HOW THE INTENSIVE MARRIAGE COUNSELING RETREAT WORKS

The marriage counseling retreat is four days, usually Tuesday through Friday. We begin ahead of time; you'll fill out some questionnaires and we may follow up with phone interviews with each of you so we can get to know you as much as possible and understand your specific relationship problems and the goals you wish to meet.

Then you'll arrive in Durango, Colorado where you'll make yourselves comfortable at a B&B or hotel of your choice. On Tuesday afternoon, you'll meet us in our log home and we'll spend the first day diving deeply into understanding your history and your relationship problems. We'll teach you new communication tools, and we'll help you get started deepening the way you talk and listen to each other. As you take time to slow down, we'll all begin to understand how you got where you are and what it will take to help you break through and resolve the relationship problems you wish to work on.

Our days together are designed to meet your specific relationship goals, personality, and styles of learning. We'll take breaks, have some snacks, maybe even go outside for a walk and talk. We are not confined to one set of techniques or approaches. You'll find us to be a loving, safe, humorous team with a sharp set of skills to help you take risks, open your heart, and come to resolution, healing, and understanding. (For more about our background and approach to psychotherapy, see ABOUT US).

Each daily session is four hours. We have found that this is the best amount of time to work mindfully without overwhelming the body, mind, or emotional systems. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons, you'll be on your own to practice and integrate new skills and have some rest. Some people like to hike, shop, drive up into the mountains, or explore our ancient Puebloan heritage sites as a way to help them digest the processes we go through during the marriage counseling retreat.

In southwest Colorado any season can be used for rest and relaxation. It is sunny 300 days a year; the people are friendly, and the activities endless. We also have really good restaurants here in the four corners!

Couples Who Have Participated in the Intensives Have Worked Through Issues Such As:

Our experience:
As a couple we have developed our capacity to work as a couple counseling team through 25 years of marriage, as well as working professionally together for nearly 35 years. Both of us are couples therapists, educators, and workshop presenters. AND we take time every day to energize our connection and work through our own relationship problems.

Different from traditional couples therapy:
A private marriage counseling retreat is a different approach to solving relationship problems. Usually you go to a 50-60 minute session once a week or twice a month with one therapist. It is not often you can work with a couple-counseling team to help you break through your relationship problems, and reconnect at a deep level. We weave together many methods of couples therapy, education, and skill building, depending upon your needs, goals, and styles of learning.

Our approach is non-sectarian reflecting our respect for people of all walks of life and all spiritual traditions. Our time with you will reflect our years of personal growth, training, and education, as well as our experience over the last ten years developing and evolving this specialized marriage counseling retreat for couples of any age, any length of commitment, any sexual orientation.

Our specialties:
Over the years couples with many different kinds of relationship problems have re-claimed their deep love for one another. We have developed a special approach to helping couples heal from marital affairs, a painful, difficult and troubling event in a couples' life journey.

We have supported couples with divorce help: coaching them to speak honestly and respectfully in the difficult dialogue about whether to end a marriage or continue. We make the need for divorce help safe, and even open hearted.

We love the service of pre-marital counseling for newly engaged couples or couples deciding whether to move in together. Pre-marital counseling is a wonderful gift for parents to give their young adult children; it's a way to prevent relationship problems, marital affairs, and the heartache of poor communication, and the need for divorce help.

If you would like to talk to some of our marriage counseling retreat participants to find out about their experience, please contact us and we'll put you in touch with them.

STORIES WE CAN SHARE

Adultery, Infidelity, Marital affairs
Recovering from a marital affair is one of the most profound opportunities for creating a conscious relationship. It takes daily commitment and usually the support of a skilled professional to help you heal painful reactions and recover from old patterns.