--- title: Kristen Bell Says Therapy Key to Marriage With Dax Shepard description: Find out why Kristen Bell says therapy is the key to her marriage with Dax Shepard. canonical: https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-21T15:24:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:14.084Z og:title: Kristen Bell Says Therapy Is the Key to Her Healthy Marriage og:description: ‘We both take responsibility’ og:url: https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc7feb7f2ebac13/6988bf39f887dc076de99844/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Premiere Of USA Pictures' "The Boss" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kristen Bell Says Therapy Is the Key to Her Healthy Marriage twitter:description: ‘We both take responsibility’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc7feb7f2ebac13/6988bf39f887dc076de99844/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kristen Bell Says Therapy Is the Key to Her Healthy Marriage by [Stephanie Petit / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Stephanie Petit / People Mar 21, 2017 3:24 PM UTC  WESTWOOD, CA - MARCH 28: Actors Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell arrive at the premiere of USA Pictures' 'The Boss' at Regency Village Theatre on March 28, 2016 in Westwood, California (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic) WESTWOOD, CA - MARCH 28: Actors Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell arrive at the premiere of USA Pictures' 'The Boss' at Regency Village Theatre on March 28, 2016 in Westwood, California (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic by [Stephanie Petit / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Stephanie Petit / People Mar 21, 2017 3:24 PM UTC [Kristen Bell](http://people.com/tag/kristen-bell/) and [Dax Shepard](http://people.com/tag/dax-shepard/) are known as a fun-loving duo — just check out [their famous La-Z-Boy battle](http://people.com/celebrity/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-fight-chair-lazboy/) or [their pranks on each other](http://people.com/tv/dax-shepard-searched-murdering-my-husband-tips-on-kristen-bells-phone-now-shes-asking-datelines-keith-morrison-for-help/) — but when times get tough, they turn to therapy to mend their relationship. Speaking with PEOPLE on Monday at the Los Angeles premiere of [_CHiPS_](http://ew.com/movies/2017/01/12/dax-shepard-michael-pena-chips-trailer/), a big-screen adaptation of the popular NBC series which stars Shepard, Bell shared that therapy is the secret to their 3½ years of marital bliss. “We have a very healthy marriage and we got there by doing therapy when we needed it, and constantly doing fierce moral inventories,” she said. “We both take responsibility when we are wrong, and I think it is easy to work with him because I married him, because I enjoy spending time with him and I trust him. That is exactly what I want in someone that I work with.” The 36-year-old actress then joked, “I guess there is no competition between us — we’re not generally up for the same roles, so we can kind of keep that separate.” Bell recalled the first time the couple fought: during a cross-country road trip on a motorcycle during their first year of dating. “We were fighting about the first year of our relationship because it’s a power struggle, and we were fighting about the playlist, and I got so mad at him at one point that I refused to hold onto him,” she said. “So I was on the back and just held onto the \[bike\] because I didn’t want to touch him.” The parents of daughters [Delta](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2014/12/19/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-welcome-daughter-delta/), 2, and [Lincoln](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2013/03/28/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-welcome-daughter-lincoln/), 3½, have been candid in the past about how they [have made marriage work.](http://people.com/movies/kristen-bell-on-working-through-the-tough-times-with-husband-dax-shepard/) “I said to Kristen, ‘We should try hard to police ourselves about becoming contemptuous of each other,’ ” [Shepard said in 2015](http://celebritybabies.people.com/2015/04/14/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-couples-therapy-healthy-marriage/). “If I ever see you roll your eyes at me, we need to hit pause and figure out what’s going on.’ ” Added Bell, “I don’t mind [advertising a healthy marriage](http://people.com/tv/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-shamelessly-flirted-riz-ahmed-golden-globes/). I’m trying, just like everyone else.” _This_ [_article_](http://people.com/celebrity/kristen-bell-therapy-is-secret-behind-marriage-with-dax-shepard/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/"},"headline":"Kristen Bell Says Therapy Is the Key to Her Healthy Marriage","datePublished":"2017-03-21T15:24:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:14.084Z","description":"‘We both take responsibility’","url":"https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/","keywords":["motto","Marriage","Kristen Bell"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc7feb7f2ebac13/6988bf39f887dc076de99844/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Petit / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcc7feb7f2ebac13/6988bf39f887dc076de99844/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of USA Pictures' \"The Boss\"","caption":"Premiere Of USA Pictures' \"The Boss\"","creditText":"Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4707886/kristen-bell-dax-shepard-marriage-therapy/","name":"Kristen Bell Says Therapy Is the Key to Her Healthy Marriage"}}]}] ```