Couples counselling in Colchester
Most couples do not arrive because of one identifiable event. They arrive because a pattern has set in, and because the conversations that used to resolve it now reliably make it worse. The argument has a shape both partners can predict. Each knows what the other will say, and says their own part anyway.
Couples counselling at the Colchester practice offers a room in which that pattern can be interrupted long enough for both people to be heard by someone who is not inside it.
What brings couples to the work
Conflict that repeats without resolving. The discovery of an affair, or the long aftermath of one. The particular distance that follows a bereavement, a redundancy, an illness, or a child leaving home. Intimacy that has quietly stopped and that neither partner knows how to raise. Parenting disagreements that have become proxies for older arguments. And, often, a relationship that has been organised for years around something neither partner names directly: a drinking problem, a compulsion, an eating disorder, a depression.
That last group matters here. Where a relationship difficulty has an addiction or an eating disorder underneath it, this practice can work with both rather than treating them as separate problems handled by separate people.
How the work is approached
The aim is not to manufacture intensity. Much of what couples call passion is intensity, and intensity is frequently the enemy of intimacy: at its height, each partner is reacting to their own history rather than seeing the person opposite. The work settles that enough that the two people can see each other again, which is where anything durable begins.
Sessions are confidential and unhurried, and both partners are treated as having a reasonable account of what has happened. Dr Jacquet brings over 25 years of clinical experience and a depth-psychological training, which means the work attends to what each partner brings from much further back than the relationship itself.
Separating well
Not every couple who comes is trying to stay together, and counselling is not covert persuasion to do so. Where a separation is already decided, the work can be about conducting it with less damage: how to speak to each other, what to tell children and when, and how to end something without requiring one person to be the villain of it.
Relationship counselling across north Essex
Couples in Colchester, Wivenhoe, West Mersea, Chelmsford and Ipswich have generally had to travel into London for senior relationship work, which is a long way to go twice a month with two diaries to coordinate. The Colchester consulting room is on a quiet residential street near the town centre, and sessions are available in English and French.
Getting started
The first appointment is a conversation rather than an assessment. Both partners attend, both speak, and by the end you will have a clear sense of whether this is the right place to continue. No GP referral is needed.
Related services in Colchester
- Bereavement Counselling in Colchester
- Addiction Counselling in Colchester
- Eating Disorder Therapy in Colchester
- Trauma Counselling in Colchester
- Jungian Analysis in Colchester
- Stress Counselling in Colchester
See all therapy services in Colchester.
Dr Philippe Jacquet is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a Jungian analyst and an HCPC registered art psychotherapist, with twenty-five years of clinical practice. His Doctorate of Professional Practice at the University of Essex examined male eating disorders from the perspective of analytical psychology. Registration can be checked on either public register.
How the work is delivered from here
All international sessions are by secure video, in English or French. Online therapy is not a reduced version of consulting room work: it is the format that lets weekly work survive living abroad, travelling, or relocating. Sessions run in United Kingdom hours, which suits most regions, and if your time zone makes none of it workable, say so when you enquire rather than assuming it rules you out.
For clinicians and treatment services
Dr Jacquet supervises clinical teams in private residential addiction treatment and in a private psychiatric hospital. For treatment centres, psychiatric units and group practices looking for external clinical supervision, including in places where no supervisor of this seniority is available locally, team supervision is also delivered by video. For individual practitioners, see clinical supervision.
Common questions
Do both of us have to want to come?
It helps, but it is not a precondition. Couples often arrive with one partner more willing than the other, and that imbalance is itself worth understanding rather than a reason to stay away. What matters more is that both are willing to sit in the room and be honest.
What if we have already decided to separate?
Couples counselling is not only for staying together. Some of the most useful work is done by couples who are separating and want to do it without destroying each other, particularly where there are children.
Can we be seen individually as well?
Sometimes, though it is discussed openly rather than arranged privately. Where individual therapy is clearly what one partner needs, a referral to a colleague is usually the cleaner arrangement.
Are evening appointments available?
Yes. Couples work is often harder to schedule than individual therapy, and sessions in Colchester can be arranged around working hours.