Gottman Method & EFFT · Virtual · 6 provinces
Online Couples Therapy & Marriage Counselling
Build stronger, healthier relationships with the people you love.
Virtual couples therapy, marriage counselling, and relationship counselling using the Gottman Method and EFFT — for couples in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador.
Is this how your relationship feels?
Relationships — especially the closest ones — are also the most demanding. If you recognize yourself in any of these, couples therapy or relationship counselling can help.
→Unheard, misunderstood, or dismissed by your partner
→Constantly arguing, or walking on eggshells to avoid conflict
→Disconnected — more like roommates than partners
→Unappreciated or taken for granted
→Anxious about where the relationship is heading
→Struggling to trust after an affair or betrayal
→Losing intimacy and not knowing how to get it back
→Dealing with differences in parenting, finances, or values
What we work on together
Communicating more effectively and calmly
Rebuilding trust and emotional closeness
Understanding and managing emotional triggers
Developing empathy and compassion — for each other and yourself
Strengthening intimacy and shared goals
Breaking recurring conflict cycles that feel impossible to escape
Session details
Takes about a minute · full fee details
Couples therapy or relationship counselling — which is right for you?
Both aim to improve your relationships — but they work differently.
Couples therapy
You and your partner work with a therapist together. It’s a shared space to understand each other’s perspectives, improve how you communicate, and address specific challenges in your relationship.
Best for
- Communication breakdowns and recurring conflict
- Trust issues and emotional disconnection
- Rebuilding intimacy after an affair
- Different parenting styles or life goals
- Considering separation — or working to avoid it
Relationship counselling
You work individually on how you relate to others. This is about understanding your own patterns, attachment style, and emotional needs — whether you’re in a relationship, recently ended one, or wanting to improve relationships more broadly.
Best for
- Understanding your attachment and relational patterns
- Processing a breakup or divorce
- Improving family or friendship relationships
- Recovering from emotional abuse or manipulation
- Preparing for a healthier relationship in the future
Gottman Method & EFFT
The Gottman Method
Developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman after decades of research on thousands of couples, the Gottman Method is one of the most evidence-based approaches to couples therapy in the world. It focuses on building friendship, managing conflict constructively, and creating shared meaning.
- Identifies the communication patterns that predict relationship breakdown
- Builds the emotional intelligence needed for lasting connection
- Practical tools that couples use between sessions
- Research-backed — developed from observing real couples over decades
EFFT — Emotionally Focused Family Therapy
EFFT is an attachment-based approach that helps partners and family members understand the emotional patterns driving their conflicts. It focuses on creating secure emotional bonds — transforming negative cycles into moments of genuine connection and responsiveness.
- Addresses the underlying emotional needs behind conflict
- Helps partners become a secure base for each other
- Works with families as well as couples
- Creates lasting change in emotional patterns
Curious what sessions actually look like? Read our guide: What to expect from couples therapy in BC.
What if your partner will not come
This is the most common reason couples work never starts, and it is worth answering properly rather than pretending it does not happen.
You do not need your partner in the room to work on the relationship. A great deal can be done individually — understanding the cycle the two of you get into, noticing your own part in it, changing what you do at the moment it starts. Relationships are systems, and one person moving differently changes the pattern whether or not the other person has agreed to anything.
It is also common for a reluctant partner to join later. People who refuse the idea of counselling in the abstract sometimes agree once they have seen that it is a conversation rather than a tribunal, and that nobody is being assigned blame. If that happens, moving from individual to couples sessions is straightforward.
What individual work cannot do is fix a relationship on its own, and you will not be told otherwise here.
What sessions cost
Couples counselling is $175 per 50-minute session. Individual sessions are $150. The first conversation is free — fifteen to twenty minutes, with no referral needed — and either both of you or just one of you can be on that call.
No provincial health plan in Canada covers counselling in private practice. Extended health plans often do, and which designation your plan names matters: some list a Canadian Certified Counsellor, some a Registered Psychotherapist, some a Registered Clinical Counsellor. Where two partners have separate plans, it is sometimes possible to claim across both. You receive an insurance-ready receipt after every session.
Sessions run seven days a week from noon to 9pm Pacific, which is late enough in every province served to fit around two people's working days. Full detail is on the fees page.
Who you would be working with
Mohamad Shabib, MACP, CCC holds the Gottman Method at Levels 1 and 2, alongside Advanced EMDR, Internal Family Systems Levels 1 and 2, and CBT for Trauma. He is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the CRPO in Ontario and a Canadian Certified Counsellor, and he sees couples across all six provinces the practice serves. Sessions in English or Arabic.
Alison Shaji, RCC holds the Gottman Method at Levels 1 and 2 as well, plus EFFT — a model built directly on attachment theory — along with EMDR, CBT and DBT. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in British Columbia, so she works with BC couples. Sessions in English, Hindi or Malayalam.
Neither is a Certified Gottman Therapist, which is a separate credential from the Gottman Institute and is not claimed here. What they hold is the training, at Levels 1 and 2.
Common questions
Are we too far gone for this to be worth trying?
Nobody can answer that from the outside, and anyone who tells you otherwise on a website is guessing. What the free consultation can establish is whether the two of you still want the same thing, which is usually the more useful question. Sometimes couples work ends in a decision to separate, and doing that deliberately rather than by attrition is a legitimate outcome.
Will you take sides?
No, and the work does not depend on establishing who was right. Most recurring arguments are a cycle rather than a fault — one person pursues, the other withdraws, and each response makes the other more likely. Working on the cycle is more productive than adjudicating the last argument.
Can we do this if we live in different places?
Yes. Sessions are by video, so partners can join from separate locations if work or travel means you are apart. Both of you do need to be somewhere private.
What if we have already tried couples counselling and it did not help?
Worth saying on the consultation call, along with what specifically did not work. A previous experience that went nowhere is useful information rather than a reason to expect the same again — and if a different kind of support would serve you better, you will be told that directly.
You might also need
- Attachment-based therapy — when the same pattern keeps repeating across relationships
- Infidelity counselling — after an affair, whether or not you stay
- Breakup and separation support — individual work when it has ended
Therapy is not a crisis service
- 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 9-8-8 (24/7)
- Kids Help Phone — 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868
- Hope for Wellness Help Line — 1-855-242-3310 (24/7)
If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.
Start with a conversation.
Book a free 15–20 minute consultation. We’ll talk about what’s happening between you, how we’d work with it, and whether we’re the right fit — before you spend anything. You can book together or on your own.
Book a Free ConsultationOr call (519) 760-5211
Not ready to book? Send a message instead.
If you and your partner want to ask something before booking, send a short note and we will reply by email.