What Is the Gottman Relationship Checkup? A Complete Guide for Couples

The Gottman Relationship Checkup is a 337-question research-based assessment, completed privately by each partner, that gives a Gottman-trained therapist a detailed clinical picture of a couple's relationship. It was built on nearly four decades of research with over 3,000 couples.

What Is the Gottman Relationship Checkup?

The Gottman Relationship Checkup is an online assessment designed for use with a Gottman Method-trained therapist. Each partner completes 337 emotionally substantive questions independently. The therapist receives a combined clinical report with specific strengths and challenges mapped across six dimensions of relationship health, plus actionable recommendations for therapy.

It was developed by Drs. John and Julie Schwartz Gottman, whose decades of observational research identified the patterns that predict whether couples stay together or drift apart.

What the Checkup Actually Measures

The questions map to the core dimensions of Gottman's Sound Relationship House model:

Gottman's research found that couples in stable relationships turn toward each other's bids for connection about 86% of the time. Couples in distress do so only 33% of the time. The checkup is built to surface exactly where that gap exists for a specific couple.

How It Works, Step by Step

1. A therapist invites both partners. Only a certified Gottman-trained therapist can order the checkup. Each partner receives a private login via email.
2. Partners complete it separately. The 337 questions take about one hour per person. Answers are encrypted and not visible to the other partner.
3. The therapist receives a clinical report. It identifies specific strengths, areas of concern, and research-based recommendations tailored to the couple's profile.
4. Partners may receive their own reports. Some therapists share a summary report that both people can read and reflect on before or after a session.
5. One free reassessment is included. Couples can retake the checkup to compare scores after a period of work together.

What Does It Cost?

The Gottman Relationship Checkup costs $39 per couple, ordered through a therapist. That covers both partners' full assessments and one follow-up reassessment. The therapist's session fees are separate.

If you are already working with a therapist who uses the Gottman Method, ask whether they incorporate the checkup as part of intake. Many do. If you are looking for a Gottman-trained therapist, the Gottman Institute's referral directory is the most reliable starting point.

What to Do With the Results

This is where most articles stop, but it is the question that actually matters.

The checkup identifies patterns. What a couple does with those patterns is what changes things.

Gottman's data shows that 69% of couples' conflicts are perpetual, rooted in fundamental differences in personality or values rather than problems with clean solutions. The clinical report will not resolve those conflicts. It will name them precisely, which is a meaningful and often clarifying starting point.

After reviewing the results with a therapist, couples often focus on a handful of targeted changes: softening how conflict begins, increasing the ratio of positive interactions (stable couples maintain roughly a 5:1 positive-to-negative ratio), and building more reliable moments of connection day to day.

A 2018 peer-reviewed study found that Gottman couple therapy produced large effect sizes for both marital adjustment (η² = 0.94) and intimacy (η² = 0.77), with gains sustained at follow-up. The checkup's precision is part of what makes that focused work possible.

Between sessions, relationship exercises that build trust can help couples act on what the report surfaces rather than waiting for the next appointment. If communication patterns are a gap, targeted daily practices tend to compound faster than longer, infrequent sessions alone.

Is the Gottman Relationship Checkup Right for You?

If you are working through a trust rupture or a recurring conflict you cannot seem to resolve, understanding trust issues alongside therapy can help you make sense of what the results are pointing to.

For couples not yet in therapy, tools like Adoree offer a way to start the conversation, hear both sides without picking one, and build the kind of daily connection the Gottman research consistently identifies as the foundation of stable relationships. You can read more about how that approach works at adoree.ai/about.

The Gottman Relationship Checkup is a clinical instrument, not a quick quiz. It is designed to give a therapist a precise map rather than to give a couple a score. Used well, it focuses months of therapy rather than leaving both sessions and sessions feeling like starting over each time.