Dr. Orna Guralnik returns with new couples therapy season on Paramount+

Dr. Orna Guralnik’s return to Couples Therapy framed a larger national tension in intimate terms: political polarization no longer stops at the ballot box, it now shows up as a stress test for marriages, trust and power inside the home. The new fifth season premiered Friday, May 15, 2026, on Paramount+, with all nine episodes available on the Paramount+ Premium Plan. On linear Paramount+ with Showtime, the first three episodes were set to air back-to-back Sunday, May 17, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The season follows four new couples in crisis, and Paramount’s description makes clear that politics is not just background noise. One volatile marriage is being strained by stark political differences and daily fights, turning ideology into a recurring domestic fault line. That detail matters because the conflict is not really about labels alone. It is about what each partner believes, whom they trust and how much power they think the other should have in the relationship.

The other stories widen that same lens. One couple was blindsided by secret, paid cuddling sessions, a revelation that raises questions about boundaries and emotional honesty. Another pair planned to move in together until an autism diagnosis changed the terms of the relationship. Two teenage sweethearts, together for 20 years, are left wondering whether they have outgrown each other. Taken together, the cases suggest that the season is less about simple compatibility than about how partners absorb pressure from identity, life stage, disclosure and unmet expectations.

Guralnik discussed the new season on CBS Mornings, underscoring how the series continues to bring viewers into weekly sessions with a world-renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst. The show has also become one of the most decorated titles in nonfiction television, winning the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming in 2021 and the American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Non-Scripted Series in 2024. Additional nominations from the International Documentary Association, Cinema Eye Honor Awards and Critics’ Choice Real TV Awards have helped make the series a durable fixture in the broader conversation about how Americans live, love and disagree.