Structured Couples Therapy
Gottman Method Couples Therapy in Colorado
Most of what couples fight about never gets solved, and that turns out to be normal. What separates the couples who last is how they argue about it. The Gottman Method works on that, and it starts by measuring where you are.
Boulder • Denver • Fort Collins • Broomfield • Longmont • Online
Schedule a Therapist Match CallClinically reviewed by Ali Waldmer, MA, LMFT, LAC • Last reviewed August 24, 2026
The Method
What is the Gottman Method?
The Gottman Method is a structured way of doing couples therapy, built on decades of research. John and Julie Gottman watched thousands of couples in a lab and found specific patterns in how partners handle conflict, repair, and closeness. Sessions work on those patterns directly instead of on insight alone.
Gottman Method couples therapy is one of the approaches you’ll find among our therapy methods. Colorado Women’s Center offers both of the main couples models, Gottman and EFT, and you and your therapist can work in either. A formal assessment comes before treatment starts, and sessions tend to involve specific exercises instead of open conversation. Partners of any gender are welcome here, and so are couples who are not married.
An assessment first, so you both know what you’re working on.
Our Promise to You
We Guarantee Our Therapist Matching
Both of you have to believe the therapist is fair, or none of this works. That matters more here than in open-ended therapy, because somebody is going to sit down and tell you both what she sees. If the first match isn’t right, tell us and we’ll match you with another at no additional cost.
Request a Free ConsultationWhat This Works On
What Gottman Method Couples Therapy Helps With
This work covers a wide range of what partners bring in. You don’t have to be in crisis to book, and plenty of couples come while things are still workable. These are the ones that come up most at Colorado Women’s Center.
Conversations That Go Wrong Fast
You raise a hard subject badly in the first minute and the conversation never recovers. The method gives you specific replacements for how you open, and how you open decides more than what you say after it.
Conflict That Escalates
Criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and shutting down are the four patterns Gottman research flags as most damaging. Sessions work on spotting them as they happen and on the repair attempts that interrupt them.
Emotional Distance
You run the household well and you’ve stopped knowing what is going on inside each other. Couples and marriage therapy using this method rebuilds that through small unglamorous habits instead of a grand gesture.
Betrayal and Broken Trust
Rebuilding after a betrayal follows a sequence here, starting with what gets said and moving to what happens next. Having a sequence helps, because that conversation otherwise runs in circles for months.
Before You Marry
A lot of what couples argue about at year seven was already visible at year one. Pre-marriage counseling uses the same assessment to find those areas while they are still hypothetical.
Deciding Whether to Stay
Some couples arrive unsure whether they are trying to repair the relationship or end it well. You can say that out loud here, and divorce therapy for women is available whichever way it goes.
Parenting Disagreements
Two tired people arguing about a child at ten at night is a different problem from a real split in how you each want to parent. Sessions separate the two before trying to solve either.
Money
You are rarely arguing about the money itself. Underneath it sits safety, fairness, and what each of you grew up being afraid of. This method has a way of getting down to that layer.
Intimacy
Physical and sexual closeness is a subject you can raise plainly and work on here. It does not have to wait until everything else has improved.
Our Approach
How the Gottman Method Runs at Colorado Women’s Center
Structure comes before treatment here. This is the shape of it.
Start With a Match Call
You begin with a Wellness Coordinator. She asks what the two of you are looking for, including whether you want a structured approach instead of open conversation. Then she matches you on that, on which office suits you, and on therapist training and experience.
The Assessment
This work begins with a formal assessment. That usually means a session with both of you, a shorter one with each of you alone, and written questionnaires. Your therapist then tells you what she found, strengths included, and the three of you agree on what the work will target.
Exercises, Practice, and Repair
From there, sessions are largely exercises. You practice raising a difficult subject differently, work out what each of you is worried about underneath it, and build repair attempts that fit your relationship. There is usually something to practice at home, agreed with you instead of assigned.
Five Offices or Online
You can do this work in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Broomfield, or Longmont, or over secure video from anywhere in Colorado. Sessions run seven days a week, 8am to 8pm.
Methods We Offer
- Gottman Method
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Family Systems Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- EMDR
- Somatic Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
Common Questions
Gottman Questions Couples Ask Us
What are the Four Horsemen?
They are the four behaviors Gottman research names as the most damaging during conflict. Criticism attacks the person instead of the problem. Contempt adds an air of superiority on top of that. Defensiveness deflects and takes no share of the blame. Stonewalling is the shutdown, where one partner goes quiet and stops responding. Sessions work on a replacement for each one.
Does this work for unmarried and LGBTQ+ couples?
Yes. Same-sex couples were part of the research behind the method, and nothing in the approach depends on being married. Colorado Women’s Center works with married and unmarried partners, LGBTQ+ couples, and couples at any stage. If it would help to know a therapist’s experience with your situation, ask on the Match Call.
Can this help if we are close to separating?
Yes, and it’s worth saying so plainly at the start. Couples in serious distress do this work, and the assessment helps precisely because it puts what is happening on the table. It’s also fine for the answer to be that you separate. Your therapist is not there to keep you together at any cost.
How is the Gottman Method different from EFT?
Both are couples approaches and Colorado Women’s Center offers both. Gottman is the more structured of the two, with a formal assessment and set exercises to work through. EFT works more on the emotional bond and the cycle running underneath the conflict. Some couples get elements of each, and which one fits is something you sort out with your therapist.
Does the Gottman Method work online?
Yes. The questionnaires work the same way and the exercises are conversation-based, so they carry over to video with little lost. Partners can also join from two different places when travel or schedules require it. Sessions run over secure video anywhere in Colorado. Our online therapy page has the details.
How long does it take?
That’s decided between you and your therapist rather than set in advance. The assessment gives all three of you a clear picture early on, and the plan that comes out of it gets revisited as the work goes. Colorado Women’s Center does not put a session count on it.
How soon can we start?
Match Calls are usually available within 48 hours, often within 24. Most clients are with a therapist within about a week, depending on availability, which for couples means two calendars instead of one. Offices are open seven days a week, 8am to 8pm, and online runs the same hours. Call 720.810.2355 or use the form on this page.
Related Methods
Approaches That Sit Close to Gottman
Couples work here is rarely limited to one model. These two come up alongside the Gottman Method most often.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
The other couples model offered here, working on the emotional bond underneath conflict instead of on structured skills.
Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) →
Family Systems Therapy
Widens the frame past the couple to the family around it, which is frequently where the pressure is coming from.
Family systems therapy →
