Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling in Nashville, TN (Online)

He works in healthcare and she works in music, which in Nashville means their calendars almost never line up. When they do get an evening together, it goes one of two ways: a polite, tired truce in front of the television, or the same argument about whose job gets to come first, picked up exactly where it left off three weeks ago. Neither of them can remember the last time they talked about anything that was not logistics. (This is an illustration drawn from what couples commonly describe, not a real client.)

To start, contact us or check your insurance. Couples therapy and marriage counseling in Nashville is by secure video with Lisa Abrotsky, LMFT. It sits alongside our couples therapy, Gottman couples counseling, individual therapy and grief and loss services. We offer couples therapy in Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, Florida and South Carolina, plus five more states (full list below).

Online Marriage Counseling for Nashville Couples

Our Tennessee work is entirely online. There is no office to drive to, which in a city where I-24 and I-65 can turn a ten-mile trip into an hour is less of a drawback than it sounds. Couples meet with us from East Nashville, Germantown, Sylvan Park, Brentwood, Franklin, Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, Mount Juliet and Clarksville. Both of you need to be in Tennessee during the session, and you can join from the same room or from two places, which helps when one of you is on the road for work.

Your Couples Therapist: Lisa Abrotsky, LMFT

Lisa Abrotsky, LMFT, founded New Reflections Counseling in 2012 and has 20 years of experience as a therapist. She is our only clinician in Tennessee, so every Tennessee couple works with her. She is trained in the Gottman Method (Levels 1 and 2), which is not the same as being a certified Gottman therapist. New Reflections Counseling is not affiliated with The Gottman Institute.

In practice, that training shows up as structure. The early sessions look closely at how the two of you argue, repair, turn toward each other or away, and what each of you thinks the real problem is. From there, the work is specific: how to bring up a complaint without it landing as an attack, how to stop a conversation before it floods, and how to rebuild the small daily habits of attention that busy couples drop first.

What Nashville Couples Bring

• Two demanding careers and a relationship that gets whatever is left over
• Touring, travel or shift work that keeps one partner away for long stretches
• The arrival of a baby, and a marriage that went quiet afterward
• An affair or a breach of trust that both of you want to understand
• Arguments about money, in-laws or where to live as the city gets more expensive
• A partner’s drinking or other habit, and the codependent patterns built around it
• A sense of growing apart, with no single crisis to point to

Engaged, Unsure or Deciding

Not every couple arrives in trouble. Premarital counseling is offered in Tennessee for couples who want to talk through money, family, children and conflict before the wedding rather than after. Our premarital counseling page explains what that covers.

At the other end, some couples arrive with one partner leaning out. Discernment counseling is also offered in Tennessee. It does not try to fix the marriage; it helps both of you decide, with clarity, whether to try couples therapy, separate, or keep things as they are for now. Our discernment counseling page has more.

Only one of you ready to call? That is a common place to start. Call (615) 550-2366 or send us a message, and we will talk through how to bring your partner in.

How Sessions Run

The first appointment is an intake with both of you, 45 to 50 minutes long, like every session after it. Expect questions about how you met, what is working, what keeps going wrong, and what each of you would like to be different. Some couples also spend part of the early work in individual sessions so each partner can speak freely. There is no set number of sessions. Evening appointments are offered upon availability, and a 90-minute extended session is available for self-pay couples.

When Joint Sessions Are Not Safe

If you are afraid of your partner, if you are being monitored or threatened, or if money, the car or contact with family is being used to control you, couples therapy is not the right setting, and saying so here is deliberate. Individual support and a safety plan come first. If you are in danger, call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. In Tennessee, the statewide domestic violence helpline is 1-800-356-6767.

Insurance and Fees in Tennessee

Tennessee plans we are in network with: Aetna, Cigna, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Tricare East. We are not in network with UnitedHealthcare in Tennessee yet, and Medicare and Medicaid are not accepted. Insurers cover therapy for a diagnosed condition in one person, so couples work is not always billed the way couples expect; send your details through our insurance verification form and we will email you what your plan is likely to do within a couple of hours.

Self-pay is $125 per individual session and $175 for couples, family or EMDR sessions, each 45 to 50 minutes, and $200–$250 for an extended 90-minute individual, couples or EMDR session. You can pay with an HSA or FSA card, and if you have out-of-network benefits, we will give you a superbill to submit. Self-pay clients can also ask for a Good Faith Estimate before starting. Most new clients are seen within a week.

Common Questions

Is there a marriage counselor near me in Nashville?

Our Tennessee couples therapy is online, so you can work with Lisa from anywhere in the state, whether you live in Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood or Murfreesboro. There is no in-person office in Tennessee.

Do we have to be married?

No. We work with dating, engaged, married and separated couples, and with LGBTQIA+ couples.

Can we do sessions from two different places?

Yes, as long as both of you are in Tennessee at the time of the session.

Will the therapist take one person’s side?

No. The relationship is the client. Each of you will be heard, and each of you will be asked to look at your own part in the pattern.

Does insurance cover marriage counseling in Tennessee?

Sometimes. It depends on your plan and on whether there is a diagnosed condition. We will check and tell you plainly before you start.

If you are thinking about suicide or feel you are in crisis, call or text 988 at any hour.

Where We Work

All Tennessee sessions are by secure video. We are licensed in twelve states: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. You can read about the clinicians who work here.

More on This

• Couples therapy in Memphis
• EMDR therapy in Nashville
• Grief counseling in Nashville
• Postpartum therapy in Nashville
• Questions to ask a couples therapist
• What online couples therapy costs