Couples Counseling Intensive session
Helping individuals, couples and families.
Do you desire a more intensive relationship healing experience than traditional weekly couples therapy?
Finding time to connect with our partners can feel daunting in the hustle of daily commitments. Perhaps you’re in a location where it’s hard to find the right therapist to guide you both.
Imagine creating a unique space for you and your partner, away from everyday distractions. Think of this as a precious opportunity to deepen your bond, where you can focus solely on enhancing communication and nurturing your connection.
Our Couples Therapy Intensives are designed to facilitate meaningful, immediate changes in your relationship, breaking free from the cycles of conflict or disconnection that have held you back.
If dedicating focused time to your relationship appeals to you, we invite you to contact Couples TLC Counseling to explore scheduling an intensive. We’re eager to join you on this transformative journey!
We typically hold intensives on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, aligning with both your availability and that of your therapist. Alternative scheduling is also possible, ensuring that our sessions fit seamlessly into your life.
The benefits of couples counseling intensives
Limited Weekly Availability: If your busy schedule makes weekly therapy sessions challenging, intensives condense multiple sessions into a few days, providing deep, focused work without ongoing weekly commitments.
Frequent Travel: For those who travel extensively for work, intensives offer a practical solution to engage in therapy without worrying about weekly appointments.
Long-Distance Relationships: Intensives are ideal if you’re managing a long-distance relationship, allowing you to maximize the precious time you are physically together by deeply engaging in therapy.
Rural or Limited Access: Living in a small or rural community with limited access to qualified couples counselors makes intensives a valuable option, enabling you to receive concentrated, expert-guided therapy less frequently but with greater impact.
Privacy Concerns: If privacy is a crucial consideration, intensives provide a discreet way to work on your relationship intensely and privately over a short period, reducing the number of visits and exposure.
Rapid Progress Desired: When you desire significant progress quickly, intensives allow for deep, transformative work in just a few days, accelerating the growth and healing in your relationship.
Customized Scheduling: Intensives can be tailored to fit into your unique schedule and life circumstances, offering flexibility that regular sessions may not provide.
Gift of Focused Attention: Dedicating two focused days to your relationship is a profound gift to each other. It creates an intimate and uninterrupted space to strengthen your bond and renew your connection.
How to get started with a Couples Therapy Intensive:
Step 1:
Welcome! We invite you and your partner to explore the information and FAQs we’ve provided to determine if intensives feel right for your relationship. This is a great first step toward deepening your connection.
Step 2:
If what you’ve read resonates with both of you, we encourage you to schedule a free consultation with us, either online or by phone. This will be a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss your relationship goals and answer any questions you might have. Schedule a free consultation here.
Step 3:
Together, we’ll find a scheduling option that works seamlessly for all involved. Once we set a date for your intensive, we will share our cancellation policy to ensure clarity and prevent unexpected fees.
Step 4:
To prepare for your intensive, we will send you electronic paperwork, including a personalized questionnaire, to your respective emails. Completing this paperwork promptly will help us tailor the experience to your needs.
Step 5:
We recommend reading Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson before your session. This insightful book will provide valuable perspectives on emotional bonds, enhancing your intensive experience and maximizing the benefits for your relationship.
FAQ
EFT Basics
Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based process for helping couples overcome negative communication patterns, create new ways of interacting, and develop deep and lasting bonds. Read more about EFT here!
How many hours is intensive?
Intensives are typically done in increments of 4 hours: 4, 8, and 12 hours. The schedule is set up to allow you to arrive, get some rest, and start the intensive first day on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, we meet in the morning, allowing you to have lunch and prepare to head home.
In my experience, 8 hours is sufficient for most couples. Adding 1-2 hours is okay, but beyond that, progress may become difficult unless we extend the intensive time to the third day.
Diminishing returns may occur because of emotional overload, insufficient rest, and time for experience integration between sessions.
Intensive fees
The fee for 8 hours of an intensive couples experience is $1750.00. Additional hours may be added to the traditional schedule at $210.00 per sixty minutes if desired or needed. The fee must be paid in full upon booking the intensive.
What is included in the fee?
The fee for the Couples Therapy Intensive covers a comprehensive package designed to maximize the effectiveness of your therapy experience over two days. This includes:
Dedicated Therapist Time: You receive focused attention from a trained and certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist, ensuring a private and personalized session for you and your partner.
Preparatory Work: The therapist’s preparation time before your sessions is included, allowing them to tailor the intensive to your relationship’s needs.
Review and Planning: Time spent reviewing your progress between sessions and planning future steps to ensure continuity and depth in your therapy.
Consultation Calls: The intensive includes any consultation calls needed before or after the sessions to discuss your goals, progress, and concerns.
Collaboration with Ongoing Therapy: If you are currently seeing a couples therapist, our intensive includes collaboration with your ongoing therapist to maintain consistency in your therapeutic journey.
This intensive is a profound way to deepen your understanding of each other, transform how you interact, and enhance emotional connections and safety within your relationship. It’s a purposeful commitment to focus exclusively on your relationship, offering a unique opportunity to nurture and strengthen this most crucial aspect of your life. Don’t miss the chance to invest in a thriving relationship.
Insurance coverage
Couples intensive is fee-for-service. While we can provide a superbill it is important to understand that insurance reimbursement will not be likely as our organization is considered out-of-network with any insurance providers.
Overall Schedule
- Initial paperwork is provided via email and completed online.
- Individual telehealth session with each partner (50 minutes) the week before the intensive. You will be able to schedule it online. (Individual sessions are an additional cost. You may choose to do individual sessions during the intensive time.)
- In-person intensive in Fullerton with a therapist.
- Integration and consolidation. 2 to 6 telehealth sessions after intensive as needed. Many couples decide what works for them.
Detailed schedule
The exact schedule is mutually determined as you go along. You can discuss if you want to finish a segment early and need a break. Here is a typical schedule outline for a couple’s intensive therapy.
Typical Intensive Schedule Day One (12:00 pm to 5:30 pm)
12:00 pm-1:30 pm: Couples session
Introducing EFT concepts and understanding the negative pattern interrupting feelings of connection. Starting to explore underlying emotions and needs that are often left unnoticed or unattended.
1:30 pm -1:45 pm Break
1:45 pm – 2:30 pm: Individual session with Partner 1
2:30 pm – 3:15 pm: Individual session with Partner 2
This portion can be completed beforehand so more time is available to process couples’ issues.
Exploring the emotional experience you are currently having within your relationship and obtaining a past relational history. Please bring something to read or write to help keep you relaxed and connected to the process. It is best to avoid checking in with work or social media.
3:15 pm-4:00 pm: Break
You can eat at one of the local restaurants or coffee shops and explore the CalState Fullerton area. Snacks, tea, and coffee are available in our office. Please let us know if you like veggies, pastries, or meat snacks.
4:00 pm-5:30 pm: Couples session
We will use our understanding of the cycle to navigate current relationship struggles and develop an alternate way of interaction to feel more secure with your partner. We will continue to process your current relationship struggle using the cycle framework and attachment focus. We will review relational goals and consolidate session progress and accomplishments.
Typical Intensive Schedule Day Two (9:00 am to 12:30 pm)
9:00-11:00: Couples session
We will check in on your intensive experience, review your progress, and process your attachment journey thus far while continuing to hone your growing edges. We will continue to process your attachment cycle and work to increase your comfortability with vulnerable communication to deepen your connection.
11:00-11:15: Break
11:15-12:30: Couples session
We will continue to expand your understanding and hone your ability to disrupt your negative attachment cycle and connect on a deeper, more intimate level. We will consolidate and review all you have explored and accomplished during our intensive as a couple.
On the second day, more time can be added if desired. We recommend no more than two extra hours. (Additional fee applies.)
You should spend the rest of the afternoon together. Your body and emotions just went through a lot. Take this time to feel the comfort of the awesome work you both have done. Enjoy a wonderful connection, and allow yourself to linger in this place without re-engaging in work or the realities of life for a bit longer.
Will we still need to do couples therapy after the intensive?
It is a good idea to have a plan to initiate or continue with an EFT couples therapist after the intensive. Doing so helps to boost your relationship needs, but more ongoing contact with a couples therapist will be needed to ensure lasting results. It is usual for new habits to take time to solidify. It is also normal for life to get complicated, for the negative cycle to reappear, and for new vulnerable experiences to surface.
We want to help you practice connecting in these new ways until we know you can connect and repair as needed when life intensifies. The length of the required couples therapy after an intensive varies by couple and circumstance.
If you continue to see your intensive therapist for follow-up care, you will seamlessly roll into a regular session pattern. Suppose you are seeing someone else for couples therapy aftercare. In that case, your intensive therapist will collaborate with your couples therapist to ensure a smooth transition and that all relevant information/insights are passed on carefully. Collaboration requires the couple’s written consent.
What are some tips to make this experience most impactful?
To create a nurturing and focused environment for your Couples Therapy Intensive, consider these steps to ensure you are fully prepared and can get the most out of this transformative experience:
Embrace a Retreat Mindset: Treat these two days as a Relationship Retreat. Step back from work and daily responsibilities to immerse yourself fully in this experience.
Post-Intensive Therapy: After the intensive, plan to see a couples therapist to continue the work you began here. This will help solidify and extend your progress.
Preparatory Reading: To enrich your intensive experience, read Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson beforehand. This will provide valuable insights and a stronger foundation for your work together.
Come Open and Ready: Approach the intensive with an open heart, ready to engage and explore your relationship dynamics together fully.
Reflect Beforehand: Spend some time reflecting on your current feelings about your relationship, consider what your partner might feel, and clarify what you both hope to achieve from this experience.
Practice Grace and Patience: Recognize that this process may bring new and challenging emotions. It’s important to give yourselves and each other grace. Remember, your willingness to try something new is a brave and important step towards growth.
Stay Communicative: Please share your feelings and concerns about the process. It’s important to me that this experience is meaningful and safe for you. I am here to support you and treat your journey with great care and respect.
Taking these steps will help ensure that your intensive is a deeply beneficial and emotionally rewarding experience for both of you.
Lodging and Accomodations
Fullerton Marriott at California State University
2701 Nutwood Avenue, Fullerton, California, USA, 92831
Tel: +1 714-738-7800 Price $: 189.00
Walking distance from our office. Check-in time is 4:00 pm.
DoubleTree Hotel
2932 Nutwood Ave, Fullerton, CA 92831
Tel: +1 714-579-7400 Price $: 195.00
Drive time: 3 minutes. Check-in time is 3:00 pm.
Location and map
Couples TLC Counseling
680 Langsdorf Drive #108
Fullerton, CA 92870
Check surrounding hotels and food options.