Couples Intensives

Has Your Relationship Hit An Impasse? 

 

Are you working through something in your relationship that requires a deeper, longer therapeutic experience than meeting weekly in couples counseling?

Have you reached a crossroads where you need to decide whether to stay together or separate?

Or, perhaps, you are looking for one-on-one premarital counseling with an experienced therapist.

The intensive therapy I offer provides you and your partner the chance to retreat from the demands of your hectic schedules so you can focus exclusively on your marriage or relationship without starts and stops. Whether you live in an area of Colorado without convenient access to therapy, are too busy to commit to weekly couples counseling, or have experienced a crisis in your marriage that needs to be resolved quickly, intensives allow for uninterrupted time to engage with each other on a meaningful level. 

 

Would Your Relationship Benefit From Intensive Couples Therapy?

For some, the structure of traditional couples therapy can be limiting. Because sessions usually only last 55-90 minutes, you may feel like this therapy model will lack the depth you’re looking for. And if you’re currently in therapy, perhaps you’re making slow progress because you’re only managing to scratch the surface of your deeper underlying issues before time is up. 

The advantage of couples intensives is the space and time it provides you to delve into deeper work and confront whatever may be challenging your relationship. Intensive couples therapy sessions are day-long therapeutic journeys. With the benefit of time, you can stay in the process long enough to work through emotional blocks that often arise in shorter therapy sessions.

And if you are dealing with a more urgent situation where you need immediate clarity and guidance—such as a betrayal that has caused relational trauma, premarital dilemmas such as  cold feet, differing values or conflict dynamics, deciding whether to stay or go, working through a painful conflict cycle or point of contention, or a difficult life transition—intensive couples therapy is well-suited to your needs. Rather than sign on for ongoing weekly therapy, you can address your issue in one daylong session and move forward.

What To Expect During Your Couples Therapy Intensive

couple embracing by beach at sunset

We will start with a 30-minute video call so I can get a sense of your relationship, understand the issues, and help you determine your goals for the intensive. After this call, I will send you the Gottman Method’s relationship assessment for couples therapy to gather additional information about your dynamic and identify areas of strengths along with areas for improvement.

Before meeting in person, I will craft a targeted plan to support you in achieving your goals. Some of the things we may work on during your couples intensive will be:

  • Deepening emotional awareness and compassion for each other;

  • Providing you with a clear direction on how to work with what is coming up for you in the relationship;

  • Attuning more empathetically to your partner and dropping the negative narratives about each other you may be holding onto;

  • Gaining clarity about the parts each of you contributes to the current relationship dynamic;

  • Utilizing your relationship as a source of security;

  • Learning effective tools to remain present and grounded, self-soothe, and co-regulate your emotional state. This leads to improved communication, restored trust, and closer emotional connection.

Throughout the session, our focus will be on deepening your sense of safety, trust, understanding, love, and support that you receive from your partner. After the intensive has concluded, you will walk away with practices that will benefit your relationship moving forward.

And if you are trying to decide whether or not to stay together, we can endeavor to answer that question and note what comes up as we work to strengthen or dissolve the partnership.

Intensives Will Draw From Evidence-Based Couples Therapy

Your intensive will incorporate Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT) relationship therapy, an evidence-based modality that supports a deeper and more secure bond by way of nervous system regulation, body-based somatic processes, and discovering your partner as a source of love and trust.

If conflict is an issue between you, we will use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples to examine your conflict cycle and work to connect you emotionally in the places you are currently feeling hurt, walled off, angry, or unseen. Additionally, more concrete tools and communication exercises from the Gottman Method will be incorporated to support lasting change.

My Couples Intensives Packages 

couple on hill at sunset

Depending on your schedule and availability, I have structured the following couples counseling retreat packages: 

Tier 1 – One-Day Session: 5-hour session with a break for lunch

Tier 2 – Two 4-Hour Sessions 

Tier 3 - Book two full-day intensives in the span of 90 days

A La Carte Options – If you decide additional in-person sessions, phone calls—or both—would be helpful, we can customize a package with more follow-up than a standard package.

Some Common Concerns About Couples Intensives…

Couples intensives require a lot of time and money upfront. 

Although attending intensive marriage counseling is a financial commitment and requires blocking out a day, a couples intensive could end up being less expensive—and more effective, potentially—than long-term couples therapy. If you think you and your partner could benefit from concentrated therapy, you may be able to accomplish in a few hours what would usually take most couples a little longer—or multiple sessions—to achieve in weekly couples therapy. 

A couples intensive might be too much for me to emotionally process in such a short time. 

If you are someone who tends to get emotionally overwhelmed when confronted with a lot all at once, you would probably benefit more from attending weekly couples or marriage counseling instead of a retreat offering concentrated therapy in the course of one day. Receiving slow, steady, and consistent therapy each week allows you breaks in between to synthesize what happens in sessions. 

We want to make sure we have access to follow-up support if we need it.

Each one of my couples intensive packages includes a follow-up session and a phone call to ensure you have all the tools you need to successfully resolve the challenges in your relationship. And if you determine it’s time to separate, you will receive the proper support and resources for that journey.

Give Your Relationship The Attention It Needs To Thrive

Tending to your relationship is time well spent. With a couples intensive, you will finally have time to get to the heart of the matter. For a free, 20-minute consultation to find out more intensive couples therapy with me, or if you would like to inquire further about a couples weekend retreat in the Colorado Mountains, please contact me.