*Names have of course been changed.
Marriage Counselling in Sydney for Couples in Crisis
Evidence-based marriage counselling in Sydney with Australia’s leading infidelity and sexual disconnection specialist. When your relationship is on fire, you need someone who has put out this exact fire before.
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A MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL MYERSCOUGH
Founder of The Reconnection Institute®
I’m Michael Myerscough. I’ve spent 25 years doing one thing: sitting across from couples whose relationships are falling apart and helping them figure out whether to rebuild or walk away. For the last decade, I’ve done that from our practice in St Ives on Sydney’s North Shore.
I’m the only Master Certified practitioner of Terry Real’s Relational Life Therapy in the Southern Hemisphere. I’ve trained under Sue Johnson in Emotionally Focused Therapy, completed the Gottman Method through Level 2 plus their specialisations in affair recovery and addiction, and I use the only two infidelity recovery models with published scientific evidence behind them (Baucom, Snyder & Gordon’s integrative approach and the Gottman Trust Revival method). When I reference research in the room, I’ve studied under the people who produced it.
You may have seen me on Channel 9’s The Last Resort, where I worked with couples on national television across twelve episodes. I’ve been featured on 7News, the BBC, and in publications including Marie Claire, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, and Psychologies. I mention this not because media appearances make someone a good therapist, but because they reflect a track record that stands up to public scrutiny.
Our client feedback surveys tell a clear story: 100% satisfaction for couples who complete our one, two, and three-day intensive retreats, and 95% for initial two-hour sessions. Those are self-reported figures, the same methodology used by Relationships Australia and every major counselling body in the country. The difference is our numbers. Couples travel from interstate, from New Zealand, and from as far as Botswana and Qatar for counselling in Sydney with us. They don’t do that because our website is pretty. They do it because the results travel by word of mouth.
If you’ve already tried couples therapy and it didn’t work, you’re in the right place. If this is your first attempt, even better. Let’s not waste time on approaches that aren’t built for what you’re dealing with.
Yes, it can be incredibly challenging to rebuild trust and intimacy following such a painful rupture, but I’m here to tell you that it’s possible. We specialise in providing evidence-based, highly nuanced and personalised intensives which result in a stronger, authentic and more fulfilling relationship.
Our commitment is to protect families by teaching couples to quickly begin repairing, rebuilding and reconnecting their fractured relationship. By guiding couples with compassion, curiosity and a little kick ass we provide the tools to engage in open, honest and vulnerable conversation at much deeper levels than you may be used to.
We provide a lifeline to those couples in crisis and a safe, supportive environment for them to recover from the unimaginable pain of infidelity.
As seen on
This Is Not Weekly Therapy
HOW WE WORK
Couple Therapy Assessment
Most marriage counselling in Sydney runs in weekly 50-minute sessions. For couples in crisis, that's like telling someone having a heart attack to book a cardiology appointment for next Thursday. By the time you’ve caught the therapist up on what happened since last week, the session’s over. Nothing shifts.
We work differently. A two-hour assessment gives us enough time to understand the real dynamic — not the polished version couples present in the first twenty minutes. From there, regular two-hour intensives keep momentum between sessions, while one, two, or three-day retreat programmes give us the sustained time to go deep, build skills under pressure, and restructure what isn't working. You will cover more ground in a single day here than in six months of weekly sessions.
Couples fly in from interstate, New Zealand, and overseas specifically for these programmes. If your relationship is in crisis, waiting a week between sessions while everything burns down is not a strategy. It's how marriages end.
With Michael Myerscough – Your Couples Therapist Learn more
Success Stories
WHERE IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP?
From our practice in St Ives on Sydney's North Shore, with 25 years of international clinical experience behind us, we've isolated the pain points that lead to relationship disaster. One or more of these will be relevant to what you’re dealing with right now.
Affair Recovery
You just found out. Or you found out weeks ago and you’re still not sleeping. Googling “how to survive an affair” at 3am is not a recovery plan. We use the only methods scientifically proven to rebuild trust (Gottman & Baucom). This is a structured, intensive intervention designed to stop the bleeding and start the repair before you do something you can’t undo
Your Erotic Return
You’ve become flatmates. Co-parents at best. Here’s what nobody tells you: most couples don’t have a “desire” problem; they have a lack of erotic intelligence. Working on “communication” won’t fix your sex life. We address the emotional wounds and the sexual disconnection in parallel. It’s time to move beyond “duty sex” and reignite actual longing.
Getting Men to Therapy
Most therapy is built for women, expecting men to “talk about feelings” in a way that feels like an ambush. This is different. Direct, momentum-based, and results-focused. We use Terry Real’s Relational Life Therapy to make men accountable without making them the enemy. He’ll be challenged, but he won’t be blamed.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Stop. Before you sign anything, sell anything, or move out, get a clinical assessment. Your friends and family are biased; you need certainty. We run intensive two-hour evaluations to cut through the fog and tell you what’s really broken, what’s fixable, and what isn’t. You deserve to know the truth before you blow up your family.
You Can’t Have Both.
You cannot love someone into sobriety. Addiction systematically dismantles the trust and safety of a family. We treat the relationship alongside the substance use because rehab without relationship repair is a recipe for relapse. It’s time to choose: you can have the addiction, or you can have the family. You rarely get both.
The Lie Is What Breaks You.
Secret porn. Escorts. Secret apps. The behaviour is the symptom; the secrecy is the poison. Shame keeps the cycle spinning, and “confessing” without a clinical structure often causes more trauma than the act itself. We use specialised frameworks to move you from hidden lives to radical honesty without destroying what’s left.
One of You Is the Parent. That’s the Problem.
ADHD creates a “Parent-Child” dynamic that poisons desire and breeds resentment. One of you is drowning; the other is exhausted from carrying the load for two. This isn’t about better to-do lists; it’s about fixing the neurological patterns that are pulling you apart. Stop the spiral and return to being partners, not a project.
Your Childhood Has Invaded Your Bedroom.
What happened in your childhood didn’t stay there. It’s in your bedroom, your arguments, and your inability to trust. Individual therapy often leaves your partner standing outside a locked door. We use trauma-informed frameworks to heal the wound within the relationship, so the past stops sabotaging your future.
Frequently Asked Questions
This page is intentionally more conversational in tone because I am aware that anyone reading the FAQs is generally serious about kickstarting the process and is genuinely looking for real answers. I’ve been asked these questions many times, so I know that some of these answers are really important to you too.
What does The Reconnection Institute do?
The Reconnection Institute is a specialist couples practice based in St Ives on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. We work with couples in serious crisis — where an affair has come to light, where years of quiet disconnection have broken something, or where one partner is already halfway out the door. The work is intensive, evidence-grounded, and direct. It is built for couples who have run out of patience for an approach that circles the problem without touching it.
Where is The Reconnection Institute located?
The practice is in St Ives, on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Couples travel from across Sydney, interstate, and from New Zealand for this work. A small number fly from further afield — we’ve had clients from as far as Botswana and Qatar. I’ve even had a couple drive 9 hours from Melbourne for a 2hr session with me. The location is a deliberate choice: far enough from the CBD to feel removed from the everyday, close enough to get to without it becoming a logistical obstacle.
Who is the therapist at The Reconnection Institute?
You work with me, Michael Myerscough, the founder. I’m the only Master Certified Relational Life Therapy practitioner in the Southern Hemisphere, trained directly under Terry Real. Over 2 decades of clinical work with couples in crisis, I’ve also trained under Sue Johnson in Emotionally Focused Therapy and completed the Gottman Method through Level 2, including their specialisations in affair recovery and addiction. When I reference research in the room, I’ve studied under the people who produced it.
Is The Reconnection Institute only for couples on the brink of divorce?
The practice specialises in serious relationship crisis rather than the general tune-up. That said, “crisis” covers a wide range. It includes the acute emergency after an affair, and it includes the slow car crash of a relationship that has been quietly dying for years — the one where you’ve stopped fighting and started going through the motions. Both are crisis. Both are worth treating as such.
Do you offer intensive therapy as well as regular sessions?
Yes. Alongside standard two-hour sessions, the practice offers one, two, and three-day intensives. A full day’s intensive is roughly equivalent to five standard sessions and is generally the right choice for couples in acute crisis, or for those who have been in weekly therapy for months without reaching the actual problem. A hundred percent of couples who complete our one, two, and three-day intensives report satisfaction with the process — that figure is independently consistent with our client feedback surveys.
The sad fact is that it’s often only when the divorce papers have been signed, the contents of your home split and you’re sitting alone in your new place that reality sinks in. Only then will you realise the depth of what you gave up on when you gave up on each other.
