Your Guide to Intensive Couples Therapy
When your relationship feels stuck, disconnected, or even on the brink, weekly therapy sessions may not feel like enough.
Sometimes, what couples really need is the time and space to step out of old patterns and dive deeply into the work together. This is where intensive couples therapy comes in.
What is an Intensive and How is it Different from Weekly Sessions?
An intensive is a dedicated block of therapy time — typically 9 to 14 hours, spread across consecutive or closely-spaced days — designed to go much deeper than what’s possible in a traditional 50-minute weekly session.
This immersive format allows couples to:
Gain clarity quickly on their recurring patterns
Make real progress in a concentrated timeframe
Work on the relationship in a safe, spacious container without rushing
Leave with practical tools and insights that stick
While ongoing weekly therapy can be a wonderful option for maintenance and gradual growth, intensives offer an accelerated and highly effective pathway for couples who want meaningful change now.
Why Choose an Intensive Couples Therapy Approach?
Couples choose intensives for many reasons:
Feeling stuck: Weekly therapy hasn’t shifted the deeper dynamics.
Crisis point: The relationship feels like it’s at a breaking point, and change is urgent.
Big life transitions: Parenting, blended families, career changes, or preparing for a new chapter.
Desire for transformation: A wish to not just “cope” but to create a relationship that feels truly alive again.
What Couples Therapy Approach Works Best With Couples Intensives?
In my work, I combine Relational Life Therapy (RLT) with elements of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Brainspotting (BSP) when appropriate. These trauma-informed modalities allow each partner to connect with their deeper emotional worlds, heal old wounds, and bring more compassion and clarity to the relationship.
The result? Couples are able to understand each other on a profound level, reconnect with their true selves, and build a stronger, healthier partnership.
Relational Life Therapy, my main modality for couples work, was developed by Terry Real (author of Us, Fierce Intimacy and The New Rules of Marriage). RLT is a powerful, direct, and transformative model of couples therapy. Unlike approaches that focus only on surface-level communication skills, RLT gets to the root of disconnection. It helps couples break out of entrenched patterns, understand where those dynamics come from, and learn new, practical ways of relating to one another.
In RLT, therapists are active and honest. We lovingly call out the moves each partner is making that keep the relationship stuck, and we guide you both into healthier, more connected ways of showing up. The process can be challenging, but it’s also deeply liberating. Couples often leave with a clearer sense of hope as well as a toolkit for long-lasting change.
How Does an Intensive Work?
Here’s what you can expect from an intensive couples therapy journey with me:
Free consultation call – We’ll connect for 20 minutes to see if this approach is right for you.
Pre-intensive sessions – Together as a couple, and apart as individuals, we’ll clarify your relationship goals, explore your unique challenges, and prepare for the deep work ahead.
The intensive – Typically 2–3 days of extended sessions (for example, 3 hours per day). We’ll focus on uncovering patterns, practicing new tools, and working through difficult dynamics in real time.
Integration – You’ll leave with practical tools, personalised feedback, and an understanding of how to keep building on your progress.
Why This Work Matters
Your relationship is the foundation of your family and your life. Investing in it through an intensive can help you not just stop the fighting or disconnection but truly transform the way you relate to one another.
Many couples describe the experience as a reset — a chance to step out of years of old patterns and finally begin to create the partnership they have longed for.
Ready to Begin?
If you’re feeling stuck, at a crossroads, or simply ready for a new chapter in your relationship, an RLT-focused intensive couples therapy retreat could be the right fit.
You can learn more, explore what this would look like for you, or book a free consultation to see if this is the container your relationship needs.
Contact me here to start the conversation.
