Schema Couples Therapy

Many couples seek therapy following a significant rupture — infidelity, a period of sustained conflict, or a growing sense of disconnection that has proved difficult to shift. Others come with longer-standing patterns that have never quite resolved. In both cases, understanding what drives these dynamics, rather than just managing their surface expression, is usually what makes lasting change possible.

Schema Couples Therapy applies the principles of Schema Therapy to the relational context, helping both partners understand how their individual emotional patterns and modes interact to create the dynamics between them. Conflict, withdrawal, and disconnection often make more sense when understood through the lens of each person's history and the needs that weren't consistently met.

What the Work Involves

Couples therapy at Waxflower Psychology begins with an assessment of each partner's history, attachment patterns, and the relational dynamics that have developed between them. From there, sessions focus on developing each partner's capacity to recognise their own modes as they activate in the relationship, and to understand what is driving the other's responses.

This is not primarily a communication skills approach, though practical tools are part of the work. The focus is on the emotional patterns underneath — the fear of rejection, the hypervigilance, the shutdown — that standard communication frameworks tend not to reach.

Some couples attend for shorter-term focused work around a specific rupture or transition, while others stay longer to address deeper relational patterns. The approach adapts to what is needed.

Who It Suits

Schema Couples Therapy suits couples at most stages and circumstances — those navigating a specific crisis or betrayal, those caught in recurring patterns they haven't been able to shift, and those who feel a gradual disconnection they want to address before it deepens. It works particularly well for couples who want to understand the structure of their difficulties rather than just reduce conflict frequency.

Practical Details

Sessions are 50 minutes and available face-to-face in Carlton North or online across Australia.

You can find our fees listed here. Medicare rebates do not generally apply to couples therapy.

We offer a free 15-minute phone consultation for couples considering whether this approach might be a good fit.