Marie-Anne Savoie
Couples and Individual Therapy
Marie-Anne Savoie is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). She is based in Ottawa and serves couples throughout Ontario through virtual appointments. At the Ottawa Centre for Relationship & Sex Therapy, she offers couples counselling that couples can access online — and is currently accepting new clients.
Marie-Anne Savoie
Couples and Individual Therapy
Marie-Anne Savoie is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). She is based in Ottawa and serves couples throughout Ontario through virtual appointments only.
At the Ottawa Centre for Relationship & Sex Therapy, she offers couples counselling that couples can access online — and is currently accepting new clients.
Background and training
Marie-Anne completed her Master’s in Counselling and Spirituality at Saint Paul’s University in 2021, with a specialization in couples therapy. Her graduate training focused specifically on the relational dimensions of human wellbeing — on what happens between people, not only within them — and this orientation continues to shape everything about how she works.
Since completing her degree, Marie-Anne has deepened her expertise through the study of several frameworks with direct application to couples counselling: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the relational and cultural perspectives of Esther Perel, and Relational Life Therapy as developed by Terry Real. Each of these approaches has contributed something distinct to her clinical thinking, and together they inform a way of working that is relational, attachment-informed, and practically focused on change.
Approach
Marie-Anne’s approach to couples counselling is rooted in the understanding that most relational conflict is not really about what couples fight about on the surface. Beneath the arguments about dishes, parenting, or money, there are usually unmet emotional needs, attachment fears, and old relational wounds that have never been fully addressed. Her work focuses on helping partners access and communicate those underlying experiences — to move from reactive cycles to more genuine, vulnerable contact with each other.
She is particularly drawn to the integration of attachment theory with a frank acknowledgment of individual needs and the complexity of long-term partnership. She takes seriously both the pull toward deep connection and the inevitable tensions that arise when two people try to build a life together.
Specialization in couples counselling
Marie-Anne’s work at the Centre focuses entirely on couples counselling. As an Ottawa therapist with a specific focus on couples, she works with partners who are experiencing disconnection, recurring conflict, communication difficulties, or a general sense that the relationship is not what either of them wants it to be. She helps couples identify the patterns that keep them stuck — the cycles of criticism, withdrawal, reactivity, and distance — and move toward something more honest and connected.
Marie-Anne works with couples at all stages: those in early relationships navigating differences for the first time, established partnerships that have drifted apart or been damaged by a specific event, and couples who are considering separation and want to make a thoughtful, informed decision. Her counselling is available entirely online, making it accessible for couples throughout the Ottawa region and across Ontario.
She works with couples of all configurations — heterosexual and same-sex couples, married and unmarried partners, and couples in non-monogamous or open relationships. As an Ottawa therapist with a relational and attachment-based lens, she brings the same care and skill to every couple she works with, regardless of structure.
In her own words
Marie-Anne writes: “I specialize in working with couples who long to feel more connected, understood, and secure with one another. Many partners find themselves caught in painful cycles of conflict or distance, unsure how to move forward. Using a relational, attachment-based lens, I offer a safe space for couples to move out of reactive patterns and into more authentic, vulnerable connection.”
Availability and fees
Marie-Anne only offers virtual appointments, serving Ottawa-area couples and clients throughout Ontario. As an Ottawa therapist practicing online, she is accessible to couples who prefer the flexibility of remote sessions or who are not able to come to an in-person office. Sessions: $180. She is currently accepting new clients.
Ready to take the next step?
Book a session with Marie-Anne or learn more about how our approach to sex therapy and couples therapy can support you.