80 minute sessions are $295-$375 and 50 minute sessions are $195-$250. We recommend 80 minute sessions for couples.

Not sure you can afford the fee? Read more here.

Every week. This is for your benefit.

We know from more than 10 years experience working with many couples that you need to come frequently and consistently to see results. This is supported by research. Couples who get their therapy intensely in the beginning get better results and get better faster than those who do the same number of hours of therapy spread out over months and months. Your relationship is worth the investment.

At least 3, but usually about 16 sessions. By the time you’re looking for professional help, your problems are more complex than can be understood and fixed in 1 session. If they were that simple, you probably wouldn’t be looking for our help. You’re paying for our professional expertise, and we want to make sure we’re giving you the best help we can for your relationship. This takes a little time. We spend the first 2 sessions really getting to know you, your relationship history, and where you tend to get stuck. By the third session your therapist will be ready to give you specific feedback and recommendations for how you can get the relationship you want. This is why we say ‘at least 3’ sessions.

Beyond the first three sessions, how many sessions you need depends on you. Some problems are more complex than others and take more time. Some people do lots of work on their own in between sessions and may need fewer sessions before they feel confident in their new relationship skills and ability to handle their problems without the support of a therapist. We will help you track your progress, and when you’re ready to finish your sessions, we will celebrate with you and give you tips for how to maintain what you’ve achieved.

Our internal data after 10 years of doing this work shows us that people who make meaningful progress toward their relationship goals stay with us for about 16 sessions. That’s 4 months of weekly therapy. Some people come less and some situations need more than 4 months to heal.

You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical and mental health care will cost.

Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services.

You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services.

You can ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service.

If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.

For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.

You will be provided a Good Faith Estimate when you sign up for services and any other time you request one, including before signing up for services. We recommend at least 3 sessions, the average number of sessions for our practice is 16, and the exact number you will need depends on your individual circumstances and needs.

We do. Many of our individual therapy clients benefit from working with therapists who deeply understand the complexities of relationship dynamics. Read more about Solo Relationship Counseling here. If you’ve looked around the website or read some of our blog posts and think you’d like to work with us, give us a call! We’ll decide if working together is a good fit. If not, we’ll help you find the right person for you.

Inland Empire Couples Counseling has a main office on Arlington Ave in Riverside, California. We also have an office where we do individual and marriage counseling in Murrieta, California. We can also do online counseling sessions for people in California.

Our Couples Therapy Retreats are only offered in-person.

The short answer is no. We really wish we could but our therapists are only licensed in California. If you are in a long distance relationship but at least one of you is a resident of California, we may still be able to see you! Reach out to us for a referral if you live outside of California, we have worked with some really great therapists in the United States and would love to send you their way!

If you’d really like to work with one of our therapists, you can come to us! You can schedule an intensive therapy experience in our Couple Therapy Retreat.

That depends on your insurance. We’re not in-network with any insurance providers. You could be reimbursed for our services if your plan has out-of-network coverage.

We use a service called Thrizer to help you get reimbursed for out-of-network services at our practice. Just tell us you want to explore insurance reimbursement, and we’ll get you set up.

You can check your benefits here.

It depends on the specifics of your plan. Sometimes an insurance plan will cover marriage counseling if the person covered by the plan has a covered mental health diagnosis (depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, etc) and marriage counseling is part of the treatment for that diagnosis. We won’t make up a diagnosis just to get your sessions covered, but we will help you understand the paperwork if you decide to go this route. Unfortunately, many insurance plans don’t cover counseling services for things like marital problems and getting parenting help because they are not considered “medically necessary.”

Yes! It can (see question above for more specifics). Using your insurance can be a great way to make counseling more financially accessible. You may have restrictions on how many sessions are covered and which providers you can use. Check with your plan. Some approved providers and clinics are so busy you may wait 4-6 weeks between appointments. Our clients come weekly. You can get the same help from us in 6 weeks that it might take you 6 months to get somewhere else!

Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably, and there certainly is a lot of overlap between couples therapy and marriage counseling, but there are differences.

Counseling is shorter term, solution oriented, and focusing on immediate concerns. The focus for counseling for your relationship might be to reduce the intensity of your arguments, for example.

Therapy is long term, focused on deep rooted issues and/or the healing of mental health conditions. The focus for therapy might be to understand the root causes of your arguments, how your family history plays in to your current relationship style, and healing trauma.

At Inland Empire Couples Counseling we can provide both counseling and therapy for your relationship, depending on what you want and need. We don’t make a distinction between couples therapy and marriage therapy because we don’t believe you have to be married for your relationship to be valid, meaningful, and deserving of support.

Not at all. It is very common that one person in the relationship will want therapy and the other doesn’t. If your partner absolutely will not come to therapy, we can still help you with your relationship skills. You can still see positive change in your relationship if you are willing to learn and make change.

If your partner is willing to come but doesn’t really want to come, we would be happy to see you. We work with this dynamic all the time. We know how to help both partners find motivation for working on the relationship. And we don’t want you to stress this too much. If your partner is willing to do something they don’t want to do because it matters to you, that’s love. Acknowledge their love for you and set up some appointments with us.

NOTE TO PARTNERS WHO DON’T WANT TO COME: We talk to regretful, desperate people every month who didn’t listen when their partner asked them to go to therapy. They thought it wasn’t a big deal or that they didn’t want to talk to a stranger about their problems. And now the partner says they’re done, moving out, filing for divorce. Without fail these people tell us they wished they had taken the suggestion of therapy seriously years before. We don’t want you to be that person too. Call us, we can help!

Our therapists are trained in a variety of couples therapy approaches. A single approach can’t possibly fit all problems or personalities. Our therapists have trained in Gottman approach, EFT, RLT, and Imago relationship therapy. We also have therapists who use Brainspotting and EMDR when needed.

A couples therapy retreat is a two-day intensive experience that allows couples to dig deep and see change fast. We are often able to accomplish in two days what might take 8-10 weeks of regular weekly therapy to achieve. Retreats are great for couples who have complicated problems or busy schedules and allow for a level of depth we can’t experience when the work is broken into one hour chunks every week.

Yes! Discernment counseling is short-term (1-5 sessions) and focused on helping couples decide whether they should stay together as is, separate, or enter couples therapy to work on the problems in their relationships.

Couples therapy and individual therapy have different methods of change and each has a different focus. If you come to individual therapy to work on relationship problems, all the therapist has to work with is your report of what happens, your opinions, your side of the story. We can help you with your reactions, your assumptions, and give suggestions for things you can try differently at home. When you come to couples therapy for relationship problems, the therapist can observe how you are in your relationship in real time. We’re not relying on a report of how you think you come across, we can see it! We can see where you’re getting in your own way and help you stop. We can also help you make change right in the session and coach you and your partner on how to communicate more effectively and connect more deeply.