Couples & Marriage
Catholic Marriage Counseling in Denver
Catholic couples counseling that honors the sacrament and gives you the tools to rebuild — in Greenwood Village and via telehealth across Colorado.
Catholic Marriage Counseling from Licensed Denver Therapists
Catholic marriage counseling in Denver is what we do every day. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a sacrament — a living sign of Christ’s love for His Church. That theology is beautiful. It also means that when your marriage is struggling, the stakes feel enormous. You’re not just unhappy. You’re afraid you’re failing at something sacred.
At Denver Catholic Counseling, our licensed therapists work with couples throughout the Denver metro area who take their vows seriously and need help living them out. We bring clinical expertise — the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Coupled DBT — alongside a deep understanding of the Catholic vision of marriage. We won’t just teach you communication techniques. We’ll help you rebuild the foundation.
Whether you’re preparing for marriage, fighting to save it, or discerning its future, we’re here to help. We see couples in person at our Greenwood Village office and via telehealth across Colorado. See what to expect from therapy before your first session.
What We Offer
Couples Services
Marriage Counseling
For couples in conflict, crisis, or a slow drift apart. We address communication breakdowns, trust issues, emotional disconnection, resentment, and recurring arguments that never resolve. Using the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy, we help you identify the destructive patterns, understand what’s driving them, and replace them with interactions that build connection rather than erode it. This is not about who’s right. It’s about learning to fight for your marriage instead of with each other.
High-Conflict Couples Therapy
Some couples don’t just disagree — they escalate. Raised voices, stonewalling, contempt, threats. The cycle is intense and the stakes are high, especially when children are involved. We specialize in working with high-conflict couples using Coupled DBT and structured de-escalation techniques. The goal is to create enough emotional safety that real repair can begin. This work is challenging, but for couples willing to do it, the results are transformative.
Premarital Counseling
You have a wedding plan. Do you have a marriage plan? Premarital counseling helps engaged couples build the skills and shared understanding that prevent the most common marriage problems. We cover communication, conflict resolution, financial expectations, family-of-origin dynamics, intimacy, and faith integration. This isn’t a checkbox for your parish — it’s an investment in your first fifty years together. Read our full premarital counseling page →
Relationship Discernment
For couples where one or both partners are unsure whether to stay or go. Discernment counseling is a structured, short-term process (typically 1–5 sessions) designed to help you gain clarity and confidence about the future of your relationship. We don’t push you in either direction. We help you understand what’s happened, what each partner’s contribution has been, and what the realistic options are — so you can make a decision you won’t regret.
Communication & Conflict Skills
Not every couple is in crisis. Some just need better tools. If you find yourselves having the same argument on repeat, feeling unheard, or walking on eggshells, targeted work on communication patterns can make an immediate difference. We teach the specific skills that research shows predict relationship satisfaction: softened startup, repair attempts, turning toward instead of away, and building a culture of appreciation.
Marriage Enrichment
For couples who are doing well and want to do better. Enrichment sessions focus on deepening connection, strengthening your friendship, aligning on goals and values, and building resilience for future challenges. Think of it as preventive maintenance for your sacrament. The strongest marriages aren’t the ones without problems — they’re the ones that keep investing.
How We Work
Our Approach to Couples Work
We draw from three research-backed frameworks, selecting the approach that best fits your relationship’s needs.
Gottman Method
Based on 40+ years of research on what makes relationships succeed or fail. Focuses on building the “Sound Relationship House” — trust, commitment, friendship, and effective conflict management. Identifies the Four Horsemen (criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling) and teaches their antidotes.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Grounded in attachment theory, EFT helps couples understand the emotional needs beneath their conflicts. Most couples aren’t really arguing about dishes or money — they’re arguing about connection, security, and belonging. EFT restructures these deeper emotional patterns.
Coupled DBT
For high-conflict couples where emotional intensity is the core challenge. Teaches distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness within the relationship context. Helps both partners learn to pause, de-escalate, and respond rather than react.
Getting Started
What to Expect
Assessment. The first 1–2 sessions focus on understanding your relationship — its history, its strengths, and its pain points. We often meet with each partner individually for part of this assessment so everyone can speak freely.
Treatment plan. Based on the assessment, we develop a plan tailored to your specific dynamics. Some couples need communication skills. Others need trauma processing. Others need help rebuilding trust. The plan fits you, not the other way around.
Sessions. Couples sessions are typically 50–80 minutes, depending on the work. Most couples attend weekly or biweekly. The length of treatment varies — some couples see significant improvement in 8–12 sessions, while more complex situations may take longer.
The faith dimension. We understand the weight that Catholic couples place on their vows. We don’t take that lightly. For couples who want faith integration, we draw on Catholic teaching about the sacrament of marriage, the theology of the body, and the virtues. For those who prefer a purely clinical approach, we respect that too.
Practical details. Sessions are $155. We accept Colorado Medicaid (Colorado Access and Rocky Mountain Health Plans) and provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement. We see couples Monday through Thursday, in-person in Greenwood Village and via telehealth throughout Colorado.
Gottman Method
Gottman Method Couples Therapy in Denver
The Gottman Method is the most rigorously researched approach to couples therapy in the world, built on more than 40 years of longitudinal studies by Drs. John and Julie Gottman. It predicts divorce and marital satisfaction with better than 90% accuracy — not by guessing, but by identifying the specific interaction patterns that destroy relationships and the ones that sustain them.
In Gottman Method couples therapy, we start with a structured assessment: a conjoint session, individual sessions with each partner, and validated questionnaires that map the strengths and friction points in your relationship. From there, we build treatment around the Sound Relationship House — the architecture of a healthy marriage, from the foundation of friendship and admiration through managing conflict to creating shared meaning.
We pay particular attention to the Four Horsemen — criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling — the four interaction patterns that most reliably predict a marriage’s failure. And we teach their antidotes: gentle startup, building a culture of appreciation, taking responsibility, and physiological self-soothing.
The Gottman Method fits naturally with the Catholic understanding of marriage. Both traditions take seriously the idea that love is not primarily a feeling but a set of practices, and that the quality of a marriage is built in small daily choices. For Catholic couples in the Denver area who want evidence-based therapy that respects their faith, this is often the right fit.
Serving the Denver Metro
Catholic Marriage Counseling Near You
Our office is at 5300 DTC Parkway in Greenwood Village, convenient to most of the Denver metro area. We see couples in-person from across the region — and via telehealth to anywhere in Colorado.
Couples drive to us from Denver, Greenwood Village, Centennial, Englewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Aurora, Parker, Castle Rock, Lakewood, Cherry Creek, Wash Park, Stapleton, and the broader Front Range. If you’re searching for “catholic marriage counseling near me” or “catholic couples counseling” in the Denver area, you’re in the right place.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Catholic couples counseling look like at Denver Catholic Counseling?
The first 1–2 sessions focus on understanding your relationship — its history, strengths, and pain points. We often meet with each partner individually for part of the assessment. Then we develop a treatment plan using the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, or Coupled DBT, depending on your needs.
Do you offer premarital counseling for engaged Catholic couples in Denver?
Yes. Premarital counseling helps engaged couples build skills in communication, conflict resolution, financial expectations, family-of-origin dynamics, intimacy, and faith integration. This isn't a checkbox for your parish — it's an investment in your marriage.
How long does couples counseling take?
Sessions are typically 50–80 minutes, attended weekly or biweekly. Some couples see significant improvement in 8–12 sessions, while more complex situations may take longer. The length of treatment depends on your specific dynamics and goals.
How much does Catholic couples counseling cost in Denver?
Sessions are $155. We accept Colorado Medicaid (Colorado Access and Rocky Mountain Health Plans) and provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement. We see couples Monday through Thursday, in-person in Greenwood Village and via telehealth throughout Colorado.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
1 Corinthians 13:4–5