers shared reflection, practical clinical thinking and support for the ethical decisions that sit underneath couple and relationship counselling.

The aim of the group is to support clearer thinking, stronger clinical judgement and more sustainable practice when working with couples, intimate partners and complex relational dynamics.

Who this group is for

This group may suit you if you:

• provide couple counselling, couples counselling or relationship counselling

• work with intimate partners, relationship distress or separation

• want supervision that understands the complexity of working with more than one client in the room

• need support with conflict, attachment dynamics, betrayal, intimacy, safety or repair

• want to strengthen your assessment of family violence, coercive control and relationship safety

• notice yourself being pulled into referee, rescuer, advocate or problem-solver roles

• value reflective, practical and collegial supervision

You do not need to work exclusively with couples. This group is also suitable for counsellors who combine relationship counselling with other kinds of counselling.

Experienced supervisors

The group is facilitated by supervisors with experience in couple and relationship counselling, intimate partner dynamics, reflective practice and the ethical complexity of relational work.

Format

Online small-group supervision
4 x 90-minute sessions
Capped at 6 participants
For counsellors and psychotherapists across Australia

Fee

$399 per person for a block of 4 x 90-minute sessions, including GST (equivalent to $66.50 per hour)

Dates

TBA

We are currently finalising the supervisor and schedule for this specialist supervision group. Expressions of interest are now open, with the first group expected to commence in October 2026. Register your interest and we'll let you know as soon as dates and the facilitator are confirmed.