Couples Therapy in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

At our practice, located downtown (Edificio Don Alcides), we offer evidence-based couples psychotherapy.

How do we work with couples CBT?

We use Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT), a branch of CBT. We don’t look for someone “to blame”; instead, we identify the interaction patterns that are hurting the relationship and replace them with new ways of communicating and accepting each other.

What issues do we address?

• Lack of communication
• Infidelity and mistrust
• Excessive jealousy
• Routine and growing apart
• Constant arguments
• Raising your children

Session details

Couples sessions last 60 minutes and cost 300 Bs. It is a neutral space in downtown Santa Cruz (near Plaza 24 de Septiembre) where both of you are heard equally.

Confidentiality: what is protected and what is shared

In couples therapy, confidentiality belongs to the couple as a unit, not to each individual. This means that whatever either of you shares in a joint session becomes part of the shared process. However, when one of you requests an individual exploratory session (sometimes needed to understand personal history or conflicts that can’t be voiced in front of the other person), what is said in that session remains protected and is not brought into the joint session without explicit permission.

This policy is made clear from the first session. The practical rule: we don’t keep systemic secrets. If information comes up in an individual session that affects whether couples therapy can work (for example, an ongoing affair that hasn’t been disclosed, or a firm decision to separate), we work with you on how and when to share it, but we don’t continue couples therapy that rests on an unresolved critical secret.

What if only one of you wants to come?

This is common, especially when one partner is more reluctant or skeptical about therapy. You have two valid options:

Option 1: Start individual therapy with a relationship focus. We work with you alone, exploring your patterns, expectations and communication. Individual change often has a systemic effect that invites your partner to join voluntarily later on. We can’t promise your partner will come, but we can promise you will leave with concrete tools for yourself.

Option 2: A joint information session with no commitment. If your partner agrees to come just to learn how the process works (with no commitment to continue), the first session can serve as a neutral space for them to decide. We run this session without an active therapeutic structure: just an explanation of the method, expectations and format. It costs the same as a regular session.

What we do NOT do: work by email or WhatsApp with one partner while the other is asked to change without knowing it. That practice is ethically questionable and rarely produces lasting change.

Frequency, fees and packages

The recommended starting frequency for couples therapy is one session every week or every two weeks. For acute crises (recent infidelity, risk of imminent separation), we recommend weekly sessions for the first 4 to 6 weeks and then adjust.

Single couples session: 300 Bs (60 minutes). 4-session package: 1,100 Bs (you save 100 Bs compared with paying for each session separately). 10-session package: 2,500 Bs (you save 500 Bs). In couples therapy a package is especially valuable: it allows continuous work during the first 4 weeks, which is when communication agreements are set and the most ingrained patterns of arguing are broken.

Available hours

We know that coordinating the schedules of two people with busy working lives is the main barrier to a couple starting therapy. That’s why we offer sessions until 7:00 PM on weekdays and on Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Appointments must be booked at least 48 hours in advance. If you need online sessions because of travel or temporary work, we can combine in-person and online sessions in the same process.

About IBCT (Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy)

IBCT combines two components: change (learning new skills for communication, conflict resolution and emotional regulation) and acceptance (recognizing that certain traits of your partner are not going to change, and working on your own response to those traits). It is a model developed by Andrew Christensen (UCLA), with robust clinical evidence for couples in chronic conflict.

Unlike approaches that promise to “save your relationship at all costs,” IBCT respects the outcome of the process: sometimes a healthy ending to a relationship is better for both people than staying together. Our commitment is to the well-being of each of you as individuals and of the relationship as a system, in that order.

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