Our Ritual is an online couples therapy platform that steers away from the traditional CBT framework. Take a look at its process and whether Our Ritual could be for you.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common and well-known forms of therapy, whether it’s online or in-person therapy. The basic principles around CBT focus on working with a person to overcome and change thinking patterns that may be harmful or limiting.
Couples therapists may use CBT as a guiding factor during sessions, asking couples to share what’s on their mind and try and work out any issues at that moment. However, there’s one company that’s trying to reframe this format by bringing in and using two therapy methods as guidelines.
Sarah and Zack have been together for 3 1/2 years, and they are both in their 20s. They’ve never done couples therapy before, so they decided to try Our Ritual to understand each other better and strengthen their relationship.
Zack had never been to therapy before, so he was looking forward to interpreting his emotions as they relate to his relationship, and he wanted to learn how to communicate better.
Sarah has used therapy in the past and thought it would be a good time to start again with her partner. Her goals were to address any weak points in the relationship and strengthen the relationship overall.
Sarah and Zack agreed to test Our Ritual in exchange for 1 month of services. In that time, they went to two sessions and used Our Ritual’s app and its resources.
Our Ritual is an online couples therapy platform that launched in 2022. It offers individual relationship-based therapy and couples therapy. In both, Our Ritual stresses the individual and their take on their relationship. It uses that thought process with journal prompts, exercises, and more to drive the therapy session.
Its core philosophy is that a relationship comprises two individuals who share a common ground due to values, beliefs, and other factors. Our Ritual highlights each person’s individuality and reinforces the common ground in the relationship through skills, daily habits, communication, and more.
Our Ritual therapists vary in specialty and methodologies, from the Gottman Method and CBT to emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and more. The therapists are licensed professionals with experience in relationship counseling and are vetted before being onboarded by Our Ritual.
We highlight a few key features next, but for more details, keep reading.
What we like
- a new and unique take on couples therapy
- individual therapy is offered as well as meeting as a couple
- meetings happen through Zoom
- sessions can be as short as 20 minutes and as long as 40 minutes
- also offers support for military couples, long-distance couples, LGBTQ+ couples, and parents
- schedules and follow-ups are based on your own time
- follow a Pathway to track your progress
- 14-day, money-back satisfaction guarantee
What we don’t like
- exercises and resources are available in-app only
- plans can get expensive
- cannot choose therapist
- some people may not like the shorter sessions
- pricing structure is not quite clear on website
- some users report issues with app and website
- does not accept insurance
- cancellation can be difficult
- early termination fee if you decide to cancel subscription earlier than planned
In addition to couples therapy and individual-focused therapy, Our Ritual focuses and offers guidance for LGBTQ+ couples, military couples, long-distance couples, and parents. Our Ritual therapists’ specialties range from marriage and family counseling to social work, so the field of treatment is vast.
In addition to the weekly video sessions, Our Ritual uses its app to hold resources, journal prompts, and other exercises for individuals and couples to complete on their own. Each exercise helps you work toward a Pathway, or specific goals, that you will be matched with during the questionnaire process.
Sarah and Zack said you could do extra one-on-one sessions with your therapist and message them outside of sessions, but they did not use these features.
Our Ritual’s exercises are used as a guide for the next in-person session. Working through each one leads you through different lessons and stages until you reach the end of the Pathway.
Our Ritual has eight Pathways you could match into and focus on:
- The art of conflict: how to manage conflict and how to use it for personal and relational growth
- Conscious communication: learn skills to communicate more effectively and better
- Foundations of connections: uncover past patterns and triggers that may be showing up in your relationship
- Re:Connection: make meaningful connections with your partner if you feel disconnected
- Loving boundaries: learn how to effectively create boundaries in a safe and loving way
- Love after kids: for parents’ growth and path in their parenthood journey
- Emotional intimacy: help opening up to your partner
- From desire to pleasure: help with sexual or intimacy issues
Sarah and Zack found themselves in the “Foundations of connections” Pathway. They liked the structure of the lessons. “I liked the ability to set my own pace for tasks to be completed outside of therapy sessions,” Sarah shared.
Within the courses, there are resources and assignments to work on throughout the week. “There are videos to watch and prompts to answer based on the theme of the video. You could record video, audio, or write down your answer to the prompt, and your therapist discusses it with you the following week,” she said.
There’s a one-on-one group chat with your partner and therapist in the app and a place that offers an emotional check-in feature that you could use to log your feelings throughout the week. They could be discussed in a later session with your therapist. Zack, in particular, liked that feature.
Our Ritual does not accept insurance. It also does not accept flexible spending accounts (FSA) and health savings accounts (HSA). Everything you pay will be out of pocket.
Our Ritual plans are relatively affordable, but the subscription costs increase the more you want to subscribe for a shorter time frame.
- For couples:
- 3 plans available: monthly, 3 months, or 6 months
- lowest cost is $208 per month for 6 months
- price increases for shorter subscriptions
- For individuals:
- 3 plans available: monthly, 3 months, or 6 months
- lowest cost is $120 per month for 6 months
- price increases for shorter subscriptions
If you decide to subscribe for a longer period of time but change your mind and want to downgrade, you have to pay a rate adjustment for your last month.
For example, if you pay $120 per month for the 6-month subscription and decide you want to stop at the second month, you have to pay the higher monthly rate for the last month and the balance of the last 2 months that were discounted.
However, Our Ritual does have a 14-day, money-back satisfaction guarantee. If you or your partner decide this program isn’t suited for you, you can email customer support or message them in the app to request a cancellation.
There are requirements if you decide to cancel at or before 14 days. Our Ritual’s website states you can get your money back if:
- You are a new member and you bought a subscription-based plan.
- If you have changed your subscription from one to another, you do not qualify for the money-back guarantee.
- You have attended your welcome session but not any other sessions.
- You did not cancel sessions less than 36 hours before the session, and you did not fail to show up at a session.
- You answered onboarding questions truthfully.
Overall, Sarah and Zack found Our Ritual to be affordable and fair for one session per week. However, they would not continue to use this service.
“While the price is fair given everything, it is still expensive for two young professionals just starting out in their careers.
“While it benefitted our relationship, we do not feel that we absolutely need to have a session every week. A lighter plan, maybe once per month, would be better suited for us,” Sarah said.
To start with Our Ritual, you first fill out a questionnaire.
If you decide to do individual sessions, the process should take about 3 to 5 minutes. If you’re signing up as a couple, it could take about 7 to 10 minutes for each couple to answer the questionnaire.
Each individual in the relationship does need to fill out a separate questionnaire, though the joint answers can be the same.
Next, you choose your subscription plan. Then, you’re asked to schedule your first session, and your therapist’s name will be shared.
Sarah and Zack were matched with a therapist as soon as they signed up and downloaded the app.
“We were assigned to them, so we could not choose who the therapist was,” Sarah said.
“We were required to fill out a questionnaire before we were assigned, but there were no questions that related to who we wanted to have as a therapist (gender preference, specialty, etc.), However, we thought our therapist was a good fit for us.”
Scheduling and rescheduling appointments seem to be easy to do, as the therapists are relatively flexible. They can meet anytime in the morning, noon, or evening, whichever works best for your schedule.
You will meet through Zoom. Any exercises or journal prompts assigned to you will be available in the app only.
Our testers found it was very convenient to schedule a time that worked best for them.
“We were able to schedule on weekends, in the mornings, late in the evening, in the middle of the day, etc.,” Sarah mentioned. “We didn’t have to move anything around.”
If you’ve tried couples therapy before and it hasn’t worked out for you, or if you and your partner are struggling with any one of the Pathways mentioned earlier in the article, Our Ritual could be a service worth trying.
While most online therapy platforms are based on CBT, Our Ritual’s programs are based on the Gottman Method and emotionally focused therapy (EFT). Both focus on growing emotional connection through empathy, respect, and intimacy. Focusing on each individual in the relationship can help them see each other’s side and may help them feel empathy for each other.
Our Ritual’s practice helps couples put these ideals and practices in everyday life through the prompts, exercises, and other activities available in the app. Research says applying these concepts to relationships can help build and hone the empathy, skills, and respect of the relationship that you work on in each of the Pathways.
Our testers, Sarah and Zack, thought Our Ritual allowed them to think about their relationship in a new light. Zack shared that he liked writing his reflections in the app. He has never been to therapy, and he “enjoyed being able to communicate in that way.”
Sarah loved the banter between her partner and the therapist. “Our therapist was a good match for us and was able to be lighthearted at times,” she said.
| Price | Types of therapy | Accepts insurance? | Payment model | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our Ritual | starts at $120 per month | • individual • couples | no | subscription |
| Regain | starts at $260 per month | • individual • couples | no | subscription |
| Thriveworks | starts at $65 without insurance | • individual • couples • family • group • teen • medication management | yes | by session |
| Little Otter | starts at $195 per session | • children’s • teen • couples • family • medication management • psychiatry | yes | by session |
| Talkspace | starts at $276 per month | • individual • couples • teen • medication management • psychiatry | yes | subscription |
Since Our Ritual has been on the market for only a few years, there aren’t many reviews out there, crowd-sourced or otherwise.
There is a recent Reddit thread that discusses Our Ritual’s approach and how it’s been a breath of fresh air for some folks.
Reviews about the app vary widely. For Android users, Our Ritual has 3.4 out of 5 stars based on 10 reviews, whereas for iOS users, Our Ritual is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars with 46 reviews. For each app store, only three people had left written reviews.
The most common issue reported was that it seemed the app had a lot of bugs. Some users were not able to log in or had to log in multiple times before it actually worked. Others could not access the resources or activities that are only available in the app.
Sarah and Zack experienced bugs when they were first signing up. “I was unable to progress past [the choosing your plan] page and ended up taking the same survey multiple times on multiple devices,” Sarah shared.
“The survey was several questions long, so this was very annoying. I did get it to work after some time, but the whole process took around 45 minutes with the bug,” Sarah said.
After she downloaded the mobile app, Sarah found you had to take the same exact survey again, but with a few more questions. “This was repetitive and unnecessary,” she said.
Other reviews mention issues with customer service and trying to cancel. One reviewer mentioned that they and their partner are sticking with Our Ritual only because of their therapist. The app has not been so helpful to them, though, and customer service “just cannot seem to fix it.”
Zack and Sarah shared they both didn’t like that not all of their exercises, responses, and outside coursework were brought up in their sessions. They also didn’t like how they weren’t asked about their preference of therapist while they were signing up and that they experienced technical difficulties while signing up.
However, they did have a great experience with their therapist.
“We felt that our therapist was helpful and adjusted well to our needs. They asked the hard questions and allowed us to dive deep into our thought processes,” Sarah and Zack shared.
“They gave us actionable takeaways after each session, and they let both of us speak. [Our therapist] also made sure they weren’t talking for us at any point.”
If you are an individual or a couple who wants to try a different approach to couples therapy, Our Ritual offers a more hands-on and in-practice approach to therapy.
Where some online couples therapy platforms provide CBT-based treatment, Our Ritual offers guidance-based activities, journal prompts, and more to help guide sessions and have you and your partner practice them so they become part of your daily lives.
No, Our Ritual does not accept insurance. It also does not accept FSA/HSA.
Our Ritual has six subscription models that vary by therapy type and how long you’d like to do online therapy. Starting prices are listed below, but you need to sign up to see which subscription plans are available for you and their price.
For couples:
- 3 plans available: monthly, 3 months, or 6 months
- lowest cost is $208 per month for 6 months
- price increases for shorter subscriptions
For individuals:
- 3 plans available: monthly, 3 months, or 6 months
- lowest cost is $120 per month for 6 months
- price increases for shorter subscriptions
Yes, Our Ritual is a legitimate online therapy platform. Its therapists are board certified and licensed, and they have years of experience with different types of therapy models and specialties.
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for therapy, let alone couples therapy. What works for one person or couple may not work for another.
That said, there are multiple types of couples therapy models. A 2019 review that focused on couples and their progress over 19 years suggests that emotionally focused therapy had improved and sustained marital satisfaction.
CBT, the Gottman method, premarital counseling, sex therapy, and narrative therapy are a few more of the many therapy methods that are available for couples and individuals.
Finding out what therapy works best for you and finding the best therapist for you can be a time-consuming process, but after you do find the right fit, it can help have a positive influence on your relationships.
Most insurance providers do not provide coverage for marriage counseling or couples counseling. However, you can always check with your insurance company to see what the parameters are for this type of therapy.