COUPLES THERAPY IN CHARLESTON

Couples Therapy & Marriage Counseling in Charleston, SC

When every disagreement ends in the same place, it's time for a different conversation.

58 studies in one review: couples therapy brings large gains in relationship satisfaction (Roddy et al., 2020)
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Most couples who call us still love each other. What they’ve lost is the way back after a hard conversation. The argument starts about money, or the kids, or whose turn it was, and within a few minutes you’re both saying the lines you always say. You can feel it coming and still can’t stop it.

For other couples it’s quieter. You run the household well and talk mostly about logistics. Raising things stopped being worth the trouble, and the silence has started to feel normal.

Therapy Group of Charleston offers couples therapy and marriage counseling at our Mount Pleasant office and by secure video across South Carolina. Both of our Mount Pleasant therapists are marriage and family therapists, so relationships are the center of their training. We work with married and unmarried couples, engaged couples in premarital counseling, partners deciding whether to stay, and people who come on their own because they want something in their relationship to change.

You don’t need a crisis to start. Many of the couples we see are doing fine on paper and would like to deal with a pattern now, while it’s still small.

From Our Practice

A line we hear in a lot of first sessions: “I don’t want to be the bad guy here.” Neither partner does, and most arrive braced to defend themselves. Our first job is making the room safe enough that you can stop arguing your case and start noticing the pattern you’re both caught in.

What Is Couples Therapy?

Couples therapy, also called marriage counseling, is talk therapy for two partners together that treats the relationship itself as the focus of the work. A couples therapist watches the pattern between you, which is hard to see from inside it, and helps each of you change your part of it.

In practice, it usually works on four things:

  • The cycle you both get caught in. One partner pushes, the other pulls away, and each response makes the next one more likely. Seeing it as a shared pattern takes the blame out of the room.
  • What’s underneath the conflict. Recurring fights usually carry something older: a need that isn’t being met, a hurt that never got repaired, or a rule one of you learned growing up.
  • Communication you’ll use at home. How to raise something hard, how to stay in the conversation when you’re flooded, and how to repair afterward.
  • Trust, when it’s been broken. After an affair, a financial secret, or a long stretch of feeling alone in the marriage, rebuilding trust follows its own slower path.

How long it takes depends on what brought you in. A couple working on communication may need a few months; recovering from an affair usually takes longer. You’ll review progress with your therapist as you go.


Our Charleston Couples Therapists
Marriage and family therapists, in person in Mount Pleasant and online anywhere in South Carolina.
Jan Stone Allen Jan
Savannah Jennings Savannah
Meet the full team ↓


Ready to break the pattern?
Tell us a little about what's been happening between you, and we'll recommend the therapist whose training and style fit your relationship.


What Brings Charleston Couples to Therapy

Plenty of couples arrive without a crisis. These are the situations we see most often.

The fight you keep having

Different topic, same ending. When you both know the script, the pattern is the problem, and the pattern is what therapy works on.

Growing apart

No big blowups, just a little less connection each year. Distance builds quietly, and many couples only notice it when a child leaves home or a crisis forces the question.

After an affair or broken trust

Infidelity, hidden spending, or a promise that didn’t hold. Recovery is possible, and it tends to move in waves of closeness and distance before it settles.

Parenting and blended families

Disagreements about discipline, a new baby, stepchildren, or co-parenting across two homes. Our marriage and family therapists can bring the wider family into the work when that helps.

Big transitions

A move to the Lowcountry, a new job, a deployment, an illness, retirement. Changes like these strain even strong relationships, often when you have the least energy for each other.

Deciding whether to stay

Sometimes one of you is further out the door than the other. Therapy can help you both get clear, and for some couples that means separating with less damage.

Starting on your own?

That works. Many people begin individually and bring a partner in later. Tell us what's happening and we'll suggest the best first step.



Premarital Counseling in Charleston

Charleston is a wedding town, and engaged couples can spend months on the venue, the guest list, and the rehearsal dinner. Premarital counseling puts some of that attention on the marriage itself, while the hard questions are still easy to talk about.

We see engaged couples in person in Mount Pleasant and online, whether the idea came from your faith community, a friend, or your own sense that it’s worth doing. Most arrive happy, which is the best time to do this work.

Money and Family

How each of you thinks about spending, saving, and debt, and what you each expect from in-laws, holidays, and the families you grew up in.

Conflict and Repair

How each of you argues, what you do when you’re hurt, and how the two of you find your way back afterward.

The Life You're Building

Children, careers, where you’ll live, intimacy, and faith: the expectations nobody says out loud until they collide.



Is Couples Therapy Right for You?

It may help to talk to someone if:

The same argument keeps coming back, whatever it starts about
One of you pushes to talk and the other shuts down or leaves the room
You’ve stopped raising things because it isn’t worth the fallout
You feel more like roommates or co-managers than partners
Affection or sex has faded and neither of you brings it up
Trust was broken and you don’t know how to rebuild it
Parenting disagreements are spilling into everything else
A move, a baby, a job change, or a loss has knocked you off balance
You’re engaged and want to start your marriage on solid ground
Things are basically good and you’d like to keep them that way

What to know

  • A review of 58 studies found that couples therapy leads to large gains in how satisfied partners feel with their relationship.
  • The often-repeated claim that couples wait six years to get help doesn’t hold up: in the study that examined it, most couples started therapy within two to three years of recognizing serious problems.
  • One partner starting alone can still change a relationship, and it’s a common way this work begins.


How We Work With Couples

Both of our Mount Pleasant therapists are trained in family systems therapy, which looks at a relationship as a set of patterns both partners keep in motion, often patterns carried over from the families you grew up in. That lens shapes the work below, and your therapist will adapt it to the two of you.

Seeing the Pattern

Early sessions slow down a real disagreement so you can both watch it happen: what set it off, what each of you did next, and where it landed. Once the pattern has a name, it becomes something you face together.

Where It Comes From

Recurring conflict usually has roots: an old hurt, an unmet need, or a way of handling feelings one of you learned long before you met. Understanding those roots is what makes new responses feel possible.

Repair and Skills

Practical tools for the moments you’ll handle without us: raising a hard subject, calming down in the middle of an argument, and coming back together afterward.

Meet Our Therapists →


What to Expect in Couples Therapy

1

Getting Oriented

Your first session covers what brought you in now and a bit of your history together. Each of you gets time to describe the relationship in your own words, without the other interrupting. You don’t need to arrive with a plan.

2

Building Understanding

Your therapist maps the pattern: what sets it off, what each of you does, and what each of you is protecting. They may meet with each of you once on your own, to hear the parts that are hard to say in front of a partner.

3

Active Change

You start responding differently, first in session and then at home. The first attempts feel awkward, and that’s normal. Most couples notice fights getting shorter and recovery getting faster well before fights get rarer.

4

Integration & Maintenance

The last phase makes the change stick without a therapist in the room. You’ll practice catching the pattern early and repairing on your own, and many couples taper to occasional sessions before they stop.



Marriage and Couples Counseling in Charleston, SC

Two marriage and family therapists in Mount Pleasant

Marriage and family therapy is a license built around relationships. Jan Stone Allen, our co-founder, is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, a designation for therapists qualified to train and supervise other marriage and family therapists. Savannah Jennings works with engaged couples and young families, and her school counseling background helps with the parenting questions that often come up in couples work.

Online sessions from anywhere in South Carolina

Jan and Savannah both see couples by secure video anywhere in South Carolina, which helps when one of you travels for work or your schedules rarely line up. In studies of relationship programs delivered online, couples have done about as well as couples who met in person.

In person in Mount Pleasant

Our office is at 913 Bowman Road in Mount Pleasant, a short drive over the Ravenel Bridge from downtown, with parking at the building. Couples come in from downtown Charleston, Daniel Island, Isle of Palms, West Ashley, and James Island, and many mix in video sessions on busy weeks.

From Our Practice

Couples often expect us to pick a winner by the second session. We don’t. What we look for is the moment each of you stops explaining your side and starts describing what it’s like to be on the other end of the argument. That’s usually when things begin to move.



Your Mount Pleasant Couples Therapists

Both see couples in person in Mount Pleasant and by secure video anywhere in South Carolina. Choose either one, or let us recommend the better fit for what the two of you need.

Jan Stone Allen
Jan Stone Allen
MA, LMFT
Couples and families working through the patterns they keep repeating, and where those patterns started.
Meet Jan → Savannah Jennings
Savannah Jennings
M.Ed., LMFTA
Premarital counseling, engaged couples, and couples raising young kids, with a background in school counseling.
Meet Savannah →

Want to see everyone who works with Charleston-area clients, including online options? Browse our full directory.


Couples Session Rate
$175–$200
We're an out-of-network practice and file insurance claims for you, and many couples receive partial reimbursement through their out-of-network benefits.
See payment and insurance details →


Frequently Asked Questions About Couples Therapy

How much does couples therapy cost in Charleston, SC?
Couples sessions with our Mount Pleasant team are $175 to $200. We’re an out-of-network practice, so you pay at the session and we file the insurance claims for you. Coverage for couples sessions varies more from plan to plan than individual therapy does, so it’s worth asking your insurer about out-of-network benefits for couples therapy. Our payment page lists the questions to ask.
What is the success rate of couples therapy?
It’s high. A review of 58 studies with more than 2,000 couples found that couples therapy produces large gains in relationship satisfaction, and a 2025 review of the research found it works about as well as individual therapy for relationship distress. Those are averages. For the two of you, what matters most is that you both take part.
What kind of therapist is best for couples?
Look for someone with specific training in couples work. Licensed marriage and family therapists are trained in relationships and family systems as the core of their license, and many psychologists and counselors also specialize in couples. Both of our Mount Pleasant therapists are marriage and family therapists. The best-known structured approaches are emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and the Gottman Method, both well supported by research. If a specific approach matters to you, ask us which clinicians use it.
How many sessions does couples therapy take?
It depends on what brought you in. Couples working on communication may need a few months of sessions every week or two, and recovering from an affair usually takes longer. In one recent study of emotionally focused couples therapy, couples averaged about 16 sessions. You’ll review progress with your therapist along the way.
When should we start premarital counseling?
A few months before the wedding is ideal, so there’s time for several sessions without the pressure of final planning. Premarital counseling covers money, family, conflict, children, careers, intimacy, and faith if it matters to you. Couples who start after the wedding get plenty from it too.
What if my partner won't come?
Start on your own. Individual therapy focused on your relationship can change it, because when you change your half of a pattern, your partner is responding to something new. Many reluctant partners join later, once they see the sessions aren’t about what’s wrong with them.
Can we do couples therapy online?
Yes. Both of our Mount Pleasant therapists see couples by secure video anywhere in South Carolina, so you can mix in-person and online sessions as your schedule changes. In studies of relationship programs delivered online, couples have done about as well as couples who met in person.
Can therapy help if we're thinking about separating?
Yes. Some couples use therapy to understand what happened and rebuild. Others use it to decide whether to stay, and some separate with less damage and a better footing for co-parenting than they’d have found alone. Getting clear is a legitimate goal for this work.


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Start Couples Therapy in Mount Pleasant or Online
Whatever has been happening between you, there's a way to start talking about it. Tell us a little, and we'll connect you with the therapist whose training and schedule fit your relationship.