What is a “Couple’s Intensive”?
One type of service I love to offer as a therapist is an ‘intensive’ for couples. This is similar to regular therapy, meaning we do similar skills and interventions, but it happens at a consolidated time, usually a 3-5 hour block, 2 or 3 days in a row.
What are the benefits?
Great results! Typically, couples who engage in an intensive, have faster growth and research shows that most couples tend to improve on their goals and see changes within this focused time. This is a great fit for a couple who might be in crisis, seeking fast results, or is simply eager to connect with this focused time for a ‘tune up’.
It can be equivalent to 4 months of traditional therapy. This means that you save months of your time and energy and get to experience healing and connection within your relationship faster!
It is helpful with scheduling. It might be easier for someone to block two half days or a full day off work rather than having one hour a week off for months in a row. The schedule also helps with less interruptions in the growth (sick days, conflicting appointments, vacations, etc).
It enhances focus! Usually, in a couple’s session, it can take about 10 minutes for a couple to settle in, disengage from life or work responsibilities, touch base on a previous conflict from the past week, or engage with their emotions or really get into their issues. Within an intensive, this ‘warm up’ time only happens once, maybe twice, saving most of the time to focus on the goals of the couple and the interventions of the therapist.
Does this sound like a good fit for you and your partner?
Maybe this is your time to reach out to a couple’s therapist and schedule your first intensive!