Why choose an intensive couples therapy retreat?
Real change demands real focus. Our intensives offer something that weekly therapy often can’t: a breakthrough.
The Problem with Weekly Therapy
Weekly couples therapy can feel like a slow drip when you’re facing a flood.
Busy lives, interrupted schedules, and slow momentum often mean months pass without meaningful progress. For couples in serious distress, waiting is not only frustrating — it can be dangerous.
- You need focused time.
- You need serious help.
- You need a different path forward.
Why Intensives Work
Our intensive couples retreats offer:
- A single weekend with uninterrupted focus on your relationship
- A proven structure based in science, not guesswork
- Momentum, closure, and reconnection — without distractions
In just a few days, couples can accomplish what might otherwise take months of weekly sessions.
You’ll be in remarkably good hands with our advanced licensed relationship experts.
Retreats In-Person or Online
Marriage isn’t fixed by hoping things will get better.
It’s healed by focused effort, guided by experts who know how to help you find your way back to each other.
When you’re ready for real change, we’re ready to guide you there.
The Intensive Schedule
What your intensive weekend looks like
We structure your retreat carefully — so you have the time, space, and guidance you need to do serious, meaningful work together.
A typical in-person intensive includes:
First evening
Preparing for your retreat
Whether you’re traveling for an in-person retreat or joining us online, devote these days to your relationship — fully, intentionally, and without distraction.
We encourage you to arrive early, settle in quietly, and turn your attention fully toward each other.
Your intensive begins with a private, welcoming session — a time to share your story, define your challenges, and remember what first brought you together.
Many couples tell us that simply beginning this process brings new hope, fresh understanding, and a renewed sense of possibility.
The work starts the moment you say yes to being fully present — with your partner, and with yourself.
Second day – Deepening the work
Moving from understanding to action.
Saturday is a powerful day of discovery, clarity, and renewed commitment.
You’ll continue the in-depth assessment of your relationship — building on the work you began Friday — and receive expert feedback crafted specifically for you.
Together, you’ll explore:
- What shifts are needed to strengthen your relationship
- What new patterns will bring you closer
- What challenges may arise — and how you can overcome them as a team
Communication patterns: seeing what’s beneath the surface
The day begins with a check-in and a brief communication exercise.
Using a structured video review, your therapist will study how you interact during moments of tension — not to judge, but to understand the patterns that keep you stuck.
This insight becomes the foundation for more effective, compassionate dialogue.
Individual reflections: your story, your voice
Each of you will have a private conversation with your therapist — a space to share more about your personal history, family background, and unique perspective.
These meetings are not for keeping secrets.
They’re designed to deepen your therapist’s understanding of you as individuals — because every relationship is made of two full human beings, each with their own story.
Feedback and planning: a true conversation
Rather than simply delivering clinical findings, your therapist will engage you in a collaborative discussion.
Together, you’ll review the insights from your assessment, clarify goals, and agree on a direction for your work.
This is not a lecture. It’s a partnership — grounded in respect, honesty, and shared commitment.
The therapy begins: steering the journey together
With a clear plan in place, you’ll move into active therapeutic work — always at a pace that feels right for you.
Think of it this way:
Your therapist may guide the process, but you are in the driver’s seat of your relationship.
At every step, your feedback matters.
We’ll adapt the journey together to ensure it serves your deepest goals.
Breaks and first-day reflections
Throughout the day, you’ll have time for breaks, reflection, and reconnection.
We invite you to share your experience as you go — your questions, your concerns, your hopes.
Your active participation isn’t just welcome.
It’s essential.
The best therapy isn’t something done to you.
It’s something we build with you.
Third Day: Integration and new beginning
This third day is about weaving the threads of your work into a stronger, more resilient bond.
Your therapist will revisit key concepts introduced earlier in the weekend — not as a lecture, but as living tools you can return to again and again.
This day isn’t about memorizing techniques.
It’s about helping you find your voice — and listen with your heart.
You’ll practice new ways of speaking, hearing, and responding to each other — not perfectly, but more intentionally, more lovingly, and more effectively.
The work of day two includes:
- Identifying your relationship’s unique strengths and vulnerabilities
- Understanding the specific patterns that erode connection — and learning how to interrupt them
- Practicing ways to de-escalate conflict and repair regrettable moments
- Exploring how old hurts, resentments, and defensiveness (“chips on the shoulder”) block intimacy
- Building a roadmap for lasting change — together
A guided, personalized approach
Our clinicians draw from a range of evidence-based models — including the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and the Developmental Model.
Rather than forcing a rigid structure, your therapist will select the interventions that best fit you — your story, your struggles, and your strengths.
This is customized work.
No two Sundays are ever exactly alike — because no two couples are exactly alike.
Stepping forward
As the weekend draws to a close, you’ll leave not just with new skills, but with new hope.
Hope rooted in understanding.
Hope shaped by real work.
Hope you can carry home with you — into a different kind of future.
Our Results
Serious care creates serious change.
At Couples Therapy Inc., we work with one focus:
Helping committed couples build lasting change — not just temporary relief.
Before your first session even begins, your therapist will have studied your comprehensive relationship assessment — allowing us to tailor your intensive with extraordinary precision.
Instead of spending hours gathering your story during therapy, we arrive ready to work: informed, prepared, and deeply focused on your success.
This depth of preparation is rare.
This level of care is what makes real healing possible.
The BIG BIG Book ©
Laying the foundation for meaningful change.
Before your intensive begins, you’ll complete The BIG BIG Book© —
a thoughtfully designed relationship assessment that gives you the chance to reflect, to share, and to be heard.
Every question is crafted to help your therapist understand not just the facts of your story — but the emotions beneath it.
This is more than an intake form.
It’s the beginning of the work.
Because when you arrive, your therapist will already know your landscape —
and you’ll be ready to dive immediately into deeper, more meaningful conversations.
The BIG BIG Book© isn’t busywork.
It’s an act of devotion to your relationship — and a powerful first step toward real change.
Meet the therapists couples trust
Our team is made up of seasoned specialists who have chosen to work with couples — and only couples.
They bring:
-
Decades of experience guiding relationships back from the brink
-
Advanced training in Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Discernment Counseling, and Imago Therapy
-
A deep understanding of not just the science of relationships, but the lived realities couples face every day
These are not generalists.
They are relationship experts — focused, compassionate, and relentless in their commitment to your growth.
Quiet excellence.
Serious care.
Unwavering dedication to helping you heal and thrive.