Lighthouse Relationships

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Lighthouse Relationships Feel safe & be heard with our trusted team.

We provide couples therapy, pre-marriage preparation, and individual therapy - face to face at our offices in Clayfield, Brisbane - or online from anywhere in the world. Lighthouse Relationships brings together evidence-based psychological research and quality educational practice to support couples at all stages of their relationship. Located in New Farm, Brisbane, just a short walk from New Farm Park and cafes, our face-to-face sessions allow you work with an expert counsellor, and then go on to enjoy a picnic date or coffee. We also offer online relationship counselling, which allows us to connect with couples all over Australia from the comfort of their own couch. We offer face-to-face group courses in the areas of pre-marriage preparation and relationship enrichment, facilitated by trained experts in the fields of relationship education and psychology.

Bird theory. Orange peel theory. The "husband test."If your feed has been full of ways to test whether your partner real...
11/10/2026

Bird theory. Orange peel theory. The "husband test."

If your feed has been full of ways to test whether your partner really loves you, you're not imagining it.

Most of them work the same way. Watch how your partner responds to something small. A bird outside the window. Someone peeling an orange for you. A throwaway comment on camera.

There's something real underneath the trend. Relationship researcher John Gottman calls these moments bids for connection: small attempts to get your partner's attention, interest or affection. In his research following newlyweds for six years, couples who stayed married turned toward each other's bids about 86% of the time. Couples who later divorced averaged 33%.

But one moment isn't a verdict. A tired, stressed or distracted partner can miss the bird and still love you deeply and quietly testing someone can leave you feeling more anxious, not less.

What tends to work better:
🤍 Make the bid out loud: "I'd love you to come and look at this with me."
🤍 Say what you need: "Could you please give me five minutes of your attention."
🤍 Notice when your partner reaches for you and turn toward it.

The goal isn't to pass a test. It's to keep noticing each other.

Ever secretly tested your partner?

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day.Most of the messaging around it focuses on individual self-care, therapy, rest, chec...
09/10/2026

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day.

Most of the messaging around it focuses on individual self-care, therapy, rest, checking in on yourself. All genuinely important.

What gets missed is that your relationship is one of the biggest factors in your mental health, for better or worse. A relationship where you feel supported and understood is protective. One where you feel unheard or constantly on edge can be one of the heaviest weights you carry.

So tomorrow, alongside checking in on "how am I doing?", it's worth checking in on "how are we doing?".

Sometimes that's a five-minute conversation. Sometimes it's the start of something bigger you want support with.

Comment below or send us a DM if you're not sure where to start.

Meet Georgia, one of the brilliant counsellors here at Lighthouse.Georgia works with couples and individuals across ever...
07/10/2026

Meet Georgia, one of the brilliant counsellors here at Lighthouse.

Georgia works with couples and individuals across every stage of life, with particular depth in supporting couples through the transition into retirement, alongside her focus on neurodiverse relationships and ADHD-informed couples work.

She's completed advanced training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, including specialised training in affair recovery, and brings a genuinely evidence-based, compassionate approach, tailored to each person she works with rather than a one-size-fits-all script.

Beyond couples work, Georgia also supports people through anxiety, parenting challenges, and life transitions more broadly, helping build emotional and psychological wellbeing that lasts beyond the session.

Her expertise has been sought externally, including advising on how couples can navigate a positive transition into retirement while maintaining a strong and fulfilling relationship. She is also a Family Reference Group member with Headspace Australia, giving her a grounded understanding of family dynamics and youth mental health systems.

Georgia sees clients via telehealth, so no matter where you are in Australia, she's available to work with you.

đź’» Telehealth / Zoom, Australia-wide
📱(07) 3477 9077
đź”— Link in bio

Did you know researchers can predict which relationships are heading for real trouble, with startling accuracy, just by ...
04/10/2026

Did you know researchers can predict which relationships are heading for real trouble, with startling accuracy, just by watching how a couple argues? Not whether they argue. How.

Relationship researcher John Gottman identified four patterns that show up again and again in couples who are struggling: criticism (attacking character, not the issue), contempt (eye-rolls, sarcasm, mockery, the most corrosive of the four), defensiveness (deflecting instead of hearing), and stonewalling (shutting down and withdrawing).

The good news is none of these are fixed traits, they're patterns you can actually change. That might look like swapping criticism for a gentle start-up, building a habit of noticing what your partner does right instead of just what they get wrong, taking responsibility for your part, even a small part, or learning to pause and self-soothe before a conversation gets away from you.

Recognising the pattern is the first step to changing it.

Which one shows up most in your arguments?

Picture this: one partner books the first session excited. The other turns up because they were asked to, arms crossed, ...
02/10/2026

Picture this: one partner books the first session excited. The other turns up because they were asked to, arms crossed, not saying much.

It's one of the most common scenarios we see, and it doesn't mean the relationship's doomed, or that therapy's off to a bad start.

More often than not, once the hesitant partner realises the room isn't about picking sides or assigning blame, something shifts. They start speaking up. Sometimes they end up doing most of the talking by session three.

Reluctance at the start usually says more about nerves, or scepticism about therapy itself, than it does about how someone feels about their relationship.

If one of you is keen and the other isn't sure, that's a completely normal place to start from. You don't both need to be all in before you book that first session.

Every couple's therapy approach is a little different, and it's worth knowing what you're walking into.Gottman Method, t...
30/09/2026

Every couple's therapy approach is a little different, and it's worth knowing what you're walking into.

Gottman Method, the approach all our clinicians are trained in, comes out of decades of research.

That research found specific, learnable patterns. Ways of arguing that predict trouble down the track. Small moments of "turning toward" each other that predict connection. Concrete repair skills for when things go sideways.

So, a Gottman-informed session isn't just a space to vent. It's more structured than that, built around skills you can actually take home and use.

Wondering what couples therapy actually involves? Comment below or send us a DM, we're always happy to chat it through.

It's Grand Final week. If your household includes one person who's fully invested and one person who couldn't tell you w...
27/09/2026

It's Grand Final week. If your household includes one person who's fully invested and one person who couldn't tell you which end of the ground is which, you already know how this weekend goes.

One of you is glued to the screen. The other is somewhere between mildly amused and quietly annoyed, wondering when they'll get five minutes of actual attention.

Here's the thing: you don't have to love the same things to be a great team.

Some couples bond by sharing every interest. Plenty of others bond by making room for each other's, even the ones they don't quite get. Sitting nearby while your partner yells at the TV. Asking one genuine question about the game, even if you don't care about the answer. Just being in the room.

It's not really about football. It's about noticing each other, even on the days your interests don't line up.

Which one are you this weekend, glued to the game or glued to your phone waiting for it to end?

Nobody warns you how strange it feels when the house goes quiet.For years, so much of a couple's shared life has been bu...
25/09/2026

Nobody warns you how strange it feels when the house goes quiet.

For years, so much of a couple's shared life has been built around the kids, the schedules, the noise, the shared project of raising them. When that changes, it can feel less like relief and more like: who are we now, just the two of us?

It's one of the most common transitions we see couples come in for, not because anything's gone wrong, but because a whole chapter has ended and a new one hasn't been written yet.

The couples who navigate it well aren't the ones who never feel the shift. They're the ones who get curious about each other again, on purpose, instead of assuming the connection will just pick back up where it left off twenty years ago.

If you're heading into (or already in) this stage, and it feels less like freedom and more like uncertainty, that's exactly the kind of thing we help couples work through.

There's one question we ask almost every couple in the first session, and it's not what people expect.It's not "what's w...
23/09/2026

There's one question we ask almost every couple in the first session, and it's not what people expect.

It's not "what's wrong." It's not "tell me your complaints about each other."

It's "tell me the story of how you met."

Watching two people who've been struggling for months suddenly light up talking about a share house party, a blind date gone sideways, or the day they knew, that tells us more than any list of problems could.

It reminds both people, and us, that whatever's happening now isn't the whole story. There was, and often still is, real affection under the frustration.

It's also just a nice way to start. Nobody walks in for their first session feeling great. Starting somewhere warm helps.

Have you seen the trailers for The Love Hypothesis yet?It's this month's big rom-com, built around the "fake dating" tro...
20/09/2026

Have you seen the trailers for The Love Hypothesis yet?

It's this month's big rom-com, built around the "fake dating" trope, two people pretending to be a couple until the pretending turns into something real.

It's a fun premise. It's also a strange kind of parallel to something we see in long-term relationships.

Plenty of couples get very good at performing togetherness, the date night, the "how was your day," the right words at the right time, without the actual connection underneath. Not because anyone's pretending on purpose. It just quietly becomes routine.

The difference between performing a relationship and actually being in one usually comes down to one thing: are you still genuinely curious about this person, or just going through the motions with them?

đź’› If you're honest, which one feels closer to your relationship lately?

Address

11/699 Sandgate Road, Clayfield
Brisbane, QLD
4011

Telephone

+61734779077

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