Intensive Marathon Couples Therapy with John Flanagan
Gottman Marathon Couples Therapy is a dynamic alternative to traditional weekly sessions. It’s a condensed and focused approach to relationship counselling that will provide you with the time you need to address specific issues and get your relationship back on track quickly. In this powerful approach to relieving couple distress, you and your partner will meet privately with a highly trained and experienced therapist for two consecutive days and engage in intensive couples therapy and move through your challenges quickly to repair and rebuild your relationship.
You will have the time to talk in-depth about the struggles and challenges of the relationship that simply cannot happen in the traditional style of couples therapy. There is time to process past injuries that have never healed, and time to understand how these injuries have impacted the relationship. There is time to learn and practice new communication skills to help you have more productive conversations. There’s time to rebuild.
John - as a Certified Gottman Therapist, Advanced Clinical Trainer and Consultatn - will provide an environment of safety for both of you. You will be treated with dignity and respect, without judgment, throughout the process. Couples who have experienced this form of therapy usually describe it as life-changing and transformative.
Marathon Couples Therapy offers practical benefits as well. It’s a good fit for couples who want a more intensive experience of therapy and for couples whose schedules do not allow for them to go to weekly therapy sessions. And finally, it’s a great fit for couples who need to get help immediately.
During your marathon, you work together with John to learn new skills to:
- Transform inevitable relationship conflicts so you can build solid bridges between the two of you
- Deepen your understanding of one another
- Repair old hurts and resentments
- Unearth the values and life purpose you share
- Strengthen your friendship
- Spice up your intimacy
Prior to your marathon, you will each be emailed a Gottman Connect questionnaire for each of you to complete. This questionnaire help us to understand both your individual histories and the history of your relationship as well as some of the main issues that have developed over time and bring you to couples therapy now. It also helps us fast track your therapy. These questionnaires are completed online using highly secure servers that conform to the requirements for medical information security and confidentiality.
Based on all of this information, along with your responses to our comprehensive relationship questionnaires, we will conduct an analysis of your interaction patterns, strengths and challenges. These findings will be shared with you so that we can collaboratively identify specific outcome goals for your relationship.
Couples who have engaged in this process in the past have reported that while the 2 days could be a little tiring, they were able to process a range of unresolved issues, "leave the baggage behind" and go home with a renewed sense of commitment, closeness and hope for building a closer, more satisfying and intimate relationship together.
Once you have made a decision to engage in marathon therapy it is very important that you try to “call a truce” on any on-going issues in your relationship for the time being. Marathon therapy is a commitment to rebuild your relationship and the process begins right now. Whatever issues you are currently struggling with will be addressed over our two days together in a way that allows both of you to feel heard, understood and validated. Effectively, what this means is that for the next few weeks until we get started you can ‘shelve’ your problems knowing that they will be addressed then, and now is an opportunity for you to have a break from working on those concerns and instead focus on what you would like to build once we have effectively dealt with them together.
The cost of your marathon including the thorough pre-marathon assessment process, 2 full intensive days working on your relationship in a safe, calm, professional and private environment with the full attention of one of our highly trained and experienced clinicians, a toolkit full of resources and information to take home that assists you to continue to deepen your emotional connection and master the skills for constructively managing conflict.
Marathons are usually conducted on Wednesday / Thursday with a cost of $6,500. $750 is paid as a deposit to confirm your dates and is refundable (less costs already incurred) up to two weeks prior to your dates. Please note: travel and accommodation costs are the responsibility of the clients. For more information please email [email protected]