Weekend Marriage Intensive
The most important weekend you’ll ever spend together.
Marriage Intensives Aren’t Your Average Therapy
I’m going to let you in on a secret. Even though weekly couples therapy is the mainstream approach… weekend marriage intensives are really the way to go (and spoiler alert: they’re not just for married couples).
“Pfft,” you may think. “There can’t be THAT much of a difference. Right?”
Wrong.
The marriage intensives I offer in Florida have transformed so many relationships. And frankly, not many people know about this invaluable resource…
So, here are the top five reasons weekend couples therapy intensive is the secret ingredient that’s been missing from your relationship repair strategy.
"The weekend was a transformative experience that saved our marriage. Rebecca played a pivotal role in helping us work through past issues and making real changes to our behaviors. We could not have done this in weekly therapy." — Anonymous
Weekend Marriage Intensives Are Perfect For Busy Schedules
So many couples miss out on relationship help because life gets in the way. If you're juggling a busy work schedule (not to mention childcare), finding an hour and a half each week to set aside for therapy can feel like an impossible task. Enter: the weekend marriage intensive.
By investing in one weekend of counseling together, you’re able to get the results it would otherwise take you 6 months of therapy to achieve. And while the up-front cost is more, in the long run, it can save you time and money. You won’t need to drag out the therapy process for months and months. Instead, all you need to do is buckle down to make one-weekend work – and make it count.
My intensives are offered in Naples, Florida in my private office over a weekend that is strictly dedicated to YOU and your relationship.
Here’s an overview of what the weekend marriage retreat looks like:
+ Friday
We’ll start with a two-hour introductory session to talk about your immediate concerns and goals for the weekend. We’ll also look at how your relationship has evolved over time. This session is usually 6:00PM - 8:00PM.
+ Saturday
Starting at 9:30 AM, I’ll meet with each of you individually for about an hour and a half. This takes us to lunch, where you’ll be able to take a break and spend some time together as a couple. While you’re enjoying your lunch, I’ll compile all the information I’ve learned so far about your relationship, and develop a game plan for us moving forward.
After lunch, I’ll work with you as a couple – starting with me providing feedback on what I’ve learned so far, and outlining the plan of what to work on. We’ll then dive into learning the specific tools and skills most relevant to your relationship, before wrapping up at 4:30 PM. You’ll have the evening to yourselves, to relax and reflect.
+ Sunday
This whole day is devoted to you as a couple. We’ll begin at 9:30 AM again, break for lunch, then continue working until 4:30 PM. This second full day is where you really start to see results in your relationship.
All told, that’s 14 hours of intensive, life-changing and relationship-changing therapy.
In traditional therapy, you’re racing against the clock.
You’re trying to get through as much as you can in the 90 minutes, while still being able to wrap it up in a tidy little bow in time for you to go back to real life.
And you just cross your fingers nothing unravels too much between then and your next session.
During a weekend marriage intensive, we don’t have that problem.
If we’re in the middle of a breakthrough, we keep going. If things start to feel overwhelming, we’ll slow down, work through what’s coming up, and we can take breaks as needed.
The time is yours.
2. Intensives Give You My Undivided Attention
Another benefit of weekend couples intensive: you’ll receive my full and undivided attention.
I don’t schedule any other clients on weekends, which means I’m able to give you 100% of my attention and focus for our time together.
The same goes for you.
When you’re able to step away from the busyness of your everyday life – even just for a couple of days – that’s when you’ll be able to really dive into what matters in your relationship.
So often, therapy is squeezed in between finishing work and putting the kids to bed.
It’s not exactly a recipe for allowing deep, meaningful reflection.
By setting aside a weekend, you won't be exhausted from working all day and then feel like your brain is still in “work mode” while you're trying to concentrate on your relationship.
Marriage intensives allow you to show up fully, with no distractions.
Being able to focus is crucial because many of the topics covered in couples therapy are delicate. Having time on your side allows for vulnerability, for deep understanding, and for meaningful connection.
3. We’ll Take the Guesswork Out of Fixing Your Relationship
When you're experiencing problems in your relationship, it can feel like everything is tangled together — one issue bleeding into the next until it's hard to know where anything started.
For our work together to be as effective as possible, I want to understand not just what's happening in your relationship, but how you got there.
That's where The Big Big Book comes in — a science-based couples assessment tool exclusively available through Couples Therapy Inc. Despite the name, it's really a comprehensive questionnaire that looks at your relationship from a research-backed perspective. Think of it as a roadmap for our weekend together.
You'll each complete it individually, in your own time, before we meet. It gives you a chance to slow down, reflect, and consider both the areas of your relationship that feel stuck and the ones that are going well. Your answers are completely confidential — I'm the only one who sees them, and the more honest you can be, the more effectively I can help your relationship.
Once I receive them, I spend several hours reviewing everything — combing through your answers, learning about each of you, and building a treatment plan that's specific to your relationship and your goals. By the time we sit down together for our first session, I already have a clear picture of where you are and where you want to go. We can get right to work.
Most couples credit this assessment as the moment things started to shift. This is your chance to be truly seen — and the more honestly you show up here, the more powerfully we can work together.
"Rebecca truly orchestrated each day very efficiently. She demonstrated genuine compassion, knowledge, and empathy — and knew exactly when to reroute our conversation when needed." — Anonymous
4. Weekend Intensives Set a Solid Foundation for Restoring Your Relationship
Most of the time, when couples seek out therapy, it’s because they want to feel better in their relationship ASAP. You don’t want to be told, “Try this for 6 months and we’ll see how it goes.”
That’s where these intensives come in – you’ll be able to see a noticeable difference right away, while also creating lasting change.
Whether you’re in crisis or not, a marriage retreat is an invaluable investment in your relationship.
Not only will you see results more quickly than with traditional therapy, but any therapy you do after the intensive will be more meaningful and more effective.
You're not just investing in a weekend — you're investing in the foundation everything else gets built on.
"We couldn't have gotten here just by reading the books. Rebecca played a pivotal role in helping us work through our past and actually change. The Gottman Method works — but it takes someone like Rebecca to bring it to life." — Anonymous
5. Learning to Regulate Your Emotions Sets You up for Success
I don't want you to be intimidated by the word “intensive.” Although these weekends do involve hard work and intentional self-reflection – the word “intensive” mainly refers to the condensed time frame.
And while we do fit a whole lot of work into a short period of time, this isn’t meant to be a grueling weekend of emotional upheaval.
This is a time for you to reconnect and recharge, as well as work on your relationship.
While every couples’ reasons for booking an intensive are different – and some may be more emotionally heavy or painful – I'm mindful of managing the emotional tone. I take care of the feelings that come up in our session, and help teach you how to self-soothe and regulate your emotions.
Not only does this make the weekend itself a pleasant experience, but you’ll take these self-regulating strategies home with you, where they’ll serve you for years to come.
These tools are also learning opportunities for high conflict couples who have a hard time communicating kindly with each other.
Managing emotions doesn't mean dismissing them, instead you’ll learn to express your emotions and know they're part of the healing process.
Oftentimes, being able to say things you’ve never said before – out loud, and in a healthy and productive way – is key to creating breakthroughs in your relationship.
This All Sounds Amazing… Where Do I Sign Up?
To make your experience as seamless as possible, I offer these marriage intensives through a partnership with Couples TherapyInc. (CTI), an international organization dedicated to science-based couples therapy.
Couples Therapy Inc. looks after all the scheduling and intake details, but you’ll still be working with me specifically – you won’t get assigned to another therapist or anything like that. By partnering with Couples Therapy Inc., I’m able to focus on your relationship rather than on the administrative details. It also means you get access to The Big Big Book, as I mentioned earlier. Couples I work with on a weekly basis do not get the benefit of filling out the Big Big Book and, therefore, I do not know them as deeply from the outset and the work is more slow going in comparison.
Our Client Services Manager will assist you with getting started with the intake process and be able to answer any questions you may have. You can get in touch with our Client Service Manager by sending an e-mail to admin@couplestherapyinc.com or schedule a convenient time to talk to using our online scheduler.
After you’ve spoken to our Client Service Manager, you and your partner will have a chance to speak directly to me on a 15-minute Meet and Greet phone call. This call gives us a chance to get to know each other, discuss your concerns and goals for the weekend, and ultimately decide if a weekend intensive is the best option for you.
Ready to go all in on your relationship? Book your weekend intensive today!
Click the button below to access the CTI page, then scroll down and click the ‘schedule a call’ button.
Oh, and one more thing.
More often than not, therapists who offer intensives ONLY offer the one-time experience… then you have to start over with a different therapist for any ongoing sessions.
Which, frankly, is a raw deal in my opinion.
With me, as long as you live in Florida, New York, or Massachusetts, you won’t have to start over with another therapist.
We will be able to continue to work together after the weekend if you feel that ongoing or check-in therapy sessions would be helpful. All follow-up sessions are offered virtually.