Many couples arrive at the idea of therapy not because things have suddenly fallen apart, but because something quiet has been building for a long time. The arguments that go in circles. The silences that stretch a little longer each week. The sense that you’re living alongside each other rather than with each other.

If that feels familiar, you’re far from alone — and it says nothing about your character or commitment. It says you’re human, and that relationships are genuinely hard.

Worthing is home to more than 111,000 people carrying exactly this kind of complexity. It’s a town with real warmth — the pier at sunset, the chalk gardens at Highdown, the unhurried pace of the promenade — and real pressures too. A divorce rate of 11.1%, higher than both the regional and national average, reflects what happens when those pressures go unaddressed.¹ This article looks honestly at what couples therapy involves, what the evidence says about whether it works, and what to consider when choosing support.

Why Couples Seek Therapy — and Why Many Wait Too Long

Couples typically wait almost three years after serious problems begin before seeking professional help.² Three years of accumulated frustration, withdrawn trust, and hardening patterns — all of which make recovery more demanding than it needed to be.

The reasons for waiting are understandable. There’s often a hope that things will improve on their own. Sometimes one partner is ready before the other. Sometimes the idea of sitting with a stranger and talking about what’s broken feels too exposing.

What the evidence consistently shows, though, is that earlier support produces better outcomes. Couples who seek help sooner fare significantly better than those who leave it longer.² This isn’t about rushing — it’s about not leaving something manageable until it becomes something entrenched.

Common reasons couples in Worthing come to therapy include:

• Communication that repeatedly breaks down under pressure
• Rebuilding trust after infidelity or dishonesty
• Growing apart following major life changes — a new baby, job loss, bereavement, retirement
• Conflict around parenting, money, or family dynamics
• Intimacy and sexual difficulties
• One or both partners managing mental health challenges that affect the relationship
• A general sense of distance that neither partner knows how to close

None of these are signs of failure. They are signs of two people under pressure who haven’t yet found a shared language for what they’re experiencing.

Does Couples Therapy Actually Work?

The short answer is yes — and the figures behind that are worth knowing.

Around 70–75% of couples who complete structured therapy report meaningful improvements in how satisfied they are in their relationship.² Close to 90% report improved emotional wellbeing after finishing couples counselling.³ A UK government-funded review of relationship support found clear positive changes in relationship quality, communication, and personal wellbeing — with 76% of clients saying counselling helped them understand their relationship better.⁴

A 2025 survey of more than 5,000 UK adults by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) found that 73% of people who attended therapy found it helpful, and 75% would recommend it to others.⁵ The awkwardness or shame people once felt about seeking this kind of help is reducing — the proportion who felt stigma dropped from 46% in 2020 to 42% in 2025.⁵

The NHS body that assesses which treatments work — the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) — recommends couple-focused therapy for depression when someone is in a relationship, having found it can produce better results than antidepressants alone.⁶

The main approaches, in plain terms

Different methods suit different couples. A good therapist won’t use the same approach with everyone — they’ll adapt to what’s actually happening in the room. The approaches with the strongest track records include:

The best therapists draw on several of these rather than being rigidly attached to one. What matters is whether it fits the couple in front of them.

Online Couples Therapy: Does It Work as Well?

This is a fair question, and the evidence is clear: for most couples, online therapy works just as well as meeting in person.

A large 2021 study of more than 4,000 clients found that video sessions produced outcomes that were broadly equivalent to in-person care.⁸ A 2022 study comparing couples therapy delivered online against face-to-face sessions found similar improvements in relationship satisfaction, mental health, and the quality of the working relationship between therapist and clients.⁹ A 2025 review pulling together findings from 15 separate studies involving over 7,000 participants confirmed that structured online programmes produce a meaningful positive effect on how satisfied couples feel in their relationships.¹⁰

More people are choosing this format. The BACP’s 2025 survey found that twice as many people now have therapy via video call compared with five years ago — 13% in 2025 versus 6% in 2020.⁵

Why online therapy suits many Worthing couples

Worthing sits between Brighton and Chichester. It has decent transport links, but limited local specialist provision. Across the UK there are only around 1,500 trained couples therapists — roughly one for every 21,500 people.¹¹ Online sessions remove the geographical barrier, giving couples access to properly qualified specialists regardless of where those specialists are based.

Beyond that, online sessions offer:

• Flexibility — appointments from 7am to 9pm mean sessions fit around work, shift patterns, and childcare
• Continuity — therapy doesn’t stop because of illness, holidays, or a house move
• Comfort — some couples find it easier to speak openly from their own home
• Accessibility — for anyone with a physical health condition or mobility difficulty, removing the need to travel makes a real difference

It’s worth being honest about the limitations too. Online sessions need a reliable internet connection and a private space where both partners can talk freely. For couples in serious crisis, or where there are safety concerns, an in-person first session may be more appropriate. The working relationship between therapist and clients can take a little longer to build online — though the evidence shows it reaches the same quality over time.⁹

Worthing: What the Local Picture Looks Like

Worthing’s population has grown by 6.4% since 2011 and now stands at around 111,000.¹² The average age of residents is 44 — older than the South East average of 41 and England’s average of 40. That reflects a high proportion of established and older couples, alongside younger families who have moved from Brighton and London drawn by more affordable coastal living. Census 2021 figures show 44% of residents aged 16 and over are married or in a civil partnership, while the divorce rate of 11.1% sits above both regional and national averages.¹²

The mental health picture adds important context. Worthing has a higher proportion of people reporting high anxiety than the Sussex average. The rate of GP-recorded depression in Worthing stands at 15.36%, compared to 13.74% across Sussex.¹³ West Sussex has seen a 22% rise in adults using specialist mental health services between 2023 and 2024.¹³ Individual mental health and relationship health don’t exist separately — they affect each other constantly, and couples therapy is one of the few forms of support that addresses both together.

Sussex as a whole has divorce rates a third higher than the UK average, placing it second nationally in a 2020 survey.¹⁴ For coastal towns specifically, several factors tend to contribute: economic uncertainty from seasonal work, a higher proportion of retirees going through significant life changes, pockets of real deprivation, and the quiet isolation that can come with coastal living despite its obvious appeal.¹⁵

There’s something quietly worth noting here. Couples walk along Worthing Pier — the Grade II listed Art Deco structure built in 1862, twice named Pier of the Year by the National Piers Society¹⁶ — and spend unhurried afternoons at Highdown Gardens in the South Downs National Park, a chalk garden of rare plants built over decades and recently restored with National Lottery funding.¹⁷ They attend events at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, eat at the seafront, walk the promenade. The beauty of where they live doesn’t dissolve the difficulties they carry. Therapy often helps couples return to the places and experiences they share — not as a cure, but as the texture of a life they’ve chosen to invest in together.

Choosing the Right Therapist: What to Look For

Not all couples therapists have the same level of training. When thinking about who to work with, it’s worth asking:

• Are they BACP Accredited or registered with a recognised professional body? Accreditation requires therapists to meet rigorous standards of training, experience, and ongoing development — it’s a meaningful distinction, not just a badge.
• Do they have specific couples therapy training? General counselling qualifications don’t automatically cover specialist couples work.
• What approaches do they use? Methods such as EFT, Gottman, and DBT skills have well-established track records.
• Can they work with the full picture? Relationship difficulties rarely arrive alone. Past experiences, personal mental health, and long-standing patterns all tend to be part of the conversation.
• Do they offer both online and in-person options? Flexibility makes it more realistic to keep attending consistently over time.

The Hove Counselling Practice: Specialist Couples Therapy for Worthing

The Hove Counselling Practice has been providing specialist therapy since 2009. Led by Claire Sainsbury, the practice offers couples therapy shaped around what each couple actually needs — drawing on multiple approaches rather than working from a single fixed method.

Claire holds a BA in Psychology, a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice, and an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Counselling and Therapy. She is BACP Accredited — the professional standard that marks out specialist-level practitioners. She holds Advanced Level 3 certification in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT Tapping) — a trauma treatment method that works directly with the body’s stress response — alongside Master Practitioner status with the National Centre for Eating Disorders, and a DBT qualification at tutor level, meaning she can teach couples the practical skills of managing strong emotions, tolerating difficult moments, and communicating more effectively.⁷

Her approach draws on seven different therapeutic traditions: attachment theory, DBT, positive psychology, CBT, EFT Tapping, psychodynamic and Jungian thinking, and Gestalt therapy. That breadth means that whether a couple is dealing with infidelity alongside personal trauma, communication breakdown connected to neurodivergence, or intimacy difficulties rooted in earlier life experiences, the response is shaped by what’s actually relevant — not by what a single model allows.

What the practice covers

• Trust and infidelity recovery
• Communication breakdown
• Parenting and co-parenting conflict
• Intimacy and sexual difficulties
• Pre-marital counselling
• Relationship difficulties connected to personal mental health challenges
• Affairs and betrayal
• Major life transitions — retirement, bereavement, relocation, job loss

Sessions are available online and in person, with appointments from 7am to 9pm weekdays and Saturday mornings — built around the reality of working lives and caring responsibilities. Initial specialist couples sessions (55 minutes) are priced at £110.

The practice holds a 5-star rating from 49 reviews and is listed on ThreeBestRated for Brighton therapists.¹⁸ What clients consistently describe is a combination of clinical skill and genuine human warmth:

*”Claire’s support was invaluable in helping to unlock some extremely damaging emotional dynamics in our relationship. She offered us some very practical techniques for dealing with trust issues and coping with emotions, which became the foundation for helping to rebuild some trust between us again.”*¹⁸

*”I’ve had 5 or 6 counsellors over the last ten years, but I would have only had 1 if I’d met Claire sooner… from the first appointment, I got so much value, insight, and direction.”*¹⁸

*”Claire’s straightforward approach and sensitive suggestions turned on the light in my darkened room.”*¹⁸

For Worthing couples, over fifteen years of clinical experience, specialist qualifications, genuinely flexible scheduling, and the option to work online or in person make this a substantive, well-evidenced choice.

A Note on Taking the First Step

There’s rarely a perfect moment to reach out. Many couples wait for a crisis point — by which time the weight of what’s accumulated has made everything harder than it needed to be.

Therapy doesn’t require a relationship to be at breaking point. Many couples arrive before things become critical and leave with a much clearer sense of each other. The work is often quieter than people expect — less about dramatic revelations, more about learning to read each other with more accuracy and less reactivity.

If you’ve been thinking about this for a while, that thought is worth taking seriously.

Get in Touch

If you’d like to find out whether The Hove Counselling Practice is the right fit for you, a conversation is a reasonable place to begin.

Visit: thehovecounsellingpractice.co.uk/contact Call: 07947 073298 Email: info@thehovecounsellingpractice.co.uk

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you get in touch.

References

1. Office for National Statistics. Divorce rates by local authority, England and Wales. ONS, 2022.
2. Doss, B.D., et al. The effect of the transition to parenthood on relationship quality: An 8-year prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009; Gottman Institute research summaries, 2023.
3. American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Efficacy of marital and family therapy. AAMFT, 2020.
4. Department for Work and Pensions / Department for Education. Evaluation of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme. UK Government, 2021.
5. British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Public Perceptions of Counselling and Psychotherapy: Survey 2025. BACP, 2025.
6. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Depression in adults: Treatment and management. NICE guideline NG222, 2022.
7. Johnson, S.M. The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Routledge, 2019; Gottman, J. & Silver, N. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Cassell, 2018; Tavistock Relationships clinical evidence summaries, 2023.
8. Luo, C., et al. A comparison of telehealth-related psychotherapies and face-to-face psychotherapies. Psychological Medicine, 2021.
9. Roddy, M.K., et al. Couples therapy via videoconferencing: Comparing relationship outcomes to in-person therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 2022.
10. Fischer, M.S., et al. Digital interventions for relationship satisfaction: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychology, 2025.
11. Tavistock Relationships. Couple therapy provision in the UK: Supply and demand analysis. Tavistock Relationships, 2023.
12. Office for National Statistics. Census 2021: Population and household estimates, Worthing. ONS, 2022.
13. West Sussex County Council. Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: Worthing Health Profile. WSCC, 2024.
14. Hargreaves, L. Divorce rates by county, England and Wales. ONS analysis, 2020.
15. Office for National Statistics. Relationships and wellbeing in coastal communities. ONS, 2021.
16. Worthing Pier Conservation Management Plan. Worthing Borough Council, 2022.
17. Highdown Gardens. National Lottery Heritage Fund project completion report. West Sussex County Council, 2021.
18. The Hove Counselling Practice. Client reviews and practice profile. thehovecounsellingpractice.co.uk, 2024.