The Gottman Relationship Checkup is an online assessment tool created by Drs. John and Julie Gottman in collaboration with The Gottman Institute in Seattle, Washington. The assessment is composed of 480 questions in 5 categories: Friendship and Intimacy, The Safety Scales, The Conflict Scales, The Shared Meaning System, and Individual Areas of Concern. Question topics include friendship, intimacy, conflict, finances, children, trust, commitment, drug and alcohol screenings, and individual issues that can put a relationship at risk.

Dr. John Gottman is a clinical psychologist who has completed more than 40 years of research on relationships and couples. Dr. Julie Gottman is a clinical psychologist who has extensive experience in private practice and teaching settings. Together, they created this research-based assessment for couples as a method for learning the strengths and challenges of a relationship and subsequently determining a treatment plan.

The actual time varies based on individual responses, the complexity of relationship dynamics, and the choice to use optional comment areas to provide additional information about the relationship. However, on average, you can expect to spend between 1-2 hours to complete it.

Yes! The pace and timing for completing the assessment is entirely up to you. You can answer the questionnaires all in one sitting or work on them over time. If you choose to take a break, simply log out of your profile. When you return, the system will remember where you left off and will resume at that point.

No. Before you start the assessment, you will each create a separate online profile with a unique login and password. Neither of you can access the other’s information at any time, and we encourage you not to share your login information with your partner in order to preserve the integrity and effectiveness of the questionnaire.

For therapy to be successful, it is important that your clinician understands all of the issues occurring in the relationship. With this in mind, it is not possible to skip questions or to shorten the assessment. However, many questions have optional comment areas intended for clarification or for further explanation of your responses. These can be used as a way to explain your thoughts about specific questions - positive or negative - and to add any important details you would like your clinician to have about a particular question, topic, or concern.

The scores and analysis are for your clinician’s use and will not be given to you because the results are interpreted in the context of all the other information obtained about you during the assessment process. This includes joint and individual interviews and your clinician’s observations. The results of the questionnaires do not stand alone.

A second reason is that each of you will set up a private login account so you can feel free to answer the questions openly and honestly without concern about what your partner may think about your answers. Your clinician will discuss the results of the entire assessment with you and suggest a treatment plan for improving and strengthening your relationship.

I charge USD $130 [$160 Can] for the Checkup itself. This includes the fees for the test itself and my time to go over the results and prepare notes for a feedback session and treatment planning. 

The Checkup is designed to be used by two people and one person completing it by themselves with not generate results. If you are struggling to improve your relationship by yourself and don’t know where to begin, please reach out at [email protected] and I can send you information on setting up an appointment for yourself.