Service
Couples therapy in Poznań and online
Couples therapy means sessions where you work on what is happening between you: arguments that keep repeating, growing distance, broken trust, or a decision about the future of the relationship. You come together. We hold sessions at our practice in Poznań and online, in Polish and in English.
Who is couples therapy for?
You do not need to be married, or in an acute crisis, to come. Couples usually contact us about:
- The same arguments about the same things, ending the same way whatever started them.
- Distance and living side by side. The household runs, tasks are divided, and conversation narrows down to logistics.
- After infidelity or another breach of trust, when you do not know whether it can be rebuilt, or how.
- Mismatched needs, including physical intimacy and how much time you want to spend together.
- Strain after a change: a new baby, a move, illness, job loss, or one person's work changing.
- Parenting, when you differ on boundaries or on how to respond to a child's behaviour.
- Deciding whether to stay together. Some couples come precisely to make that decision deliberately rather than mid-argument.
- Separating with less damage, particularly when you have children and will keep dealing with each other as parents.
If what you recognise most is arguments that keep running the same course, we take that mechanism apart in Constant arguing in a relationship: break the pattern.
If the description of distance and lost closeness sounds familiar, we go into it at more length in Relationship burnout: how to rebuild intimacy.
What happens in the first session?
The first visit is a consultation. We do not start with changing anything; we start by understanding what is going on.
1. Talking about what brought you in
Each person gets time to describe how they see the problem. The psychologist keeps the conversation from turning into an argument and helps put words to things that are hard to say calmly. We also ask how long this has been going on and what you have already tried.
2. Agreeing what you are working on
At the end of the consultation we set a specific goal. It might be how you talk about money, returning to physical closeness, or reaching a decision about the relationship. Each person's goal is sometimes different, and when that happens we say so openly.
3. Regular sessions
In sessions we go back to situations from recent weeks and separate what actually happened from how each of you understood it. You leave each session with something to try at home.
4. Checking what is shifting
Every few sessions we return to the goal set at the start and check whether anything has moved. If it has not, we change how we work or discuss a different form of help.
How long is a session, and how often do we meet?
A couples session lasts 60 minutes.
At Oddech, couples usually meet every two or three weeks, less often than in individual therapy. We agree the frequency individually, depending on your goal and stage of work. That gap is part of the work rather than a hole in the diary: between sessions you have time to try out in real situations what we went through in the room. How you talk to each other changes when it gets used at home mid-week, not when it gets agreed in a session.
The number of sessions cannot be given upfront at first contact. It depends on how long the difficulty has lasted, whether broken trust is part of it, and what each of you is looking for. After the first consultation the psychologist will tell you roughly how many sessions to expect, and will revisit that as you go.
One more thing worth knowing: couples do not all come for the same reason. Some want to work on the relationship. Some mainly need to be heard with a third person present. And sometimes, after the first consultation, it is more honest to say that couples therapy is not what will help in this situation. What you came for is something we name in that first conversation, because it decides whether we book further sessions.
What if my partner will not come?
Couples therapy needs both people present, so we do not run it with one. It also needs to be voluntary: if someone comes only under pressure from their partner, it is difficult to create the conditions for joint work.
You can come on your own instead, for a psychological consultation about your own situation: your reactions in conflict, your boundaries, and whether you want to stay in this relationship. Sometimes the other person joins later, once they see that seeing a psychologist is not about finding who is at fault.
Regular individual psychotherapy is a separate process, though. If you start it, it is usually safer for joint sessions as a couple to be run later by someone else — it is hard for someone who has worked individually with one of you to keep an even distance towards both.
When is couples therapy not the right form of help?
There are situations where joint sessions will not help and can cause harm. We say so directly at the first consultation.
- Untreated addiction. When one person is in active addiction, we work out the right approach individually at the consultation: sometimes treating the addiction needs to come first, and sometimes what is needed is a specialist who works with couples in this particular area.
- A decision already made. If one person comes only so that a specialist tells the other the relationship is over, this is not couples therapy. It is more honest to say that in a separate consultation.
- An unrecognised difficulty needing its own treatment. Depression, an anxiety disorder or the effects of trauma in one person can look like a relationship problem. In that case, we use the consultation to work out what will help most: couples sessions, individual support for that person, or both running alongside each other.
If there is abuse in the relationship
Where there is physical, psychological, sexual or economic abuse, a joint session can increase the risk to the person experiencing it: what they say in the room has consequences once they are home. In that situation we do not run couples therapy. We start with individual support or crisis intervention.
If you need help now:
- 112 — the emergency number, when the situation is dangerous.
- 800 120 002 — Niebieska Linia, the national helpline for people experiencing domestic abuse. Free, 24 hours a day. Consultations in English on Mondays, 6 pm to 10 pm.
- 800 70 2222 — Centrum Wsparcia, the national crisis helpline for adults. Free, 24 hours a day, in Polish.
Couples therapy online
Online sessions run over video and work the same way as sessions in the room. They suit couples living outside Poznań, couples where one person travels often, and couples living abroad. On Wednesdays we work online only.
Before an online session, arrange a place where you can talk without anyone else present, and a device with a camera positioned so the psychologist can see you both. If you will be in two different places, say so when you book. More about this format: online consultation.
Who runs the sessions, and how we work
Couples sessions at Oddech are run by Karolina Zawrotniak and Julia Witkiewicz.
Karolina Zawrotniak is a psychologist, sexologist and psychotraumatologist. She read psychology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and completed postgraduate studies in sexology and in psychotraumatology, and trained at the SWPS University School of Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy, recommended by the Polish Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy. She is a member of the association and takes her work to regular supervision. Her sexology qualification matters when sessions are about physical intimacy rather than only about how you talk to each other. She has completed training in working with couples and has experience running couples therapy.
Julia Witkiewicz is a psychologist and a graduate of psychology at Adam Mickiewicz University. She gained her experience in Poland and in France, and holds sessions in Polish, English and French.
We work in the cognitive behavioural approach. In practice that means returning to specific situations from your week and separating fact from interpretation within them, rather than discussing the relationship in general terms. Full qualifications: our specialists.
Fees and booking
A couples session costs 350 PLN. No referral is needed; visits are private.
Available times and ways to reach us are on the contact page. You can book through ZnanyLekarz or by email at kontakt@centrum-oddech.pl. One person books, and you both attend.