Hi Maggie
I've only had good experiences, with 2 different couple-counsellors. I was lucky in that my husband (now ex-husband... but many years after we got a lot of help from counselling!) was really positive about the counselling process.
If the counsellor is the right person for you, I think you should feel that they offer the right balance of active, directed listening and advice-giving. I know we wouldn't have been able to work with someone who just listened and nodded. We liked being given "homework tasks" - it worked well for us.
It was interesting that we both felt equally "at fault" at the end of the sessions. And, amazingly, while I was pretty teary and shattered after the sessions (but in a good way...) my husband was almost energised by them. Pretty incredible, since "discussing relationships" is more of an enjoyable hobby for women than men!
We were going to sessions at lunchtime in the middle of work, but found that a bit tricky. It seemed really important be in the same car together afterwards, and to be able to just be a bit gentle, taking care of each other a bit.
Hope this helps. I suppose it depends a lot on if both of you are up for counselling.