Online Couples Therapy & Marriage Counselling in India
Couple counselling for married, unmarried and queer couples, online across India and abroad.
Every relationship carries its own weather — seasons of closeness, seasons of distance, storms that arrive without warning. Couples therapy is a space to slow that weather down — to listen to what each of you is really saying underneath the argument, and to remember the people you were before the patterns began.
Dandelion Psychotherapy offers online couples therapy and marriage counselling with psychotherapist Yoshita Bhargava, for couples across India and abroad. Sessions are 75 minutes, held jointly on Google Meet, and draw mainly on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Narrative Therapy, and the space is queer affirmative — open to all relationship structures and identities, without assumption. It starts with a free 15-minute intro call, where fees are also discussed.
What Couples Therapy Is
Couples therapy is therapy where the relationship is the client. You attend together, and the focus is the pattern between you, not which of you is at fault.
Most couples arrive stuck in a loop: one of you pushes to talk, the other goes quiet, and both end up lonely. Sessions slow that loop down until you can each see what the other is actually asking for. I've written more about how this changes communication and about relationship patterns that keep repeating.
Couples Therapy vs Marriage Counselling
They are the same work under different names. “Marriage counselling” is the phrase most people in India use; “couples therapy” is wider, because not every couple who needs help is married.
Relationship education is a different thing: a set course that teaches communication skills, often taken before marriage. A meta-analysis of 117 studies found these programmes produced modest gains in communication skills and smaller ones in relationship quality, though the samples were not very diverse (Hawkins et al., 2008). Therapy starts from the specific pattern between the two of you rather than a curriculum.
How Couples Therapy Works Here
Couples therapy at Dandelion uses an integrative approach, drawing primarily from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Narrative Therapy. Together they help you see the pattern that keeps repeating, why it keeps happening, and the story you've each built around it.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) sees most recurring conflict as a kind of emotional dance — the same painful steps, over and over, even when both people are exhausted by it. EFT helps slow that dance down so we can see the softer, more vulnerable feelings underneath the frustration. Most arguments aren't really about the dishes, the in-laws, or the phone. They're about wanting to be reached, seen, chosen.
Narrative Therapy brings a different lens. It treats the story a couple has formed about each other as a living thing — one that can be examined, questioned, and gently rewritten. “He's just like that.” “She never listens.” “We've always been bad at conflict.” Narrative work helps both partners notice these stories, separate them from the people they describe, and author something more honest together.
Sessions are held jointly with both partners and last 75 minutes. Occasionally, as part of the couples work and decided with both of you, I see each partner one-to-one for a while before we return to joint sessions. I don't take either partner on for individual therapy while you're in couples therapy with me. The aim is to understand the pattern, soften it, and find each other again, without assigning blame. You can read more about how EFT works for couples and the stories we live inside.
Who Is Couples Therapy For?
Couples therapy is for any two people who want to work on their relationship together.
- Married couples, whether the marriage is two years old or twenty.
- Couples who aren't married, including those dating, living together or early in a relationship.
- Couples preparing for marriage. I offer pre-marital counselling, for engaged couples and for couples who are still early on.
- Queer couples. The practice is queer affirmative, and I've written about what queer-affirmative couples therapy in India looks like.
- Couples where one partner is reluctant. Hesitation is common and workable. A reluctant partner can join the intro call just to ask questions. If the answer keeps being no, here's what to do when a partner won't go to marriage counselling.
I don't offer couples therapy where there is violence of any kind in the relationship. In that situation individual support and safety come first.
The problems couples bring usually look like one of these:
Recurring Conflict
You keep having the same argument in different costumes. Small disagreements escalate quickly. You feel stuck in a familiar cycle of blame, withdrawal, or shutdown — and you can sense it coming before it begins.
Emotional Distance
You feel more like roommates than partners. Affection has thinned. Conversations have grown functional. You're not in crisis — but something tender has gone quiet, and you both feel it.
Trust & Repair
Trust has been broken — through betrayal, dishonesty, or quietly unmet expectations. You want to rebuild, but you don't yet know how to talk about what happened without re-opening the wound.
Life Transitions
A change is reshaping the relationship — moving cities, becoming parents, navigating careers, blending families, holding cultural pressure. You're both adjusting, and the old way of being together no longer quite fits.
Not sure where things stand? The relationship health check is a short reflection you can each take on your own. It isn't a diagnosis, just a starting point for a conversation.
Online Sessions From Two Cities
You don't need to be in the same room, or the same city. Both partners join the same Google Meet call, each from wherever you are: Bengaluru and Pune, or Delhi and Dubai. The one requirement is a private space for each of you, with headphones if others are at home.
Session Length and Fees
Couples sessions are 75 minutes, weekly, at a fixed day and time. Fees are not published on the site; I share them, with the cancellation policy, in the free 15-minute intro call. For market ranges and what drives them, see how much therapy costs in India.
Further Reading
What to Expect in Sessions
Slowing the Dance Down
Most couples come in mid-argument — sometimes literally. Early sessions focus on slowing the cycle down enough to actually see it: who reaches, who withdraws, what each of you is afraid of underneath.
Naming the Story You've Been Living
We look at the stories you've each formed — about your partner, about yourselves, about the relationship. Some are true. Some are inherited. Some were once true but no longer are. We give you both space to question them gently and write something new.
Being Heard Without Judgment
Both partners get equal space. My role isn't to be a referee or to decide who's right — it's to make sure each of you feels heard, even by the other person, especially in places where listening has felt impossible.
A Confidential, Queer Affirmative Space
What you share stays between us, apart from a few legal and safety exceptions I explain in the intro call. The space is non-judgmental and free of assumption — open to all relationship structures, all identities, all the ways love can look.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is couple counselling the same as marriage counselling?
In practice, yes. "Marriage counselling" and "couple counselling" are the more common terms in India. "Couples therapy" is wider, because not every couple who wants help is married. The work is the same: finding the cycle you keep getting stuck in, and changing it together.
Do we need to be married?
No. I work with couples who are married, dating or living together, and with queer couples, whose relationships Indian law does not recognise as marriage as of 2026. What matters is that you both want to work on the relationship.
Do you offer pre-marital counselling?
Yes, for couples preparing for marriage and for couples early in a relationship. It works like the rest of my couples work: joint sessions on Google Meet, starting with a free 15-minute intro call.
How long is a couples session?
75 minutes, once a week at a fixed day and time. Individual sessions are 50 minutes.
What happens in the first couples session?
Before it, there's the free 15-minute intro call, which you can join together. The first session itself is joint and lasts 75 minutes. Each of you gets equal time to say what brought you here and what you'd like to change. I listen for the pattern you both get caught in, and I won't be deciding who is right. Neither of you needs to arrive with the right words.
Do you work with couples after an affair?
Yes. Rebuilding trust after an affair is part of my couples work. The one exception is the same as for all couples work: I don't offer couples therapy where there is violence of any kind in the relationship.
Does couples therapy work?
For most couples, yes. A review of ten years of research found that couple therapy helps about 70% of the couples who receive it, a rate comparable to individual therapy, with especially promising results for Emotionally Focused Therapy (Lebow et al., 2012, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy). That is an average, so it can't promise anything for one couple.
Can we join from different cities?
Yes. Each of you joins the same Google Meet call from wherever you are, in India or abroad. You each need a private space for the hour, and headphones help.
What if my partner won't come?
You can start individual therapy on your own; changing your side of a pattern often changes the pattern. A hesitant partner is welcome to join the free intro call just to ask questions. If your partner later wants to come, we'd talk together about whether the couples work should be with me or with another therapist.
Do you ever see partners separately?
Sometimes. Couples sessions are joint, but now and then, as part of the couples work and only when we decide it together, I see each of you one-to-one for a while. Then we go back to joint sessions. While you're in couples therapy with me, I don't take either of you on for individual therapy. If one of you wants therapy of your own, I can suggest another therapist.
Do you work with couples where there is violence?
No. I don't offer couples therapy where there is violence of any kind in the relationship. If that is happening, individual support and safety come first, and I can talk with you about where to find it. If you are in immediate danger in India, call 112.
How much does couples therapy cost?
Session fees are discussed during the free 15-minute intro call, which you can join together, with no obligation to continue.
How many sessions will we need?
It depends on what you bring and how long the pattern has been running. Sessions are weekly, and we review progress together as we go. You are never locked into a fixed number.
A Note on My Approach
I work as an individual therapist primarily through Transactional Analysis, but couples work, I've come to believe, asks for a different choreography. The intimate, embodied, often non-verbal pull between two people in a long relationship needs a framework built for relational emotion — which is why EFT sits at the heart of my couples practice. Narrative work adds the layer that lets you both step out of the story long enough to choose a different one.
You can read more about my background and approach on the About page.