I believe that every couple can benefit from taking the time to specifically focus on the relationship. If you can do that on your own, great! You may want to use one of my "Have the talk about..." articles as a conversation starter.

If, however, you find that you are struggling to make the time to talk about your relationship or if the conversations happen, but in a way that is unhelpful or unsatisfying, couple therapy might be worth a try. In my experience, many couples wait longer than they need to and put off starting couple therapy until after a lot of resentment has built up and they are questioning the future of the relationship. Couple therapy can still be very beneficial at this high level of distress, but you can save yourself a lot of pain if you start earlier when you begin noticing a lack of communication or negative communication patterns.

Evidence-based therapies are those that have demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials. Clinical trials are research studies where a group receiving the therapy is compared to a waitlist control group or a group receiving another therapy that is known to be effective. If the group receiving the therapy does significantly better than the waitlist group or as good or better than the known to be effective group, we can say that the therapy is probably efficacious. If there are several studies showing that same therapy works, it may rise to the level of “well-established.”

Some couple therapists may use testimonials or anecdotal evidence to show that their therapy works, but if it hasn’t gone through the scientific rigor of a clinical trial, we can not say that it is evidence-based. This is not to say that other methods are bad or that you can’t get benefit from them, but they are not scientifically proven methods.

Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy, the method adopted by Have the Talk Counseling, is a “well-established” evidence-based couple therapy.

I am a private pay or out-of-network (OON) provider. Although I am not in-network with any insurance companies, I am happy to provide a superbill upon request that you could submit to your insurance company for partial reimbursement of my fees. I am not contracted to accept Medicare and you will not be able to submit claims for reimbursement to Medicare.

Typically, insurance companies will only reimburse for couple therapy if it is deemed “medically necessary.” To inquire about coverage with your insurance company, ask them a) “do I have out of network benefits that will cover working with a licensed psychologist via telehealth?” and b) “is the 90847 CPT code covered for [insert your diagnosis here]?”

If you learn that you do have out-of-network benefits that may cover services, be aware that there may be clinical and legal implications of using these benefits. For example, insurance requires that I designate one partner in the couple as the “patient,” which can impact the clinical documentation and the other partner’s legal right to access the couple therapy records.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions about this!

Have the Talk Counseling is located in the greater Seattle area, and I am a licensed psychologist in Washington state. In addition, I have Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT®) from the PSYPACT® Commission, allowing me to provide virtual therapy in states that participate: AL, AZ, AR, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY. https://psypact.org/mpage/psypactmap