Couples Therapy Intensives in Seattle, WA & online throughout Washington & Oregon
You can’t spend another minute feeling like you forgot why you’re even together.
Would you give 1-2 days if it meant you could become closer, faster?
Experience months of growth and healing in 1-2 days
Does it feel like weekly 50-minute therapy sessions haven’t been enough to help you get your relationship back?
A 50-60 minute session? It’s never enough time for both you and your partner to say what’s on your heart and work toward what you both need to heal. You wish there was just more time.
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You’ve been meaning to get into weekly therapy for a while now, but coordinating your schedule and your partner’s schedule has felt impossible, and making space for a weekly therapy appointment feels more like a chore than something supportive or helpful. And why make the effort to reach out, when you’ll just be sitting on a waitlist for weeks?
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You need help—a lot of it—right now. Your relationship is unbearable, you can’t manage the conflict and disconnect anymore, you’re bracing for every interaction with your partner, and you can’t wait months or even years for traditional weekly therapy to get your relationship back on track.
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You are new to therapy as a couple, and the idea of a therapy intensive just makes intuitive sense to you.
You need couples therapy that actually works.
You’re done putting time and effort into weekly therapy and getting nowhere.
You’re ready to try something new to improve your relationship.
Do you want to try a different form of couples therapy?
Couples intensives can:
Provide relief from conflict cycles, the pain of emotional withdrawal, or issues where you’ve been stuck for years—in days, not months
Fit into both your and your partner’s busy schedules with minimal disruption—no need for weekly time off work or arranging a babysitter over and over
Shift you and your partner out of anger and into connection in a way that will last
Help you move your relationship forward in a fraction of the time—so you can stop inching toward divorce and rediscover the love that has held you together this long
Couples Therapy Intensive FAQs
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Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) couples intensives are designed to help you get the therapy you need now, not in 3-6 months. With an intensive, you can skip the waitlist and get faster access to select spots.
EFT intensives allow you to work through your relationship concerns and heal the painful dynamics with your partner in a more succinct and focused way, without the repeated weekly interruptions common in traditional couples therapy. Instead of pausing every 50 minutes and spending a week waiting to resolve the issues brought up last time, you’ll meet for several hours over the span of 1-2 days, to process relationship difficulties to their completion.
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An intensive format decreases the overall course of treatment because of time not spent on:
checking in at the beginning of every session and trying to remember what you were working on a week ago
reporting to your therapist what’s gone well and what hasn’t since you last met
pulling your attention away from your primary goals to address the fight of the week
helping you and your partner regain composure at the end of a session that is too short to fully resolve an issue
Because they reduce your time in treatment, intensives tend to be more cost-effective than traditional weekly therapy. Intensives can also be ideal if you or your partner has difficulty taking time away from work or other responsibilities during business hours each week, or if arranging repeated childcare is a burden. Many couples also choose an intensive because they’re in pain or at a breaking point in their relationship, and they don’t want to wait weeks, months, or years to learn how to love each other again.
To tell you the truth, the weekly-session model of therapy is a medicalized model that became popular because it’s convenient for insurance companies, large mental health clinics, and stable caseloads; it was never designed with your needs in mind. And it has never been the ideal format for couples therapy; there is just too much going on in a relationship to fit everything into a single hour. An EFT intensive is a more efficient, effective, and evolved way to do couples therapy.
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Before we get to the EFT work, you’ll both complete some assessments on your relationship patterns and concerns. This will help me prepare for our work together, and have a better understanding of where you’ve been as a couple and how you want to move forward. Before we meet for the intensive, I’ll also make some recommendations for some reading material so you can prepare for the types of conversations we’ll be having in the EFT framework.
During the EFT intensive itself, we will simultaneously work on decreasing the pain you’re feeling while also increasing your ability to connect with one another. We do this with experiential processing of the cycle you get stuck in during conflict. I’ll help you both to reflect on and communicate what happens for you internally that leads to disconnection and hurt in the relationship. Then I’ll work with you to find different ways of communicating with each other that enhance your connection, trust, and positive feelings instead of damaging them.
As we near the end of the intensive, we’ll discuss what the next steps are for you (e.g., getting you connected to an EFT therapist for weekly or biweekly sessions, scheduling a follow-up intensive, or some other form of support). We’ll reflect on what you processed and learned, what was meaningful to you, and how you can allow these new insights and shifts to permeate your relationship moving forward.
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You want to experience deep therapeutic work that can change your relationship quickly.
You are planning for a big life event (a wedding, a babymoon, a move) or a transition in your relationship (such as empty-nesting, retirement, or an important anniversary) and you want to focus on deepening your connection with one another.
You have done couples therapy before and found it helpful for understanding your partner and improving your relationship.
You already go to weekly couples therapy and you feel stuck, or like you’re on the verge of a breakthrough that you don’t want to miss. Intensives can be a powerful supplement to your weekly therapy.
A couples therapy intensive is like a Disney FastPass—you get a VIP experience, skipping the lines of traditional therapy waitlists and accelerating your relationship recovery.
EFT Couples Therapy Intensives can help with…
Understanding your own responses to emotions, how you manage them, and how you can better communicate them
Understanding how your partner responds to, manages, and communicates their emotions
Learning what you’re each really trying to communicate—no more getting lost in negative assumptions and mistranslations
Experiencing a positive shift in your patterns of interaction
Creating a secure bond between you and your partner
Feeling like your partner is more emotionally available, responsive, and engaged—or helping your partner feel this from you
What does an EFT Couples Therapy Intensive include?
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Intake with couple (60 minutes)
We’ll start by reviewing where you’re wanting support and identify what we’ll be working on during the intensive itself.
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Two individual sessions (60 minutes each)
I’ll meet one-on-one with each of you to talk through your personal and relationship history.
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Extended couples sessions
After the intake, each couples session is scheduled for two hours at a time. Check out the FAQ section below for a sample schedule.
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Breaks!
It’s normal to get fatigued in an extended therapy experience. We’ll be sure to take plenty of breaks throughout the intensive.
Investment & Program Information
1 Day – 5 hours of therapy | $2000
2 Days – 9 hours of therapy across two days | $4000
Additional or ongoing intensive couples therapy is available if you want longer-term support or if you prefer the intensive format to weekly couples therapy.
Your relationship could change over the weekend.
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Disclaimers
Intensives are not for every couple.
As you consider an intensive, keep these things in mind:
An intensive is not for you if…
If there is an ongoing affair—in this case, an intensive is not an option.
If you and your partner do not have the same goal for therapy, this isn’t a good format for you. An intensive isn’t the place to decide if you want to work on the marriage or relationship (if this is where you’re at, Discernment Counseling would be a better fit for you). When a couple shares the same goal, an intensive can be deeply rewarding—but if you’re not aligned, it won’t be beneficial.
If being in the same room for a long time is too triggering for you or if you haven’t been able to be in the same space and remain civil in a while, this format will not be productive.
If there is active intimate partner violence—an intensive is not an option. Please visit this site for more information about intimate partner violence. I reserve the right to decide if an intensive is not safe for you.
If after reading these exclusion points, you’re unsure if you’re a good fit for the intensive, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m happy to help assess if this is a good time for you to engage in this form of therapy. If it’s not, I’m also happy to help you find other resources for help.
If you are coming from out of town, all ethical and legal guidelines for providing services are under my license in the state of Washington or Oregon (includes but not limited to HIPAA, confidentiality, reporting abuse, etc.). Allegations or evidence of abuse will be reported both in the state that you reside and possibly in Washington or Oregon (where services are provided).
More Couples Therapy Intensive FAQs
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This is a premium service. I charge higher fees due to the increased work, energy demands, and schedule flexibility required to offer intensives. Intensives also provide more value for you than traditional weekly therapy, and the investment reflects that.
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It depends. Many insurance plans (typically PPOs) will reimburse a portion of the cost of psychotherapy. For insurance purposes, I am considered an out-of-network provider.
I recommend you speak with your insurance company ahead of time to learn the exact details of your policy, including what out-of-network benefits are available, and if your insurance will reimburse several hours of therapy in one day or one week. You can call the customer service number on the back of your insurance card to find this information.
I can provide you with a superbill for all direct contact therapy services included in your intensive. This is what you will submit to your insurance for reimbursement. Please know that the insurance company requires a diagnosis code as a reason for treatment. If you have questions, let me know, as I’m happy to provide more information to help with this process.
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Exact scheduling can be determined at the time of booking, and is flexible depending on how you’re feeling during your intensive (e.g., if longer breaks are needed). If you are interested in getting part of the intensive reimbursed through out-of-network insurance benefits, we may also schedule the intake and individual sessions on a different day to increase potential insurance reimbursement.
Here is an example of a schedule for a two-day intensive:
Day One
9-10am intake
10-11am individual session
11am-12pm individual session
12-1pm BREAK
1-3pm session
Day Two
10am-12pm session
12-2pm BREAK
2-4pm session
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We’ll spend lots of time on helping you understand and interrupt your current cycles of conflict and disconnection. You’ll get a chance to explore unmet attachment needs and how they’re showing up in your relationship. You’ll learn to see your partner’s behavior patterns as ways of protecting themselves, or trying to protect the relationship. This deep understanding builds connection, emotional safety, security, and empathy.
While every couple is different, many of my clients say they leave their intensives feeling less anger, more confidence in their ability to communicate without feeling like they need an emotional translator, and better skills for managing the uncomfortable sensations that can get activated in the relationship.
Keep in mind that multi-day intensive sessions are similar to going on a private couples retreat. It’s best to allow time outside of sessions to be unscheduled or filled only with self-care activities like exercise, body work (acupuncture, massage, etc.), and creating expression such as drawing painting, or cooking.
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Intensives can be scheduled online or in-person. Please note that, due to licensure laws, I can only work with you if you are in the states of Washington or Oregon. In-person intensives can take place at my office in Seattle, WA, or in Portland, OR. There are multiple options for accommodations and dining if you are coming from out of town; I’m happy to provide referrals and recommendations.
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You just need to be physically in the state of Washington or Oregon at the time of our work together. If you are out-of-state, you can travel to Washington or Oregon for the couples intensive. Some couples like traveling for the intensive, as it adds to the experience of having a get-away purely to focus on your relationship.
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We’ll start with a free 30-minute consultation with both you and your partner so we can meet and see how we all connect, and discuss whether an intensive is a good fit for your relationship. If so, we’ll get your intensive scheduled and I’ll send you some prep materials for you to review and complete within a week of booking.
After booking, I will hold the dates for your intensive for one week. You will be charged a non-refundable deposit for half the amount of your total intensive cost. By the end of one week, I need completion of your paperwork in the client portal to continue holding your scheduled intensive.
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As with any psychotherapy, results are not guaranteed, and everyone’s outcomes are a little different. However, a couples intensive will give you and your partner extended time to work through tough issues, rebuild trust, and heal your relationship—without the stop-and-start feeling of weekly sessions.
Some research shows that couples can reach their goals faster this way. Couples intensives are a newer approach and research is still ongoing. However, research on intensive sessions for individual therapy is overwhelmingly positive, which is a good indicator that the intensive format itself is a strong clinical tool. I’ve seen many couples experience incredible rejuvenation through an intensive.
Intensives are just what they sound like—intense. We’re doing hard work; you may feel emotionally tired during or after the intensive. It’s also normal to feel like you’re having more disagreements at first. But we’ll take breaks and keep the pace manageable, and I will make sure you both feel supported the whole time.