Relationship therapy in Vancouver and across BC
All relationships welcomed and celebrated
In crisis, relationship renovations, or just regular maintenance, we are there for it all.
Relationships are some of the most rewarding and most complicated things we navigate in life. They can bring enormous joy and also be a source of real pain, conflict, and exhaustion.
What many people do not know is that researchers does point out specific techniques that are shown to help. That means the things that make relationships work are not a mystery. They are knowable, learnable, and changeable.
Research also tell us that most issues in relationships are perpetual, meaning they are not problems to be solved so much as differences to be managed with care. You are probably not going to agree on everything. But you can learn to navigate your differences in a way that brings you closer rather than further apart.
You do not have to keep having the same conversation. You do not have to settle. Reach out and let us help you make your relationship what you want it to be.
Who is relationship therapy for?
The short answer is: anyone who wants it!
We do relationship therapy in Vancouver with couples who have been married for decades, who are exploring if they want to commit to the next steps together, and of all ages and genders.
At Mareel, we say relationship therapy because our clients are not always monogamous, and there can be more than two people in the relationship.
Ethical or negotiated non-monogamy, poly relationships, and those that are “monogamish” are all welcome. We are knowledgeable and experienced with all types of relationships.
What matters to us is not the relationship form you have, but whether or not it works for you.
Do you promise to keep our relationship together?
To promise that we will keep your relationship together at all costs would simply be unethical. And any therapist who makes that promise is not being straight with you.
What we do promise is that we will help you explore every avenue and support you in making the decision that is right for you. Sometimes that means finding a new way forward together that neither of you could see before. Sometimes it means ending a relationship with care, clarity, and a lot more self-knowledge than you had going in. That is not a failure. It can be one of the most transformative things a person goes through.
We are here for all of it.
What techniques do you use in relationship and couples therapy?
Every therapist at Mareel has extended training and real-world experience doing relationship and couples work. Between us, we have decades of it.
Lisa and Tamara both came to counselling through years as sex educators and school counsellors, which means they have seen every kind of relationship dynamic imaginable and very little surprises them. Liz brings deep knowledge of the physical and psychological dimensions of intimacy. Andriana has a background in domestic violence advocacy and attachment work. Madeleine weaves somatic awareness into relational therapy through her background as a yoga instructor. Nicole brings lived experience within queer and non-monogamous communities. Andriana, Madeleine, Manjima and others work extensively with the ways relationships are shaped by family systems, trauma, and the dynamics we inherit long before we know we are carrying them.
Despite what you might read online, there is no single gold standard method for relationship therapy. Therapy is both a science and an art. At Mareel, the science is the evidence base we draw from, and the art is finding what actually fits you and your relationship.
The approaches we draw on include:
Emotionally focused therapy
Family systems
Attachment theory and attachment-based work
Relational life therapy
Gottman techniques
Internal family systems
Somatic and body-based approaches
This is not a fixed list. We are always learning and bringing new tools into the room. And our clients always have a say in which aspects of the work they want to lean into.
Will you talk with us about sex?
That is kind of our specialty, yes.
If you want to explore your sex life in couples therapy, we are absolutely here for it. Disagreements, mismatched desires, misunderstandings, and differences in what each person needs are some of the most common things we see in relationships. We have yet to meet a couple with 100% compatibility in this area. You are not broken, not uniquely difficult, and not unfixable. You are just human.
We will not wait for you to bring it up. We know how hard it can be to find the words, so we will ask you directly whether you would like to explore this area, and we will make it as easy as possible when you do. Nothing you share will land awkwardly with us. We are up to date on the latest research around sex in relationships and very experienced at easing the discomfort that often comes with talking about it for the first time.
Most of our clients are genuinely surprised at how quickly it starts to feel normal. Some even manage to have a little fun with it.
What are some of the issues you can help us with?
Honestly, the list is endless. If something is causing distress or friction in your relationship, it is worth bringing up. Here are some of the areas we work with most often:
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Learning healthier ways to communicate and navigate disagreement, not to eliminate conflict, but to stop it from doing so much damage. This includes breaking recurring patterns, managing the moments that escalate quickly, and finding ways to actually hear each other.
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Sometimes one person is going through something significant and the relationship feels the weight of it. We help couples navigate those seasons together, so that one person's struggle does not quietly become both people's distance.
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Whether to have children. Whether to open a relationship. Whether to stay. These conversations carry real emotional weight and sometimes you just need a skilled, steady person in the room to help you think it through.
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Infidelity and cheating are the most common, but trust gets broken in other ways too: financial dishonesty, substance use, and agreements crossed in sexual or relationship arrangements. We work with all of it, without taking sides.
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Parenting disagreements, unequal division of household labour, invisible labour, and the slow resentment that builds when one person feels like they are carrying more than their share.
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Sometimes people arrive knowing only that something feels off. That is enough. Figuring out what is actually going on is often where the most important work begins.
Do you understand the gendered and social impacts and expectations on relationships?
There is no way we could do this work without that understanding.
How we show up in relationships is never just about the two (or more!) people in the room. It is shaped by everything we have absorbed along the way: family history, societal pressure, cultural expectations, and the biases we carry, often without knowing we are carrying them. Our relationships are also profoundly affected by intersecting identities and the inequalities in privilege that show up, sometimes quietly, between two people who love each other.
Our work gently turns attention toward these influences, not to assign blame, but to create a shared understanding of where the friction is actually coming from. When both people can see the forces shaping their dynamic, something shifts. The problem moves from being about what is wrong with us to being about what we have been handed, and that is a far more workable place to start.
Some of the most common ways this shows up in the relationships we see:
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and the slow erosion of connection when one partner quietly carries more than their share of the emotional, domestic, and mental load.
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shaped by gender norms, media, religion, or family, that neither person ever consciously chose but both are held to.
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in relationships and sexually, and the damage those expectations can do when left unexamined.
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within a relationship, including how race, class, ability, and other intersecting identities can create dynamics that are hard to name but impossible to ignore.
Book a Free Consultation with a Relationship Therapist
Whether you are in crisis, considering your options, or simply ready to invest in something that matters, we are here for all of it.
Relationship therapy at Mareel means working with a team that brings decades of real experience, a genuine understanding of the social and gendered forces that shape our relationships, and the ability to talk about absolutely everything, including the stuff that feels hardest to say out loud. We work with all relationship structures, all identities, and all the complicated, beautiful, difficult situations that come with being in a relationship with another human being.
Every new client starts with a free 15-minute consultation. It is relaxed, no-obligation, and a genuinely good way to find out whether we are the right fit. You are welcome to meet more than one of our therapists before deciding, and you can switch at any time. Nothing about the process needs to be perfect. You just have to be ready to start.