What you can expect when you reach out
No taking sides
Both of you will be met with warmth and genuine care. Our role is to support the relationship, not to judge either partner or decide who is right.
A whole-relationship lens
We look at the full picture, your history, your patterns, and each of you as individuals, because relationship difficulties rarely come from just one place.
Evidence-based approaches
We draw on approaches with strong evidence for couples and relationships, tailored to your situation rather than a one-size formula.
In-clinic and online options
Whether you can get to our Eaton clinic in Bunbury or you need the flexibility of telehealth, we can work with you wherever you are in South West WA and beyond.
What people get wrong about couples therapy
One of the most common myths about couples therapy is that it is a last resort, something you only do when a relationship is already failing. In reality, the couples who get the most from it often come earlier, while there is still goodwill to build on. You do not need to be on the brink to benefit, and coming sooner usually makes the work easier.
Another misconception is that a therapist will take sides or decide who is to blame. A good couples therapist does neither. The focus is the pattern between you, not a verdict on either partner. Both of you should leave feeling heard, not judged.
We also see many couples in South West WA who waited years, hoping things would improve on their own, before reaching out. Difficulties left unaddressed tend to become entrenched. Getting support while you still feel connected gives you far more to work with.
Finally, many people assume couples therapy means dredging up every past hurt in painful detail. Good therapy is more constructive than that. Our therapists, working from our Eaton clinic near Bunbury or by telehealth to locations like Margaret River, help you understand your patterns and build something better, not just rehash the past.
What is couples therapy?
This page is about couples therapy. What it involves, what it can help with, and how the clinicians and therapists at Integro Health can support your relationship in a safe, non-judgemental environment in South West WA.
Couples therapy is a structured, supportive space where you and your partner can work through difficulties together, with a skilled and impartial professional to help. It is not about assigning blame or deciding who is right. It is about understanding the patterns that play out between you, learning to communicate in ways that actually land, and rebuilding connection, trust, and understanding. Couples come for all sorts of reasons, and you do not need to be in crisis to benefit. Sometimes the most valuable work happens well before things reach breaking point.
What couples therapy can help with
Couples seek support for a wide range of reasons. Common ones include communication that keeps breaking down, the same arguments repeating without resolution, a loss of closeness or intimacy, and rebuilding trust after an affair or a breach. Others come to navigate a specific challenge together, such as parenting differences, blending a family, financial stress, illness, or a major life change. Relationship strain often sits alongside individual struggles too, including anxiety, depression, anger, and the effects of past trauma.
What we often see in practice is that both partners are usually trying to protect themselves in ways that made sense once but now push the other away. Understanding that cycle together, rather than each defending your corner, is where real change becomes possible.
At Integro Health, we treat the relationship as the focus, not one person as the problem. That means helping you both feel heard, and working with the dynamic between you rather than taking sides.
How we work with you as a couple
There is no single correct path for a relationship, and no two couples are the same. What we do is work alongside you both, at a pace that feels manageable, using approaches grounded in psychological evidence and shaped by your particular relationship.
Understanding where things are
Our first sessions are about getting to know you both, your history together, what brought you here, and what you are each hoping for. Both of you will have space to be heard, without one person being cast as the one at fault.
Seeing the pattern between you
Together, we look at the cycle that plays out when things go wrong. Who tends to do what? What is each of you protecting? Most couples are caught in a pattern, not a battle between a good partner and a bad one, and seeing it clearly changes everything.
Working with what sits underneath
Conflict on the surface is often about something deeper, old wounds, unmet needs, or fears about closeness and trust. We work with those layers so change goes beyond simply arguing less.
Building new ways of connecting
We help you develop practical, lasting ways to communicate, repair after conflict, and stay connected under stress, so you can turn toward each other rather than away.
Support at the right pace
Every relationship moves at its own speed. Some couples need a few focused sessions, others a longer stretch of work. We check in with you both regularly and adjust as we go.
Meet the Team
At Integro Health, you do not just book a clinic. You choose a practitioner who understands you. Our team of experienced psychotherapists brings clinical depth, genuine warmth, and a broad range of specialisations together under one roof. Take a moment to read about each of our practitioners and find the right fit for where you are right now.
Dr Paul King
General Practitioner
MBBS Bachelor of Medicine/ Bachelor of Surgery
FRACGP Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Jools Fordyce
Social Worker & Family Therapist
Bachelor (Hons) – Applied Social Science with Diploma in Social Work
Postgraduate Diploma in Family and Relationship Therapy
Brooke Eden
Psychologist
Bachelor of Psychology
Graduate Diploma of Education
Member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc.
Nicholas Kerr
Psychologist
Masters of Psychology (Organisational)
Bachelor of Arts
Member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc.
Carli King
Office Administrator
As Practice Manager, Carli keeps the daily operations of Integro Health running smoothly, ensuring our clients always receive the highest standard of care.
Is couples therapy right for us?
It is common to wonder whether your difficulties are serious enough for couples therapy, or whether you have left it too late. The honest answer is that if the relationship matters to you, it is worth the investment.
If you find yourselves stuck in the same arguments, feeling distant, struggling to communicate, or working through a specific challenge or breach of trust, then couples therapy can help, even if only one of you is sure about coming. You do not need to be in crisis, and you do not need to have all the answers, to make a start.
How couples therapy works
Every couple is different, but there are a few things most can expect:
You attend together for most sessions, with the therapist helping both of you feel heard and guiding the conversation somewhere more productive than it tends to go at home.
Sometimes you meet individually, where it helps, so each of you has space to reflect, before bringing that understanding back to the shared work.
The focus is practical and forward-looking, understanding the patterns that hurt, and building the skills and connection to do things differently. Where individual issues are involved, we may also suggest individual therapy alongside.
At Integro Health, our aim is to help you both feel well, understood, and genuinely connected. You can read more about what the first session looks like here.
Your questions answered
Medicare Mental Health Treatment Plans are designed for individual mental health treatment, so couples and relationship therapy is generally not covered by a Medicare rebate. If individual therapy is part of what would help, that may be eligible with a GP referral. We are always happy to talk through the options and costs before you begin.
You are still very welcome. A great deal can shift when even one person understands the relationship pattern and begins to respond differently. Many people start individually and find their partner joins later once they see things changing. Working on your side of the dynamic is never wasted.
Yes. What is shared in sessions is confidential, within the usual legal limits around serious risk of harm. If we meet with either of you individually at any point, we will also be clear from the outset about how anything shared in those sessions is handled, so there are no surprises.
Yes. We offer telehealth couples sessions across South West WA and Australia-wide, which can be especially helpful when work, travel, or living in different places makes attending together in person difficult. Online sessions work in the same structured, supportive way as in-clinic ones.
This varies with what you are working through and how entrenched the patterns are. Some couples find a handful of focused sessions makes a real difference. Others choose to work over a longer period, particularly where trust is being rebuilt or deeper individual issues are involved. We review progress with you both and adjust as needed.
Not necessarily. Couples therapy can help even when separation is on the table, sometimes by helping partners reconnect, and sometimes by helping them part with more understanding and less harm, especially where children are involved. Our role is not to push a particular outcome, but to help you both find clarity.
No referral is needed to book couples therapy. You can contact us directly to arrange a first session. If individual therapy with a Medicare rebate becomes part of the picture, that would need a GP referral, and we can guide you through it.
We draw on evidence-based approaches for relationships, helping you understand the cycle between you, communicate more effectively, and rebuild emotional connection and trust. Where individual patterns are involved, such as anxiety, anger, or the effects of past experiences, we can weave in approaches like schema therapy to support the work. We tailor everything to your relationship.