A record 30,000 couples sought counselling from the Accord counselling agency during 2005.
The voluntary Catholic body, which has 400 counsellors based in 58 centres, had its busiest year since it began work in 1969, it said yesterday.
Director of counselling John Farrelly said clients are ordinary couples who face modern lifestyle problems with children, money and lack of quality family time due to work and commuting.
Accord said the most common causes of unhappiness among married couples are partners ignoring and insulting each other and difficulties in resolving conflicts. Arguments over household chores and who minds the children also feature strongly.
"Most problems that couples face can be addressed with the support of professionally trained counsellors who are focused on and sensitive to the dynamics of married life," said Mr Farrelly.
"Where couples have the courage to identify and face their problems, it is in the common good that society provide appropriate structures and services to facilitate this process."
Accord clients are usually aged between 30 and 40 years old and are married for 12 years. More than 71 per cent of couples have children.