Intensive Couples Therapy Australia

Intensive Couples Therapy is an innovative and highly successful approach to couple distress recovery that consists of 2 days in which you and your partner engage in intensive marital therapy for 6 – 7 hours per day broken down into 4 x 90 – 120 minute sessions with one of our highly trained and experienced therapists. This is a very intensive process so the day is split with regular breaks and opportunities to take time out and enjoy your beautiful beach side surroundings at Burleigh Heads, QLD, Australia.

During your intensive, you work together with your therapist 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 intensive we email you and your partner a number of questionnaires for each of you to complete.  Sometimes these can feel onerous to complete but, these questionnaires 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 fasttrack your therapy.  The more detail you include in these questionnaires the better we will be able to get to the heart of matters.

Following your intensive we usually recommend  a few appointments either in person or via web conferencing a fortnight later and then monthly "top-up” web conferencing appointments until you both feel like you can implement the relationship processes consistently well.  These additional sessions are charged at $200 per hour.  Couples who have engaged in this process in the past have reported that while the 2 days were taxing, 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.  On-going web conferencing sessions help to consolidate these gains and reinforce the skilful use of new communication strategies and behaviours.

Once you have made a decision to engage in intensive therapy it is very important that you try to “call a truce” on any on-going issues in your relationship for the time being.  Intensive therapy is a commitment to re-build 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 intensive includes a thorough pre-intensive 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.  Intensives conducted Monday to Friday cost $5,000, Intensives conducted on weekends cost $6,500.  $500 is paid as a deposit to confirm your dates and is refundable (less costs already incurred) up to 2 weeks prior to your dates.  Please note: travel and accommodation costs are your own responsibility. 

We have both male and female therapists who are both Certified Gottman Marital Therapists and have completed additional training in Emotion Focussed Therapy for Couples.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When is intensive therapy not suitable?

There are some situations where individual therapy would be required to resolve individual issues prior to attending couples therapy these include:

• If there is active alcohol and/or drug addiction on the part of either or both partners, from either partner’s perspective;
• If there is serious violence in your relationship, threats by one or both partners that serious violence might occur, or fear of such serious violence on the part of one or both partners;
• If either partner currently has an untreated major mental illness (schizophrenia, recurrent psychotic depression, or bipolar/manic-depressive illness.) Note: This does not include past, successfully treated psychotic episodes (e.g. post-partum depression with psychosis);
• If there is an undisclosed, current affair that you are not willing to disclose (such secrets predict marital therapy failure);
• If either partner is currently experiencing suicidal or homicidal thoughts, or has a history of serious harm inflicted on him/herself or another person.

If you have any concerns in these areas please feel free to contact us to discuss appropriate options for you.

 2.  What is your cancellation policy?

Payment terms and conditions are as follows:

$500 deposit to confirm your dates - this is fully refundable, less any expenses already incurred up to 2 weeks prior to your intensive;  the balance paid in full 1 day prior to your retreat.

3.  Can I be guaranteed of privacy?

As registered allied health professionals your therapist is bound by the strictest rules of confidentiality as per the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Authority and the Australian Association of Social Workers.  Our confidentiality policy is as follows:

"We respect the confidentiality of information obtained from clients in the course of our work as allied health professionals.  We may reveal such information to others only with the consent of the person or the person’s legal representative.  However, in those unusual circumstances where failure to disclose may result in clear risk to the client or others, the allied health professional may disclose minimal information necessary to avert risk.

In the event that the allied health professional feels it is necessary to disclose confidential information the matter will first and foremost be discussed with the client and, where possible, written consent will be obtained.

Should you require additional information about confidentiality a copy of the APS Ethical Guidelines on Confidentiality can be found here